topic Unable to install vmware tools on openbsd in VMware Workstation Pro Discussions

Unable to install vmware tools on openbsd

townsbg — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 17:12:58 GMT

I am trying to install vmware tools on freebsd, specifically ghostbsd, and tried following the instructions here however there is nothing showing up in the iso. The only files that are showing up are copyright and license. The folders boot, data, and etc are all blank. I tried selecting the install vmware tools option and loading the ISO C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\freebsd.iso. There is no vmware-freebsd-tools.tar.gz. What am I doing wrong? I'm running vmware workstation 12 on Windows 8.1.

Re: Unable to install vmware tools on openbsd

townsbg — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 18:18:17 GMT

I tried the install vmware tools option again and got the right file however when I tried the install I got that I must insall the compat6x-amd64 package. I tried this but when I got to the pkg_add part it says command not found. I've never used bsd before. How do I do this?

Re: Unable to install vmware tools on openbsd

townsbg — Sat, 22 Jul 2023 17:49:00 GMT

I found and installed the package from software station. When I tried to install vmware tools again I got this

root@ghostbsd-vm:/tmp/vmware-tools-distrib # ./vmware-install.pl

A previous installation of VMware Tools has been detected.

The previous installation was made by the tar installer (version 4).

Keeping the tar4 installer database format.

You have a version of VMware Tools installed. Continuing this install will

first uninstall the currently installed version. Do you wish to continue?

(yes/no) [yes]

Uninstalling the tar installation of VMware Tools.

Stopping services for VMware Tools

Skipping VMware Tools services shutdown on the host: done

The removal of VMware Tools 10.0.10 build-4301679 for FreeBSD completed

successfully.

Installing VMware Tools.

In which directory do you want to install the binary files?

[/usr/local/bin]

In which directory do you want to install the startup script?

[/usr/local/etc/rc.d]

In which directory do you want to install the daemon files?

[/usr/local/sbin]

In which directory do you want to install the library files?

[/usr/local/lib/vmware-tools]

The path "/usr/local/lib/vmware-tools" does not exist currently. This program

is going to create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you

want? [yes]

In which directory do you want to install the documentation files?

[/usr/local/share/doc/vmware-tools]

The path "/usr/local/share/doc/vmware-tools" does not exist currently. This

program is going to create it, including needed parent directories. Is this

what you want? [yes]

The installation of VMware Tools 10.0.10 build-4301679 for FreeBSD completed

successfully. You can decide to remove this software from your system at any

time by invoking the following command:

"/usr/local/bin/vmware-uninstall-tools.pl".

Before running VMware Tools for the first time, you need to configure it by

invoking the following command: "/usr/local/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl". Do you

want this program to invoke the command for you now? [yes]

Initializing...

Making sure services for VMware Tools are stopped.

Stopping VMware Tools services in the virtual machine:

Guest operating system daemon: done

The vmblock enables dragging or copying files between host and guest in a

Fusion or Workstation virtual environment. Do you wish to enable this feature?

[yes]

vmblock is not supported for FreeBSD 9.1 and above.

Detected X server version 1.21.1

Distribution provided drivers for Xorg X server are used.

Skipping X configuration because X drivers are not included.

Starting VMware Tools services in the virtual machine:

Switching to guest configuration: done

Guest memory manager: failed

Guest operating system daemon: done

Unable to start services for VMware Tools

Execution aborted.

What happened and how do I fix it?

Re: Unable to install vmware tools on openbsd

bluefirestorm — Sun, 23 Jul 2023 12:49:42 GMT

From the Linux side of things, the VMware Tools has been open-sourced (since 2016/2017???) and are no longer installed from the ISOs (unless it's a very old release of some distribution prior to the open-vm-tools packaging). See https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2073803

Looks like that is also the direction for FreeBSD (and its variants). See https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2149806
Installing from Software Station is the command line equivalent of

pkg install open-vm-tools
or
pkg install open-vm-tools-nox11

as the case may be.

