Using VMWARE Workstation 16 Pro to move files

[Xarzu]

I have just installed VMWARE Workstation 16 Pro to move files.  How do I move files from the hosting computer to the Virtual Machine?  My computer is a Windows 10 Enterprise and the OS of my vitrual machine is Ubuntu 22.04  64-bit 

[continuum]

For Klingons and other folks with a warrior mindset I would suggest to try the buildin drag'n'drop feature or  use VMware shared folders.
Personally I use WinSCP because it simply works and does not fill up temporary folders ...

Ulli

[Xarzu]

That is a good comment.  I found that I need to install VMware tools before I can share a folder

And so, in order to do this I had to mount an image of the ISO for VMware Tools that I downloaded.  This lead to another problem.  The Ubuntu OS, which is my vitrual machine, looks a lot different than what I am used to and I do not see how to run the disk image.  Here, let me show you what I mean.  Here is a snapshot of the Ubunto OS

Now, as a reference, here is what I would see if it was a Windows OS:

Now, I know from past experience that typically the file that is most important is the autorun.inf and, yes, when I right button click on this file, it does have the option to run it as a program.  But all this does is create a VM system icon on the panel on the left and offer the same set of programs.  I tried to right button click on setup54.exe but that did not have the option to run as a program.  Please help.

[continuum]

Your Windows view is not the same as the expected one you get with Ubuntu.
That is because the Windows view only shows the complete CD-drive where as the Ubuntu view shows the CD-directory.
And by the way ... the autorun.inf file is only important if the Windows user is a warrior and allowed autorun for CDs - which no regular user would want for safety reason.

Apparently you misconfigured the guestOS type and specified Windows - the VMware-tools ISO for Linux should have Linux binaries and no *.exe files

My first message was not mean as a joke - drag'n'drop and VMware shared folders are unreliable and buggy.
I use a Windows host with many Debian and Ubuntu VMs and I would not even consider to use shared folders - why would I if I can do the same with the trustworthy WinSCP.


Ulli

[Xarzu]

I agree that where I must have gone wrong was to use the windows VM version of the ISO file.  There must be another ISO that is just for linux (Ubuntu)

I have been trying to find the ISO image specifically for Ubunto or Linux. and, so far, I have not found it.  Maybe there is a special method to installing the VMware tools for Ubuntu that does not require an ISO image.

Here is what I have done.  I went to packages.vmware.com/tools  and, without describing the tree structures of all the folders and subfolders, I will sum up.  Looking under the latest releases we see one folder for windows and another folder for ubuntu. This lead me to believe I was on the right path.  From this point, drilling down the subfolders to find the ISO disk image for a windows virtual machine was easy.  For Ubuntu, the experience was different.

There are four folders for Ubuntu.  I think thay are for divverent versions (or updates) of Ubuntu they are:

• lucid
• natty
• oniric
• precise

I am using verision 22.04. I do not think any of these are for that version. So which one should I use?

But whichever one I pick, I do not find any ISO files. Instead I only find a multitude of .DEB files.\

Please help

[continuum]

>>> i have been trying to find the ISO image specifically for Ubunto or Linux. and, so far, I have not found it. Maybe there is a special method to installing the VMware tools for Ubuntu that does not require an ISO image.

The VMware-tools ISO comes with your VMware-installation. If you select the correct guestOS the appropriate iSO will be used when you click the "Install VMware Tools" button.

[wila]

Hi,

There probably is no vmware tools iso.... (klingon or viking warrior alike 😉 )

The reason for that is that vmware tools is nowadays part of the Linux distribution.
So instead of trying to install software via a cdrom iso file, you use the Ubuntu Linux way... apt-get.

You need to run:

sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools-desktop

and that should get vmware tools plus the required shared folders option to be installed.

Note that you probably will still have problems getting shared folders to work, unless VMware fixed their stuff.

A while ago they had the following in their release notes:

(copy & paste from my internal notes)

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Tools/11.3/rn/VMware-Tools-1130-Release-Notes.html

VMware Tools Issues in VMware Workstation or Fusion

Shared Folders mount is unavailable on Linux VM. If the Shared Folders feature is enabled on a Linux VM while it is powered off, the shared folders mount is not available on restart.

