jcverdie
Contributor
Contributor
‎06-13-2022 05:49 AM

VMWare complains that tools are outdated but update menu is disabled

Hi,

 

Using VMWare Fusion 12.1 on MacOS 12.4 (Monterey)

Guest OS: Ubuntu 22

When booting, VMWare complains that tools are not up to date but the update menu is greyd out.

Anyone else experiencing this?

 

Thanks for the help!

 

Labels (4)
Preview file
10 KB
Reply
0 Kudos
ravipadigela
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎06-13-2022 08:15 AM

for download VMware tools manually link is here:

https://customerconnect.vmware.com/en/downloads/info/slug/datacenter_cloud_infrastructure/vmware_too...

follow article and install tools manually 

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1022525

Reply
jcverdie
Contributor
Contributor
‎06-13-2022 08:30 AM

Thanks for the reply!

 

Unfortunately, it does not look possible to download vmware-tools for ubuntu from your link.

Regarding the manual install, the page indicates another page for ubuntu > 14 where it states to install open-vm-tools manually.

And mine is already up to date :disappointed_face:

Reply
0 Kudos
Technogeezer
Immortal
Immortal
‎06-13-2022 08:32 AM

You do not need to manually install VMware Tools. .

You should be installing open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools-tools-desktop packages provided by Ubuntu from their distribution. Open-vm-tools are recommended by VMware for in-guest tools on Linux. The legacy VMware Tools for Linux are maintained only for older Linux distributions that don’t support open-vm-tools. 

The installation status of open-vm-tools is not reflected in the Fusion GUI. That’s because the tools installation are managed by the guest’s package management. And I believe I read somewhere that the option to install VMware Tools is greyed out for VM types that are known to support open-vm-tools  

 

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides

View solution in original post

Reply
jcverdie
Contributor
Contributor
‎06-13-2022 08:34 AM

That would make sense... But then I run into the other problem I've posted: https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Fusion-Discussions/shared-folders-are-not-visible-after-reb... which seems to be related to the same "mess"...

Reply
0 Kudos
Technogeezer
Immortal
Immortal
‎06-13-2022 08:38 AM

@jcverdie wrote:

Thanks for the reply!

And mine is already up to date :disappointed_face:

If you have verified that open-vm-tools are installed, then turn that :disappointed_face: into :beaming_face_with_smiling_eyes::thumbs_up::thumbs_up:. 
You are good to go, and do not worry about the GUI saying that Tools aren’t installed (usually seen in the shared folder settings) or a grayed out menu (Fusion doesn’t control installation/upgrade of open-vm-tools). 

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
Reply
0 Kudos
jcverdie
Contributor
Contributor
‎06-13-2022 08:40 AM

I would not bother *if* I hadn't the shared folder issue from my other post, which is *Really* annoying...

That's what turns a :beaming_face_with_smiling_eyes: into a :sleepy_face:  ...

Reply
0 Kudos
wila
Immortal
Immortal
‎06-13-2022 08:48 AM

Easy enough to fix.. just add a line to your /etc/fstab.

Which I posted about in your other thread.

--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
Reply
Technogeezer
Immortal
Immortal
‎06-13-2022 08:53 AM

 

@jcverdie wrote:

That would make sense... But then I run into the other problem I've posted: https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Fusion-Discussions/shared-folders-are-not-visible-after-reb... which seems to be related to the same "mess"...

The inability to see the shared folders in the guest is an open-vm-tools issue and not related to the GUI not recognizing that tools are installed.

@wila beat me to the keyboard on this with the solution. Add the line to /etc/fstab as he indicated and the shared folders will be automatically visible after booting the VM. It's a one-time fix.

 

 

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
Reply