VMware Workstation 6.5.3 on Ubuntu Karmic 9.10
VMware workstation 6.5.3 is supported only on Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04 and backwards. With this brief tutorial we’ll have a look on how to install it also on Ubuntu Karmic 9.10. By default the installer would freeze at the “Configuring…” stage, never actually completing.
1) The first step consists in installing the program via terminal and suppressing the warnings otherwise eventually stucking the installer. BitOBear has provided a more in depth explanation of what’s behind the scenes for the installer to stop.
NOTE: I’m considering the 32bit build, if you use the x64 bit build simply replace i386 with x86_64
chmod u+x VMware-Workstation-6.5.3-185404.i386.bundle
while true; do sudo killall -9 vmware-modconfig-console; sleep 1; done
in a separate terminal run:
sudo ./VMware-Workstation-6.5.3-185404.i386.bundle --ignore-errors
when the installer has finished, terminate the previous command (while true…) with a CTRL+C or simply close the terminal window.
vmware-modconfig --console --install-all
BitOBear adds the following tips:
a) Once you have a hung installer session you have to kill the python command that is running the installer. Think of that as a step-0 if it comes up.
b) If the installer still hangs, the kill loop may not be fast enough; start over but leave the ‘sleep 1;’ out of the kill loop. It will slow down the install even more, but it is more likely to catch the command in time.
2) The setup step has completed. However you would have to face a few usability issues:
a) The mouse automatically ungrabs outside an area of 640 x 480 (vga resolution)
edit file
/
add at the bottom
VMWARE_USE_SHIPPED_GTK=force
Leave a trailing line at the end of the file (as Steve suggests in the comments).
b) If you cannot use any more modifier keys (CTRL ALT SHIFT INS etc.) first check if you have a residual fix from previous setups which is no more needed now. (If this is the first time you install VMware you can skip this step).
Notice, however, that randomly you could still lose modifier keys, typing in any terminal or ALT+F2 field setxkbmap restores them. Furthermore the xkeymap.nokeycodeMap = true is still needed if you are willing to install VMware Workstation 7 beta.
edit file
$HOME/.vmware/config
ensure the following text is not present or commented out with a #
xkeymap.nokeycodeMap = true
as an alternative temporary fix you can simply type
setxkbmap
in any terminal window. This would resume the modifier keys function.
Related posts:
- Installing VMware 6.0.2 and VMware Server on Ubuntu Hardy 8.04
- Install nvidia-glx-180 drivers in Ubuntu Karmic 9.10
- arrow keys not working with vmware
- vmware-config.pl gcc version error
- Migrate VMware to VirtualBox
- update VirtualBox signing key 54422A4B98AB5139
- Do not require the password for cpu frequency scaling in Ubuntu Karmic 9.10
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Sweet guide!
Just one thing I had to do
Instead of…
while true; do killall -9 vmware-modconfig-console; sleep 1; doneI used…
while true; do sudo killall -9 vmware-modconfig-console; sleep 1; doneCheers!
Thanks Bovril!
Just forgot to say I was using a root terminal!
Thanks, that helped!
Thanks a lot, that helped
Hi,
I wanted to say thank you for this guide, i am new in linux world and I am using Ubuntu 9.10 and tryin to install VMWorkstation 6.5.3.
So i am having some difficulties in the second step. I went to the file bootstrap and added the line in the bottom with vi as follows,
PREFIX=”/usr”
BINDIR=”/usr/bin”
SBINDIR=”/usr/sbin”
LIBDIR=”/usr/lib”
DATADIR=”/usr/share”
SYSCONFDIR=”/etc”
DOCDIR=”/usr/share/doc”
MANDIR=”/usr/share/man”
INCLUDEDIR=”/usr/include”
INITDIR=”/etc”
INITSCRIPTDIR=”/etc/init.d”
VMWARE_INSTALLER=”/usr/lib/vmware/installer”
VERSION=”1.0″
# BUILD_NUMBER ?
VMWARE_USE_SHIPPED_GTK=force
I hope this is correct,
and then part (b): $HOME/.vmware/config – I cannot find .vmware in my home directory.
Sorry mate, I am a new user for Linux world just started 2months ago and thanks a lot in advance
Berkan
Berkan,
I suggest you to use
nanorather than vi. It’s far more simple to use.Concerning the .vmware folder if this is the first time you are installing vmware you do not have it. Just skip that step and is ok!
Also maybe you should consider trying VirtualBox which is a far more supported virtual machine on linux at this moment (although has some limitations such as USB devices support).
Cheers!
Thanks mate, it works.
Perfect, works fine thank u very much !
Great work, to make my mouse work in vmware player i used the next line
export VMWARE_USE_SHIPPED_GTK=force
Thank you very much. Its working!
VMware version 7 has been released today. check it …
Alternate solution:
The problem is the large number of warnings printed by gcc. They are printed because gcc is called with a lot of -Wxxx options. An alternative solution is to filter them out. Save the Python script below, and call it gcc. Make it executable. Then install with this command:
sudo env PATH=`pwd`:$PATH ./VMware-Workstation-6.5.3-185404.x86_64.bundle
sudo vmware-modconfig –console –install-all
Finally, do not forget the VMWARE_USE_SHIPPED_GTK=force hack mentioned before.
——– The Python script: —————
#!/usr/bin/python
import sys
import copy
import os
argv = copy.copy(sys.argv)
i = len(argv)
for i in range(i-1, 0, -1):
if len(argv[i]) > 4 and argv[i][:2] == “-W” and argv[i][3] != “,”:
del argv[i]
argv[0] = “/usr/bin/gcc”
os.execv(argv[0], argv)
Thanks for your precious suggestion Jakob!
I got a trial version of Workstation 7 installed on my computer without a hitch. Just needed to set up the kernal headers and it went right in.