After quite a bit of searching, It works. Dual monitors on Ubuntu using an ATI Fire GL 3100. One monitor VGA, the other DVI. I can drag windows back and forth between monitors, and so far I'm quite happy. Once I found the necessary guides to get it going it was actually very easy to do. I used the following, the first to install the fgrlx proprietary ATI driver, and the second to configure xorg.conf using aticonfigure.
http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Hardy_Installation_Guide
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=301941
Right now I'm still running from the Wubi install that I did, I'll probably do a fresh install this weekend and hose XP, or dual boot if I decide by then I'd still like to have it around.
On other notes, very easy to get mp3, m4a, avi to play. Google Desktop Search has a nice debian package that installs easily. Firefox 3 beta 5 is included and runs very nicely so far.
Overall, once I found the right guides to follow to get it setup, it was very easy to do.
6.05.2008
6.04.2008
Mission: Stop Spam (Interuppted), Dual Monitor Support
So spam can get through another day, for now dual monitor support will take precedence. On a whim I decided to try out wubi and the Ubuntu 8.04 on my desktop to see how well it supported everything. If I only had one monitor, I would be typing this running Ubuntu instead of Windows XP right now, but, so far the going has been rough.
For nearly two hours, and with added frustration because my wireless keyboard and mouse doesn't kick in for me to select which OS to boot in the boot menu ... I battled X and tried to get my two monitors to work properly. So far, no luck. I was unable to find any good guide on how to accomplish my feat, all of my Google searches were coming back with garbage. After two hours of frustration, I contemplated defeat.
In fact, due to my boredom with XP and my disgust of Vista, for a few minutes I started shopping for Macs that would support my two monitors, but the price would be too high I feel. Plus, I don't know if I really want a Mac, no VMware Server to play with.
Then, almost given up, I turned to Google and the Internets once more. I don't remember exactly how I got there, but I wound up at the FAQ for x.org and the dreaded XServer. There, it provided a link to the following site, http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Hardy_Installation_Guide
dedicated to getting proprietary ATI drivers to work with Linux.
There now is hope once again. It may be time to get rid of XP and Microsoft in my personal computing environment. Tomorrow night I will attempt once again to get dual monitors working with Ubuntu. Wish me luck.
For nearly two hours, and with added frustration because my wireless keyboard and mouse doesn't kick in for me to select which OS to boot in the boot menu ... I battled X and tried to get my two monitors to work properly. So far, no luck. I was unable to find any good guide on how to accomplish my feat, all of my Google searches were coming back with garbage. After two hours of frustration, I contemplated defeat.
In fact, due to my boredom with XP and my disgust of Vista, for a few minutes I started shopping for Macs that would support my two monitors, but the price would be too high I feel. Plus, I don't know if I really want a Mac, no VMware Server to play with.
Then, almost given up, I turned to Google and the Internets once more. I don't remember exactly how I got there, but I wound up at the FAQ for x.org and the dreaded XServer. There, it provided a link to the following site, http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Hardy_Installation_Guide
dedicated to getting proprietary ATI drivers to work with Linux.
There now is hope once again. It may be time to get rid of XP and Microsoft in my personal computing environment. Tomorrow night I will attempt once again to get dual monitors working with Ubuntu. Wish me luck.
5.26.2008
Misson: Stop Spam
Recently where I work spam has become more and more of a problem. As a VAR our company provides a number of services to our clients, which includes email services. Our spam filtering service has a number of holes in it however and needed to be reworked.
A number of solutions were evaluated, MailWasher and Astaro had their shot and didn't make the cut for whatever reason.
Then the spam solution search slowed a bit, until one of our larger clients had a Barracuda put in place. After setting it up correctly and making sure *all* mail was going through the barracuda (If you have multiple mx records, don't just put the filter at the lowest and leave the mail server open ...) it performed admirably, doing an excellent job. However, I wanted to explore some of the open-source alternatives, many of which are integrated into Barracuda.
SpamAssassin was the first stop. Right away I was conflicted about working on the project at all, due to the fact that we are basically a Windows only shop, unfortunately. So it took some feeling out of the boss before I even went ahead and built the first anti-spam box on Ubuntu and got the go-ahead to plug it in.
