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Guy_Chapman
Contributor
Contributor

Ubuntu vm tools issue

I'm using Ubuntu server, and haveinstalled VM tools by the usual tedious method, but the tools report out of date and there is no IP address reported in the VI client. Does anyone know the cause of these two issues?

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,

Unfortunately "tedious method" doesn't tell us what you did.

Can you also tell us the version of your ESX3.5 host? Is your host up-to-date?

Which version of the tools did you install? Didn't you copy an old version perchance?

If your host is up-to-date then the vmware-tools should install.. I have several VM's running..

Here's some of my notes, maybe it helps:

First mount the linux.iso by selecting "install VMware tools"

cd ~
cp /cdrom/VMwareTools-*.tar.gz .
ls -all
tar -xvf VMwareTools-*.tar.gz
cd vmware-tools-distrib/
sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`
sudo ./vmware-install.pl



--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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Texiwill
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Hello,

Moved tot eh VI: Virtual Machine and Guest OS forum.


Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.

SearchVMware Blog: http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/virtualization-pro/

Blue Gears Blogs - http://www.itworld.com/ and http://www.networkworld.com/community/haletky

As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

--
Edward L. Haletky
vExpert XIV: 2009-2023,
VMTN Community Moderator
vSphere Upgrade Saga: https://www.astroarch.com/blogs
GitHub Repo: https://github.com/Texiwill
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Guy_Chapman
Contributor
Contributor

Tedious method is:

  • apt-get install autoconf automake binutils make cpp gcc linux-headers-$(uname -r)

  • mount Linux iso by initiating tools install

  • extract tools tar.gz file to /tmp

  • run install script

  • check console: tools come up as ToolsOld and no IP address

  • reboot guest: tools come up as not installed

  • ln -s /etc/init.d/vmware-tools /etc/rc2.d/Svmware-tools

  • ln -s /etc/init.d/vmware-tools /etc/rc3.d/Svmware-tools

  • reboot: tools show as ToolsOld.

  • On next reboot, tools once again show as not installed with no IP address

This is a lot more tiresome than RHEL!

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,

I am not saying that there is no room for improvement.

Thanks for the extra information on what you did.

Can you tell us your ESX host patch level and what version of VMware-tools you installed?

Also I notice just now that you are manually setting symbolic links for runlevel 2 and 3. This should not be required in order to start vmware-tools.

Have you created your own /etc/inittab ?



--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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Guy_Chapman
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Good point about patch level, this is on anew host and not yet connected to vum. It's Update3 build 123630 though so not far off.

VM tools is VMwareTools-3.5.0-123630.tar.gz and the Windows VMs report the same build number.

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

The versions sound OK to me. Is it possible that you are having an old leftover setup on your VM, or is it the first time you installed vmware-tools in your guest?

Have you customized any settings in your guest OS vmx file, for example for security hardening the guest OS?

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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Guy_Chapman
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Contributor

No, the guest is freshly built and plain vanilla.

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hmmm... weird. Can you attach and upload the vmware.log file that sits in the same folder as your VM to your reply, maybe that will help us tracking what is happening?

Also can you check if you have network connectivity?

One thing that you could always try (if not done already) is to re-install vmware-tools once more by rerunning the vmware-install.pl script.

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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Guy_Chapman
Contributor
Contributor

Should have tried this first: I rebooted, ran the config.pl script again and this time it worked. I guess somethign must have failed during the install, maybe I forgot to sudo it or something, but anyway, thanks for the help, this now appears to be resolved. Another distro on the "we know how to get this one started" list Smiley Happy

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