Though Ubuntu is not officially supported as a VMware server host, it is very easy to install VMware server using the instructions provided in this page.
You will need to register with VMware to be able to download the software and to receive via e-mail the information required to get the licenses.
The process was very simple: I downloaded VMware server 2.0.2 (binary gz) and the script indicated in the above mentioned page, run the script within the folder that contained the VMware server TarBall and then I just followed the steps (kind of a “next-next-next” installation).
The installation process allows you to specify an admin user for VMware. This is asked after specifying the ports for remote communications. The default value is ”, which means that the default user will be used (i.e. root). User root has no password in Ubuntu, so you may either create a password for user root (command sudo passwd root) or change the VMware admin user to some other user account.
When the installation is finished, open your browser and go to the following URL:
http://localhost:8222
If you accepted all the default values during installation, enter user root and the password you set for this user with the passwd command in a terminal.
You may need to enable Virtualization Technology (VT) in the BIOS of your host in order to run 64 bits guest OS’s. This happened to me with CentOS 5.4 x86_64 and I’ve read some comments about Windows 2008 R2 guests having the same issue.
Troubleshooting
Unable to open the console with the latest Firefox
The latest version of Mozilla Firefox (3.6.3 at the time of this writing) can not open the Console. The plugin installs correctly, but trying to open the console shows the following error:
Cannot access virtual machine console. The request timed out.
It looks like this is a very frequent problem with the latest version of Mozilla Firefox. The solutions is either wait for the next vmware version (not recommended 
), downgrade Firefox (e.g. to version 3.5.9) or use Microsoft Internet Explorer from a Windows machine. For an explanation on how to download and run older versions of Firefox, see this post.
Arrow keys do not work in the console
For some virtual machines, I was unable to use the arrow keys inside the console. The solution is published in this page and consists in these simple steps:
1) In the Ubuntu machine where you are running the console (i.e. where you have your firefox open), run the following command:
$ sudo echo "xkeymap.nokeycodeMap = true" >> /etc/vmware/config
2) Close the VMware console and open it again. Done!
And don’t forget to…
Enjoy VMware on Ubuntu!
Related posts:
thanks for writing that, I was wondering if 2.0.2 was compatible on the new release.. I will probably upgrade my server to version 10 this w-end.
I am wondering too….;-) if this is also true for the 32 Bit Version of Ubuntu 10.04.
regards, eK
You can access the virtual machine console with Firefox 3.6.3 by activating ssl2 (about:config -> security.enable_ssl2=> true)
I’ve enabled ssl2 in Firefox 3.6.3 and I still get the error
Thanks God we have Firefox 3.5.9
I need to reconfigure my VMWare server but when I ran vmware-config.pl I got this message:
The following VMware kernel modules have been found on your system that were
not installed by the VMware Installer. Please remove them then run this
installer again.
vmci
vmnet
vmmon
I.e. – ‘rm /lib/modules/2.6.32-21-server/misc/.{o,ko}’
Execution aborted.
I dont want to unistall and reinstall to make it work – some solution?
Thanks-
Resolved: delete the *.ko files, ran vmware-config.pl AND delete /etc/vmware/no_configured.
Regards.
This really helped me….
Congratulations, that encouraged me to upgrade to 10.04.
I have managed to get vmware working but for some reason my Ubuntu 10.04 host cannot access host machines via ssh or ping them. I cannot access the guest from the console and from there I can ping the host. Do you have any ideas why the host -> guest communication does not work?
Yes, it appears that the vmnet1/vmnet8 (nat & host only) networks do not work under ubuntu 10.04 & this patch. Bridged network seems ok, I haven’t tried bonded or vlan trunking though.
I have VMware Server 2.0.2 installed on Ubuntu 10.04 x64. Every time I reboot, vmware fails to start with kernel modules not installed by VMware. If I remove them and reboot, then I can re-run vmware-config.pl. I have to do this every time I restart the machine. Any ideas?