I followed the instructions at: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PostfixAmavisNew
It was a straight forward guide and I set it up as a VM and once I had tested it and felt confident it would filter mail correctly, I fed our mail through it and it alone. It works very well and is still in place after five days. Although, it didn't match up to the Barracuda in a few places.
The main point where it fell behind the Barracuda was in management of the device. I was hard pressed to find any usable kind of web based administration of Amavisd-new, which was a major drawback for our company. Not everybody is comfortable at the linux shell, and there was no chance of a client being able to login and whitelist/blacklist on their own, which was another drawback.
However, if your a small shop or have all the decision making power and are comfortable at the shell and have a decent understanding of how email works, it is a fairly good solution. It filters spam very well, which is the main point. It is also quite fast, especially considering that it is running as a VM.
So it looked like the Barracuda was going to win, and it still might, although the open-source solutions weren't done yet. I found another guide and a few other products, namely, MailScanner and MailWatch. MailWatch was the web front-end I needed to make it usable in our Microsoft only shop, and MailScanner has a bit more documentation and feels like a more robust product than Amavisd-new. But mostly it worked with MailWatch, and Amavisd-new doesn't.
The guide I found was at HowToForge: http://www.howtoforge.org/the-perfect-spamsnake-ubuntu-8.04
I have stopped after five pages of configuration and it is up and running. I haven' swapped it out with the Amavisd-new box yet, because I need to move it to a bit faster host for the VM, but I feel that after five pages and getting the web end of it working, it's far enough along to have my boss take a look. Then if he likes it, or I feel it then has a real shot of being used instead of Barracuda, I will finish the setup and tweak some more to get it just like we need.
Anyway, should be an interesting outcome.
I hope to eventually have a generic build of the VM which I can offer for free download.
A number of solutions were evaluated, MailWasher and Astaro had their shot and didn't make the cut for whatever reason.
Then the spam solution search slowed a bit, until one of our larger clients had a Barracuda put in place. After setting it up correctly and making sure *all* mail was going through the barracuda (If you have multiple mx records, don't just put the filter at the lowest and leave the mail server open ...) it performed admirably, doing an excellent job. However, I wanted to explore some of the open-source alternatives, many of which are integrated into Barracuda.
SpamAssassin was the first stop. Right away I was conflicted about working on the project at all, due to the fact that we are basically a Windows only shop, unfortunately. So it took some feeling out of the boss before I even went ahead and built the first anti-spam box on Ubuntu and got the go-ahead to plug it in.
I followed the instructions at: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PostfixAmavisNew
It was a straight forward guide and I set it up as a VM and once I had tested it and felt confident it would filter mail correctly, I fed our mail through it and it alone. It works very well and is still in place after five days. Although, it didn't match up to the Barracuda in a few places.
The main point where it fell behind the Barracuda was in management of the device. I was hard pressed to find any usable kind of web based administration of Amavisd-new, which was a major drawback for our company. Not everybody is comfortable at the linux shell, and there was no chance of a client being able to login and whitelist/blacklist on their own, which was another drawback.
However, if your a small shop or have all the decision making power and are comfortable at the shell and have a decent understanding of how email works, it is a fairly good solution. It filters spam very well, which is the main point. It is also quite fast, especially considering that it is running as a VM.
So it looked like the Barracuda was going to win, and it still might, although the open-source solutions weren't done yet. I found another guide and a few other products, namely, MailScanner and MailWatch. MailWatch was the web front-end I needed to make it usable in our Microsoft only shop, and MailScanner has a bit more documentation and feels like a more robust product than Amavisd-new. But mostly it worked with MailWatch, and Amavisd-new doesn't.
The guide I found was at HowToForge: http://www.howtoforge.org/the-perfect-spamsnake-ubuntu-8.04
I have stopped after five pages of configuration and it is up and running. I haven' swapped it out with the Amavisd-new box yet, because I need to move it to a bit faster host for the VM, but I feel that after five pages and getting the web end of it working, it's far enough along to have my boss take a look. Then if he likes it, or I feel it then has a real shot of being used instead of Barracuda, I will finish the setup and tweak some more to get it just like we need.
Anyway, should be an interesting outcome.
I hope to eventually have a generic build of the VM which I can offer for free download.
4.13.2008
Ubuntu First Steps Part 1
First off I'd like to say I really like Ubuntu and Linux in general. My least favorite part of the Windows world is having to type in a license key for everything. I work doing networking / server / pc support for a small company and when the problem I have to solve and spend time on is one due to licensing issues, well, I get annoyed. (Computer Associates are you listening?)