Note: This issue is applicable to VMware Tools running on Workstation and Fusion.

Workaround:

If the VM is powered on, disable and enable the Shared Folders feature from the interface. For resolving the issue permanently, edit /etc/fstab and add an entry to mount the Shared Folders automatically on boot.

For example, add the line:

vmhgfs-fuse   /mnt/hgfs    fuse    defaults,allow_other    0    0

Before you do that, you might want to check that things are setup correctly. Try running the following:

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/hgfs/
sudo /usr/bin/vmhgfs-fuse .host:/ /mnt/hgfs/ -o subtype=vmhgfs-fuse,allow_other

also see:

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/74650

edit: fixed typo in apt-get line (remembered the package name wrong because it is so consistent)

Good luck!

--
Wil

[continuum]

Workstation 16.2.3 still comes with a linux.iso
This comes with VMwareTools-10.3.23.-16594550.tar.gz

Ulli

[Xarzu]

>>The VMware-tools ISO comes with your VMware-installation. If you select the correct guestOS the appropriate iSO will be used when you click the "Install VMware Tools" button.

Now we are getting somewhere, I hope.  I dismounted the ISA that was wrong and I did as you instructed, the VMware tools that came up looked like the image below..  Now, where does this leave us.  If I was to assume, I am supposed to copy this to the Virtual Machine Ubunto desktop but beyond that, I do not know.

UPDATE: I have made some progress since this post, so please wait before replying...

[Xarzu]

This is more of an Ubuntu question.  Still, it is what I am stuck on at the moment.  How do I open a command-line terminal on Ubuntu?

[continuum]

So you have a filemanager but no start-menu ?
Thats very unusual - can you show us a screenshot of your start-menu ?

Ulli

[Technogeezer]

To open a terminal on Ubuntu, typically you can right click on the Ubuntu desktop, then select Open in Terminal in the menu.

Alternatively, click on the applications icon (the one with the 6 dot box arranged in a 3x3 pattern) and in the Type to search box, type in Terminal. It will show the terminal application and then just click on it to start it up.

I strongly suggest using open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools-desktop as noted by @wila over VMware Tools from linux.iso. For quite a few years now VMware has recommended the use of open-vm-tools in Linux VMs. open-vm-tools will allow you to use the shared folders feature of VMware Workstation.  

I've personally installed the open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools-desktop on an Ubuntu 22.04 LTS VM and they provide drag/drop, cut/paste and shared folders with the host operating system (which in my case is VMware Fusion).

The terminal commands to install open-vm-tools are 

sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools open-vm-tools-desktop

After installing the tools, edit /etc/fstab - I use the vi editor so my example would be:

sudo vi /etc/fstab

Add the following to the end of the file

#
# The following persistently mounts VMware shared folders
# at boot time. See https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/60262
#
vmhgfs-fuse /mnt/hgfs fuse defaults,allow_other 0 0

Save your changes then exit the editor. Then reboot your VM. 

Any shared folders that you configure in Workstation should now be able to be seen in the VM under the mount point /mnt/hgfs.

[Xarzu]

Spoiler

I have some good news and some news that might not be so good.  First, the good news, I got to this point:



So this means that I have VMware Tools 10.3.23 build-16594550 for Linux installed successfully.

The bad news is that I got to this point:

This means, of course, that the pl program I was running to install VMware Tools tried to launch another script that would have configured the tools but, strangely, it failed.  I do not why.   It says I do not have permissions.  So, I figured I would try running this pl file seperately instead of being invoked.

I navigated to where the .pl file is located but it gave me a "Permission denied" eventough I was logged on as root.

Please help.

[Xarzu]

>>>

sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools open-vm-tools-desktop

trying this caused a series of 403 Forbidden [IP]

[Xarzu]

I have some good news and some news that might not be so good.  First, the good news, I got to this point:

So this means that I have VMware Tools 10.3.23 build-16594550 for Linux installed successfully.

The bad news is that I got to this point:

This means, of course, that the pl program I was running to install VMware Tools tried to launch another script that would have configured the tools but, strangely, it failed.  I do not why.   It says I do not have permissions.  So, I figured I would try running this pl file seperately instead of being invoked.

I navigated to where the .pl file is located but it gave me a "Permission denied" eventough I was logged on as root.

Please help.