Uname -a shows: Linux rwks 2.6.32-22-preempt #36-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT Thu Jun 3 21:45:07 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Aside from re-configuring every single time I reboot, Vmware runs great! I’ve been using Google Chrome to access the admin login page since Firefox doesn’t work.
I had some problems with this version of radu cotescu script. Get the latest version here: http://github.com/raducotescu/vmware-server-linux-2.6.3x-kernel.
i get this error message:
Unable to build the vmmon module.
For more information on how to troubleshoot module-related problems, please
visit our Web site at “http://www.vmware.com/go/unsup-linux-products” and
“http://www.vmware.com/go/unsup-linux-tools”.
Execution aborted.
what can i do?
Also..
If the keyboard is not working correctly inside Windows VMs, where in it would randomly lose focus and gain focus:
1. Export this variable in the environment right after login such that it will be set before starting Firefox: VMWARE_USE_SHIPPED_GTK=yes
2. Best option is set this variable in the /etc/profile like this:
export VMWARE_USE_SHIPPED_GTK=yes
3. For now just run:
. ./etc/profile
or Reboot the system
4. Run firefox and check.
There is an easy alternative to gain access to your virtual machine consoles without downgrading firefox or using Windows. This only works for Linux users and the solution is to call the VMware remote console application manually.
The first post on of the following url explains how to install the console plug-in manually:
http://communities.vmware.com/message/968826 (I’ve pasted the instructions below)
When you run the vmware-vmrc application, you will be prompted for a IP address, username and password.
Enter your VMWARE server ip address followed by a column and the management port (ie. 192.168.1.12:8333). Type in the usual username/password combo you would use to login the vmware webpage.
Also, if you install the vmware plugin, search for vmware-vmrc in ~/.mozilla/firefox. Some files will need a chmod +x to work properly.
Have fun!
— Instructions written by Philipl (http://communities.vmware.com/message/968826)
Some people have been asking about how to use the remote console without touching the web UI at all. Keeping in mind that if you want to do any sort of VM customisation, you’re still going to need the web UI, here’s how:
You have two options, one of which only applies if you’re connecting from a machine other than the one with Server installed.
1) If you don’t have server installed on your client machine, you can install the Workstation 6.5 beta and run ‘vmplayer’ with the -h argument. If you do that it will show a separate UI for connecting to a server and choosing a VM. Eventually, you’d be able to just install Player 2.5 (I don’t know why we don’t have a Player 2.5 package as part of this beta) and do the same thing.
2) If you don’t want to install the workstation beta or your client machine has Server installed on it, then you’ll want to extract the remote console from the firefox extension.
a) Grab the appropriate xpi from /usr/lib/vmware/webAccess/tomcat/apache-tomcat-5.5.17/webapps/ui/plugin/ (32 or 64bit)
b) unzip the xpi into whatever directory you’d like.
c) You’ll see four entries in your directory:
- components/
- install.js
- install.rdf
- plugins/
We only care about the contents of the plugins sub-directory. Delete the other bits and then move everything from inside the plugins subdirectory to your main remote console directory.
d) Now, run ‘vmware-vmrc’ but you must run by fully specifying the path to it, so that it can work out where it is.
eg: If you unzipped the xpi into /tmp/vmrc, you would run ‘/tmp/vmrc/vmware-vmrc’. This is very important. If you don’t use the full path, it will confuse itself and refuse to run.
It will inform you that its setting up its support files and then pop up with the same login and VM selection UI I mentioned the player has (Yes, they’re essentially the same thing except Player can run local VMs)
e) After the first run, you can run ‘vmware-vmrc’ however you want. Create a shortcut, put it in your path, knock yourself out.
Enjoy!
HI,
i had downloaded GZ vmware binary and patch, but when i run i get this error.