Ubuntu is basically a fully usable desktop for most purposes, and since most applications are going to hopefully be web based in the future, the whole "cloud" and all, there is a possibility for more Linux on the desktop at home and in business.
I'll clarify when I say basically a usable desktop. I'm not a heavy peripheral component user, I don't have a fancy printer, and I don't know how well my iPod would work with it. I'm sure these are problems that some people would run into. Also, if your a big gamer, well your not going to be using Linux, or anything besides Windows for that matter.
My main problem with Linux right now, and I'm almost ready to give it another shot, is the spotty support for more than one monitor. I'm all for spending time getting something complicated to work. But not when its something that *should* be easy, such as my desktop display. But when Ubuntu 8.04 comes out I might throw in a spare hard drive and give it a whirl.
For the mean time my Ubuntu use is limited to virtual machines, which they work very well as. I've been able to get Ubuntu 6.06 and 7.10 installed with tools running and they perform very well under VMware Server. There are a few things that need to be done right off of the bat in my opinion to make it more usable.
The first, obviously is to install vmware-tools. More important if you are going to use GNOME or KDE, for command line administration I haven't seen a giant difference, but its probably best to install vmware-tools anyway. A previous blog post describes how to do this.
The next step I always take is to update the sources.list file. This is the same as if you enable or disable repositories through the System->Administration->Software Sources applet in GNOME.
I usually do the following, although depending on what packages you want to install your steps may vary ...
1. Comment out the CD-ROM as a source, put a '#' before deb cdrom ....
This avoids Ubuntu asking for the CD-ROM whenever you want to install something.
2. Uncomment other repositories as you see fit. I normally uncomment the universe repository, but note that if you do this you should also uncomment the corresponding security repository to reflect the universe option. You may also need to add the multiverse repository if you need certain packages, for example I think the Java-SDK under 6.06 . For example, my sources.list file for my LAMP server with Java installed looks like the following:
#
# deb cdrom:[Ubuntu-Server 6.06.1 _Dapper Drake_ - Release i386 (20060807.1)]/ dapper main restricted
#deb cdrom:[Ubuntu-Server 6.06.1 _Dapper Drake_ - Release i386 (20060807.1)]/ dapper main restricted
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper main restricted
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper main restricted
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper-updates main restricted
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper-updates main restricted
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper universe multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper universe multiverse
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security universe multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security universe multiverse
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-updates universe multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-updates universe multiverse
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security main restricted
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security main restricted
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security universe multiverse
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security universe multiverse
You may want to leave the deb-src lines commented out.
Then run:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
The third thing that I will normally do to a new Ubuntu installation is to install OpenSSH, so that I can SSH to the box.
sudo apt-get install ssh
Will accomplish this task.
Hopefully soon I will follow up with some more. Within the next week I'll probably throw up another Ubuntu VM and remember some other things that need to be done.
Ubuntu is basically a fully usable desktop for most purposes, and since most applications are going to hopefully be web based in the future, the whole "cloud" and all, there is a possibility for more Linux on the desktop at home and in business.
I'll clarify when I say basically a usable desktop. I'm not a heavy peripheral component user, I don't have a fancy printer, and I don't know how well my iPod would work with it. I'm sure these are problems that some people would run into. Also, if your a big gamer, well your not going to be using Linux, or anything besides Windows for that matter.
My main problem with Linux right now, and I'm almost ready to give it another shot, is the spotty support for more than one monitor. I'm all for spending time getting something complicated to work. But not when its something that *should* be easy, such as my desktop display. But when Ubuntu 8.04 comes out I might throw in a spare hard drive and give it a whirl.
For the mean time my Ubuntu use is limited to virtual machines, which they work very well as. I've been able to get Ubuntu 6.06 and 7.10 installed with tools running and they perform very well under VMware Server. There are a few things that need to be done right off of the bat in my opinion to make it more usable.
The first, obviously is to install vmware-tools. More important if you are going to use GNOME or KDE, for command line administration I haven't seen a giant difference, but its probably best to install vmware-tools anyway. A previous blog post describes how to do this.
The next step I always take is to update the sources.list file. This is the same as if you enable or disable repositories through the System->Administration->Software Sources applet in GNOME.