So with a newer versions of FreeBSD, the PERL script installation from the ISO is not supported anymore by VMware but should be done via the packaged open-source version.

I did give it a try on Workstation 16.x but it looks like the vmwgfx.ko (the video driver) is not installed in the /boot/modules directory of the GhostBSD VM. This might have to do more with FreeBSD not porting the driver over.

Re: Unable to install vmware tools on openbsd

townsbg — Sun, 23 Jul 2023 17:05:58 GMT

@bluefirestorm That worked however I wasn't getting the correct resolution sizes. The highest was 1280x768. I found xf86-video-vmware under software station and that worked to get me full video. Also copy and paste is working.

Mouse integration isn't working and I can't get file sharing to work either although drag and drop works. I tried following this article but first it tells me that downloads is of an unknown file type and when I try to select caja or open it up from file view it tells me that it can't find /media/Downloads. vmware tools shows as a startup process and when I tried to start it manually I got that it is already running.

root@ghostbsd-vm:~ # /usr/local/etc/rc.d/vmware-guestd start
vmware_guestd already running? (pid=176).

So what do I need to do to get mouse and shares? I found py39-oslo.vmware in the software station. Do I need that? Here is the usage document: https://docs.openstack.org/oslo.vmware/latest/user/usage.html

Re: Unable to install vmware tools on openbsd

bluefirestorm — Mon, 24 Jul 2023 13:42:30 GMT

This is the first time I messed around with a FreeBSD-based VM. There are too many differences between what you have and what I have (I used version 16.2.5 on an Ubuntu 22.04 host).

I didn't have any problems with the mouse inside the GhostBSD VM but the vmxgfx.ko is nowhere to be found despite installing the xf86-video-vmware package so it is stuck at 1024x768 XGA resolution. I could add a custom higher resolution such as 1920x1200 with xrandr, but it can't be selected/activated.

For the mouse, I don't have problems with the mouse inside the GhostBSD VM. I would suggest shutdown the VM and remove and re-add the USB controller. It looks like the virtual mouse is connected via virtual USB 2.0 (at least in the VM I have).

As for file sharing, the Linux VM shared folder is partially broken for a long time and there are steps to modifying the /etc/fstab. I don't know FreeBSD (let alone any Unix/Linux variant) enough to give specific steps. But it looks like even the module names and folder names are different in FreeBSD. Otherwise maybe just use drag-drop and copy/paste to get files transferred between guest VM and host; or use a physical USB thumb drive using a shared readable/writable format, maybe FAT32, if that is possible with FreeBSD; or create ISO files to get files in/out.

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Tools/10.3/rn/vmware-tools-1032-release-notes.html#knownissues
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/74650

You don't need the oslo-vmware; that looks like for programmatic access to a VM on ESXi.

GhostBSD looks very VMware VM unfriendly to me. With the few modern Linux variants that I have created as VMware VMs, these would install vmwgfx video driver and open-vm-tools packages automatically.

Re: Unable to install vmware tools on openbsd

townsbg — Mon, 24 Jul 2023 20:34:46 GMT

I didn't say that the mouse isn't working. Mouse integration isn't. I have to hit my hot key combination to get it out of the window. But I did remove and re-add the controller and that didn't work.

As for the monitor it works. I provided the name of the package I had to install from the software center, xf86-video-vmware.

Is there no fix for the file share?

Re: Unable to install vmware tools on openbsd

RDPetruska — Tue, 25 Jul 2023 11:45:29 GMT

@townsbg wrote:

Is there no fix for the file share?

The VMware Shared Folders feature has *always* been pretty much of a hack, and doesn't support several features which a networked file system should. Just use plain old SAMBA/CIFS file sharing... it always "Just Works"™

Re: Unable to install vmware tools on openbsd

townsbg — Tue, 25 Jul 2023 18:13:17 GMT

What about mouse integration? That is annoying me more than the file sharing.

Re: Unable to install vmware tools on openbsd

townsbg — Thu, 27 Jul 2023 03:08:09 GMT

Does anyone know?