Any ideas?
root@testpc:/opt/vmware# sh vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh VMware-server-2.0.2-203138.i386.tar.gz
vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 1: cannot open �r�ؒ��z� O6�: No such file
vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 1: �: not found
vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 2: �=ٛ[*!�����: not found
vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 2: cannot open ٚ�Qe
:��ӧ�� 1�N �nϰ�3������
^�b������?d��l1���4���� �/�� N��n�
�������Lw: No such file
vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 2: 3��ﰿ����l�9
g: not found
vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 3: �� �������� : not found
vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 4: ΒW�s��:�תe�����C���6����������7⿹���N�=k8: not found
vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 5: a: not found
vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 5: A�d^CǹQ��d!��: not found
vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 5: cannot open ֻ��g8��: No such file
vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 5: �x+I�b���}�u��a�: not found
Y: not foundr-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 5: ��1�̑
vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 6: ��]G��c9C00�L�: not found
vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 7: Syntax error: “&” unexpected
vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 6:
� : not found
Valeu cara!
Há tempos que tentava instalar o vmware-server e não conseguia. Obrigado!
NÃO CONSIGO INSTALAR NO MEU DESK, VC PODE DIZER COMO FEZ?
runing on lucid 1004, kernel 2-6-32-27-generic-pae, gnome 2.30.2, AMD 9650.4GRAM.
Consider yourself lucky if you have gotten Firefox 3.5.9 to work in Ubuntu w. VMWare Server 2.0.2, I can’t even get the login page to come up. The server log files show a bunch of SSL cert errors connecting to the server on port 8333. I can login using Safari/Google Chrome, although of course I can’t access the console. Even if I could login via Firefox it sounds like I might have problems using the console, which is my whole motivation for going this route in the first place.
I guess I’m stuck with a Windows VM.
someone can help me here please!!!
uname -a:
Linux machine 2.6.32-24-server #43-Ubuntu SMP Thu Sep 16 16:05:42 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux
iv downloaded the files shown in the download folder:
root@vmsrv:/home/nuno/Downloads# ls -ltrh
total 483M
-rw-r–r– 1 root root 8.4K 2010-10-29 11:17 vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh.backup
-rw-r–r– 1 nuno nuno 483M 2010-10-29 11:18 VMware-server-2.0.2-203138.i386.tar.gz
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 8.4K 2010-10-29 11:36 vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh
when i try to run the script i get this:
root@vmsrv:/home/nuno/Downloads# ./vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh
-su: ./vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: cannot execute binary file
root@vmsrv:/home/nuno/Downloads# exit
logout
nuno@vmsrv:~/Downloads$ sudo ./vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh
[sudo] password for nuno:
./vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 1: cannot open �r�ؒ��z� O6�: No such file
./vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 1: �: not found
./vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 2: �=ٛ[*!�����: not found
./vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 2: cannot open ٚ�Qe
:��ӧ�� 1�N �nϰ�3������
^�b������?d��l1���4���� �/�� N��n�
�������Lw: No such file
./vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 2: 3��ﰿ����l�9
g: not found
./vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 3: �� �������� : not found
./vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 4: ΒW�s��:�תe�����C���6����������7⿹���N�=k8: not found
./vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 5: a: not found
./vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 5: A�d^CǹQ��d!��: not found
./vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 5: cannot open ֻ��g8��: No such file
./vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 5: �x+I�b���}�u��a�: not found
Y: not foundver-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 5: ��1�̑
./vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 6: ��]G��c9C00�L�: not found
./vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 7: Syntax error: “&” unexpected
./vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh: 6:
� : not found
runing on lucid 1004, kernel 2-6-32-27-generic-pae, gnome 2.30.2, AMD 9650.
i tried the script on this page but i get: Preparing to launch raducotescu-vmware-server-linux-2.6.3x-kernel-release-1.5-1-g71f8b66.tar.gz…
Do not close this window!
[sudo] password for lee:
./raducotescu-vmware-server-linux-2.6.3x-kernel-release-1.5-1-g71f8b66.tar.gz: 1: Syntax error: Unterminated quoted string
Thanks – this is awesome.. Worked good – after running /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl, enablbing SSL2 with about:config, rebooting – well, then I tried the config.pl script again (just went with defaults mostly) – it started working fine in Firefox 3.6.12