I usually do the following, although depending on what packages you want to install your steps may vary ...
1. Comment out the CD-ROM as a source, put a '#' before deb cdrom ....
This avoids Ubuntu asking for the CD-ROM whenever you want to install something.
2. Uncomment other repositories as you see fit. I normally uncomment the universe repository, but note that if you do this you should also uncomment the corresponding security repository to reflect the universe option. You may also need to add the multiverse repository if you need certain packages, for example I think the Java-SDK under 6.06 . For example, my sources.list file for my LAMP server with Java installed looks like the following:
#
# deb cdrom:[Ubuntu-Server 6.06.1 _Dapper Drake_ - Release i386 (20060807.1)]/ dapper main restricted
#deb cdrom:[Ubuntu-Server 6.06.1 _Dapper Drake_ - Release i386 (20060807.1)]/ dapper main restricted
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper main restricted
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper main restricted
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper-updates main restricted
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper-updates main restricted
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper universe multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper universe multiverse
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security universe multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security universe multiverse
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-updates universe multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-updates universe multiverse
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security main restricted
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security main restricted
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security universe multiverse
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security universe multiverse
You may want to leave the deb-src lines commented out.
Then run:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
The third thing that I will normally do to a new Ubuntu installation is to install OpenSSH, so that I can SSH to the box.
sudo apt-get install ssh
Will accomplish this task.
Hopefully soon I will follow up with some more. Within the next week I'll probably throw up another Ubuntu VM and remember some other things that need to be done.
4.06.2008
VMware Server Console Fails to start on Linux
I recently setup VMware Server 1.x on Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon which is running on my IBM T40 laptop. After installing the build-essentials and linux-headers the install went smoothly, however when I went to click on VMware Server Console it would start loading and then do nothing. Trying to start vmware from the terminal provided some more information:
vmware is installed, but it has not been (correctly) configured
for this system. To (re-)configure it, invoke the following command:
/usr/bin/vmware-config.pl.
So, I reran vmware-config.pl and tried to start VMware again, however I got the same message.
After doing some digging I found a solution. Delete the /etc/vmware/not_configured file. After deleting the file VMware Server Console started right up and I was able to create and run virtual machines.
However it does not seem to be the optimal solution, as after a reboot the next time I started Server Console I got the same message and had to delete the file again. I don't know if maybe it as an Ubuntu update that caused this, or something that happens when the service loads, but for now the temporary solution works.
vmware is installed, but it has not been (correctly) configured
for this system. To (re-)configure it, invoke the following command:
/usr/bin/vmware-config.pl.
So, I reran vmware-config.pl and tried to start VMware again, however I got the same message.
After doing some digging I found a solution. Delete the /etc/vmware/not_configured file. After deleting the file VMware Server Console started right up and I was able to create and run virtual machines.
However it does not seem to be the optimal solution, as after a reboot the next time I started Server Console I got the same message and had to delete the file again. I don't know if maybe it as an Ubuntu update that caused this, or something that happens when the service loads, but for now the temporary solution works.
3.29.2008
Event 1008 MsiInstaller
Recently while updating from VMware Server 2.0 Beta 1 to Beta 2 I ran into an odd installation problem. The installation program, after spending some time initializing, would come back with an error stating "the installation could not continue due to software restriction policy" (close to this anyway, I closed the pop-up and don't remember the exact message). I would also get an MsiInstaller error listed in the application event log.
Index : 3609
EntryType : Error
EventID : 1008
Message : The installation of C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\{AF08C71F-F822-4416-87A9-2BBF5A8A5F12}~setu
p\VMware Server.msi is not permitted due to an error in software restriction policy processing. Th
e object cannot be trusted.
Category : (0)
CategoryNumber : 0
ReplacementStrings : {C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\{AF08C71F-F822-4416-87A9-2BBF5A8A5F12}~setup\VMware Server.msi
, (NULL), (NULL), (NULL)}
Source : MsiInstaller
TimeGenerated : 3/29/2008 6:21:02 PM
TimeWritten : 3/29/2008 6:21:02 PM
UserName : XP64HOST\trhodes
My PC is XP Professional 64 bit, and is not joined to a domain. I was running the installation under a local administrator account, and have never configured any software restriction policies on my PC.
