VMware Server on Ubuntu Feisty 7.04 | HowTo

June 3, 2007

VMware Server opens up the possibilities for you to try new operating systems, or just play around. Installing it on Feisty is a bit of a hassle, though, since the VMware kernel modules don't compile correctly without a patch. Here is a quick tutorial to get it working on Ubuntu (or Kubuntu) Feisty Fawn 7.04.

Visit http://www.vmware.com/download/server/ to obtain the tar.gz package and register to receive your serial numbers. They require a valid email address. At this time, the current version of VMware Server is 1.0.3.

After the archive has downloaded, we'll need to make sure our system has everything we need to build the kernel modules.

Now, unpack VMware and cd to its directory.

You'll see an installer script in the new directory called vmware-install.pl. Run it like so:

The installer will prompt you to answer a few questions; the defaults are fine in most cases. If you need a different setting, you will know — hit enter to accept the default.

Watch the installer carefully. Once the actual installation is complete, it will offer to run vmware-configure.pl for you. This will fail, since we haven't patched it yet. Type no when prompted by this:

You'll return to the prompt after typing no. Here is where we apply the patch. Download this file anywhere you like: http://ftp.cvut.cz/vmware/vmware-any-any-update109.tar.gz

Then, extract and apply:

At this point, it is safe to hit enter to accept the defaults to the rest of the questions. Most folks will not need Host-Only or NAT networking, but it won't hurt anything if you enable them anyway.

Once the configuration finishes, you can run vmware and install your first virtual machine!

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