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EricMattatall
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Contributor

Can't find VMware tools tar for installing VMware tools on Linux build

Hi all,

Trying to troubleshoot and help put together an install for a client that is looking to move our embedded Linux application to a virtualized environment.

They're using Workstation 11, and we've had success with getting our application loaded and running, but we also want to load VMware tools to try and improve performance and straighten out issues with the mouse support.

I'm seeking a VMWare tools tar that has the correct directory structure so that I will have the vmware-tools-distrib directory and the vmware-install PERL script.

The VMware download center lists a tar as being "For Windows and Linux", but it does not contain this directory when unpacked, only .flp files for Windows.

I'm not able to use the conventional method to install (mounting the virtual CDROM in the OS), as I'm not running a typical Linux distro, I have no GUI, I have no mount points for a CDROM.

My approach is to change my grub.cfg to boot to a shell, copy the VMware tools tar to a USB drive, connect my USB drive and mount with rw permissions from shell and from there attempt to unpack the tarball and execute the install script; which should functionally be the same as mounting the CDROM and unpacking the tar from there.  Attempting tar -zxvf VMware-Tools-core-10.3.2.9925305.tar.gz is successful, but I only get the floppies and vmtools directories, suggesting the tar available for download is somehow different than the tar that is available when mounted in something Ubuntu.

I've been sleuthing around on the internet for the correct VMWare tools tar that I can transfer over to a drive and complete the install - is there a copy of the correct 'Linux' tar out there that unpacks and contains the vmware-tools-distrib directory?  It doesn't appear to be available for download via the VMWare site.

At first glance I'm thinking that I just do not have the correct tar, but I'm open to any other suggestions the community might have?

There is a linux.iso in the vmtools folder, but I'm not able to mount from the CL as I do not have the loop module, and loop can't be added on the fly, but needs to be compiled with the kernel.  I'll be stepping back into Windows to try and explore it, but I think my core issue is that I do not have the correct tar.

Any suggestions appreciated.

_______________________

Edit:

Upon closer inspection of the ISO, there is an archive named VMWARETO.TGZ, poking and unpacking that, and I see the dir for vmware-tools-distrib I was searching for.

Threw in the towel one step too early.  My apologies.

Message was edited by: Eric Mattatall

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