I found it to be an odd error, and after rebooting, and trying to install again I still suffered from the same error.
Google returned very little, and being that VMware Server 2 Beta 2 had just been released the day before, very little assistance was available.
I finally found the following link result in Google after searching a bit, although not directly related to VMware.
http://forums.asp.net/p/1240092/2262940.aspx
This forum discussion described the same MsiInstaller error that I had been experiencing with a solution.
Start -> Control Panel 2. Open Administrative Tools 3. Open Local Security Settings 4. Click Software Restriction Policies a. If no software restrictions are defined, right click the Software Restriction Policies node and select New Software Restriction Policy5. Double click Enforcement 6. Select "All users except local administrators" 7. Click OK 8. Reboot the machine or run gpupdate /force
Which worked wonderfully. I wonder why I had the problem in the first place.
Update 4/6/08:
A week or so later I found this on VMware's site with the release notes for Beta 2, listing this as a problem for Windows Server 2003, with the fix being to right click and do a runas administrator.
http://www.vmware.com/products/beta/vmware_server/releasenotes_vmserver2.html
Index : 3609
EntryType : Error
EventID : 1008
Message : The installation of C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\{AF08C71F-F822-4416-87A9-2BBF5A8A5F12}~setu
p\VMware Server.msi is not permitted due to an error in software restriction policy processing. Th
e object cannot be trusted.
Category : (0)
CategoryNumber : 0
ReplacementStrings : {C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\{AF08C71F-F822-4416-87A9-2BBF5A8A5F12}~setup\VMware Server.msi
, (NULL), (NULL), (NULL)}
Source : MsiInstaller
TimeGenerated : 3/29/2008 6:21:02 PM
TimeWritten : 3/29/2008 6:21:02 PM
UserName : XP64HOST\trhodes
My PC is XP Professional 64 bit, and is not joined to a domain. I was running the installation under a local administrator account, and have never configured any software restriction policies on my PC.
I found it to be an odd error, and after rebooting, and trying to install again I still suffered from the same error.
Google returned very little, and being that VMware Server 2 Beta 2 had just been released the day before, very little assistance was available.
I finally found the following link result in Google after searching a bit, although not directly related to VMware.
http://forums.asp.net/p/1240092/2262940.aspx
This forum discussion described the same MsiInstaller error that I had been experiencing with a solution.
Start -> Control Panel 2. Open Administrative Tools 3. Open Local Security Settings 4. Click Software Restriction Policies a. If no software restrictions are defined, right click the Software Restriction Policies node and select New Software Restriction Policy5. Double click Enforcement 6. Select "All users except local administrators" 7. Click OK 8. Reboot the machine or run gpupdate /force
Which worked wonderfully. I wonder why I had the problem in the first place.
Update 4/6/08:
A week or so later I found this on VMware's site with the release notes for Beta 2, listing this as a problem for Windows Server 2003, with the fix being to right click and do a runas administrator.
http://www.vmware.com/products/beta/vmware_server/releasenotes_vmserver2.html
3.16.2008
How To: Install vmware-tools in Ubuntu 6.06 LTS
This is the procedure I used for installing VMware-tools in Ubuntu 6.06 from the command line. I'm not even sure exactly what benefit the tools are providing to a 6.06 server that doesn't use X at all, but I decided to install the tools anyway.
This assumes that you have already installed Ubuntu 6.06 into a VM and is running. It is possible that this procedure will work with another Linux distribution, however the package manager commands will probably be different. I would imagine the rest of the procedure would be quite similar though. This is also tailored to VMware Server 2.0 Beta, although I imagine it would work with any other version as well.
On the summary page for the VM click install tools, this will have your VM point to the iso file that contains the tools.
Then open up the console. I found it necessary to mount the cdrom manually ...
sudo mount /media/cdrom0/ -o unhide
If you do:
cd /cdrom
ls
You should see two files there:
VMwareTools-e.x.p-63231.i386.rpm
VMwareTools-e.x.p-63231.i386.tar.gz
You have successfully mounted the tools iso.
Now, cd to /tmp ....
cd /tmp
And, extract VMwareTools*.tar.gz
sudo tar xvf /cdrom/VMwareTools*.tar.gz
(list of files) ....
Okay, now we can try to install the tools ...
cd vm*
sudo ./vmware-install.pl
Accept the defaults, unless you have a reason not to.
(note to myself after blindly accepting the defaults: What is the directory that contains the init directories? (/etc), , what is the directory that contains the init scripts .... It may be a good idea to make sure the defaults are correct actually for Ubuntu ... but thats for another day.)
And then the first problem pops up, you'll most likely run into it as well on a new install of Ubuntu 6.06. After the script asks you if you would like to run vmware-config-tools.pl, and you say yes, it will inform you that none of the vmmemctl modules are suitable for your running kernel, and ask you if you want to build the vmmemctl module for the system. Go ahead and say yes.
Alright, now it says setup is unable to find the "make" program on your machine blah blah blah...
[Ctrl+C] out of the script ...
You need to install some stuff for this to work obviously, to save you some time ... You need to install the packages build-essentails, and the Linux header files for your kernel.
sudo apt-get install build-essential
uname -r
sudo apt-get install linux-header-"what uname -r printed out"
A side note, when I ran apt-get install linux-header-* apt-get was unable to locate the files. Sometimes its necessary to run "apt-get update" ... this made apt-get be able to locate the files.
Alright, now that we have the headers and build essentials installed, we should be able to complete the tools setup.
Start vmware-install.pl
sudo ./vmware-install.pl
Accept defaults again ....
Say yes and let it build you a version of whatever it needs ....
The last option, Virtual Machine Communication Interface (VMCI) service, says that its experimental and defaults to no, I left it that way.
My vmhgfs failed to mount, which I think has to do with shared folders, and wasn't too big a concern for me, but it would be interesting to see why. Everything else appears to work fine.
And thats all there is to installing vmware-tools in Linux, almost as easy as Windows...
This assumes that you have already installed Ubuntu 6.06 into a VM and is running. It is possible that this procedure will work with another Linux distribution, however the package manager commands will probably be different. I would imagine the rest of the procedure would be quite similar though. This is also tailored to VMware Server 2.0 Beta, although I imagine it would work with any other version as well.
On the summary page for the VM click install tools, this will have your VM point to the iso file that contains the tools.
Then open up the console. I found it necessary to mount the cdrom manually ...
sudo mount /media/cdrom0/ -o unhide
If you do:
cd /cdrom
ls
You should see two files there:
VMwareTools-e.x.p-63231.i386.rpm
VMwareTools-e.x.p-63231.i386.tar.gz
You have successfully mounted the tools iso.
Now, cd to /tmp ....
cd /tmp
And, extract VMwareTools*.tar.gz
sudo tar xvf /cdrom/VMwareTools*.tar.gz
(list of files) ....
Okay, now we can try to install the tools ...
cd vm*
sudo ./vmware-install.pl
Accept the defaults, unless you have a reason not to.
(note to myself after blindly accepting the defaults: What is the directory that contains the init directories? (/etc), , what is the directory that contains the init scripts .... It may be a good idea to make sure the defaults are correct actually for Ubuntu ... but thats for another day.)
And then the first problem pops up, you'll most likely run into it as well on a new install of Ubuntu 6.06. After the script asks you if you would like to run vmware-config-tools.pl, and you say yes, it will inform you that none of the vmmemctl modules are suitable for your running kernel, and ask you if you want to build the vmmemctl module for the system. Go ahead and say yes.
Alright, now it says setup is unable to find the "make" program on your machine blah blah blah...
[Ctrl+C] out of the script ...
You need to install some stuff for this to work obviously, to save you some time ... You need to install the packages build-essentails, and the Linux header files for your kernel.
sudo apt-get install build-essential
uname -r
sudo apt-get install linux-header-"what uname -r printed out"
A side note, when I ran apt-get install linux-header-* apt-get was unable to locate the files. Sometimes its necessary to run "apt-get update" ... this made apt-get be able to locate the files.
Alright, now that we have the headers and build essentials installed, we should be able to complete the tools setup.
Start vmware-install.pl
sudo ./vmware-install.pl
Accept defaults again ....
Say yes and let it build you a version of whatever it needs ....
The last option, Virtual Machine Communication Interface (VMCI) service, says that its experimental and defaults to no, I left it that way.
My vmhgfs failed to mount, which I think has to do with shared folders, and wasn't too big a concern for me, but it would be interesting to see why. Everything else appears to work fine.
And thats all there is to installing vmware-tools in Linux, almost as easy as Windows...
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