How To Install VMware Server On Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake)

Version 1.1
Author: Till Brehm <t [dot] brehm [at] projektfarm [dot] de >

This tutorial provides step-by-step instructions on how to install the free VMware Server (version 1.0) on Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake).

VMware has just released version 1.0 of its free VMware Server. With VMware Server you can create and run guest operating systems ("virtual machines") such as Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, etc. under a host operating system. This has the benefit that you can run multiple operating systems on the same hardware which saves a lot of money, and you can move virtual machines from one VMware Server to the next one (or to a system that has the VMware Player which is also free). In this article we use Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake) as the host operating system.

I want to say first that this is not the only way of setting up such a system. There are many ways of achieving this goal but this is the way I take. I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

1 Preliminary Note

I assume you have already set up a basic Ubuntu 6.06 system. It doesn't matter if you use Ubuntu's server or desktop version. If you use the server version, you can set up your system as described on the first three pages of this tutorial: The Perfect Setup - Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Server (Dapper Drake).

You should have a working root account (as the following steps have to be run as root) or run

sudo su

to get root priveliges and also a static IP address. In this tutorial I use the IP address 192.168.0.100.

If you have another computer available, install ssh-server and use a ssh client like putty to access the server remotely; copying and pasting the commands below is easier than typing them out.

apt-get install ssh openssh-server

2 Installing Required packages

Now we install the packages required by VMware on our Ubuntu system:

apt-get install libx11-6 libx11-dev libxtst6 xlibs-dev xinetd wget

apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` build-essential

apt-get install gcc binutils-doc cpp-doc make manpages-dev autoconf automake1.9 libtool flex bison gdb gcc-doc gcc-4.0-doc libc6-dev-amd64 lib64gcc1

and create the directory /var/vm where we want to install our virtual machines later. The virtual machines require much disk space, make sure you have enough free space on your /var partition for the virtual machines.:

mkdir /var/vm
cd /tmp

3 Getting VMware Server

The VMware server can be downloaded for free from the VMware website: http://www.vmware.com/download/server/
To run the VMware Server software you need a (free) serial number, that can be requested by clicking on the "Register now" button on the download page.

4 Downloading The Software

To setup VMWare Server on Ubuntu, we need the following packages from the VMware downloads page:

VMware Server for linux (Binary tar.gz)
Management Interface (Binary tar.gz)

To create new virtual machines, we need VMware server client package either for Windows if you want to create them from your Windows workstation or for Linux if you have a Linux workstation.

For downloading the software to your server, I recommend to use the linux commandline program wget. The wget syntax is as follows:

wget [URL of the file that shall be downloaded]

Unpacking the server tar.gz:

tar xvfz VMware-server-*.tar.gz

Running the installer script:

cd vmware-server-distrib
./vmware-install.pl

The installer asks you a few questions. Most of the time you can accept the default value:

Creating a new installer database using the tar3 format.

Installing the content of the package.

In which directory do you want to install the binary files?
[/usr/bin] <-- /usr/bin

What is the directory that contains the init directories (rc0.d/ to rc6.d/)?
[/etc] <-- /etc

What is the directory that contains the init scripts?
[/etc/init.d] <-- /etc/init.d

In which directory do you want to install the daemon files?
[/usr/sbin] <-- /usr/sbin

In which directory do you want to install the library files?
[/usr/lib/vmware] <-- /usr/lib/vmware

The path "/usr/lib/vmware" does not exist currently. This program is going to
create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you want? [yes] <-- yes

In which directory do you want to install the manual files?
[/usr/share/man] <-- /usr/share/man

In which directory do you want to install the documentation files?
[/usr/share/doc/vmware] <-- /usr/share/doc/vmware

The path "/usr/share/doc/vmware" does not exist currently. This program is going
to create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you want?
[yes] <-- yes

The installation of VMware Server 1.0.0 build-28343 for Linux completed
successfully. You can decide to remove this software from your system at any
time by invoking the following command: "/usr/bin/vmware-uninstall.pl".

Before running VMware Server for the first time, you need to configure it by
invoking the following command: "/usr/bin/vmware-config.pl". Do you want this
program to invoke the command for you now? [yes] <-- yes

Making sure services for VMware Server are stopped.

Stopping VMware services:
Virtual machine monitor done

You must read and accept the End User License Agreement to continue.
Press enter to display it.

..... snip [LICENCE TEXT] ......


Do you accept? (yes/no) <-- yes
Thank you.

Configuring fallback GTK+ 2.4 libraries.

In which directory do you want to install the mime type icons?
[/usr/share/icons] <-- /usr/share/icons

The path "/usr/share/icons" does not exist currently. This program is going to
create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you want? [yes] <-- yes

What directory contains your desktop menu entry files? These files have a
.desktop file extension. [/usr/share/applications] <-- /usr/share/applications

The path "/usr/share/applications" does not exist currently. This program is
going to create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you want?
[yes] <-- yes

In which directory do you want to install the application's icon?
[/usr/share/pixmaps] <-- /usr/share/pixmaps

Trying to find a suitable vmmon module for your running kernel.

The module bld-2.6.15-23-i386server-Ubuntu6.06 loads perfectly in the running
kernel.

Do you want networking for your virtual machines? (yes/no/help) [yes] <-- yes

Configuring a bridged network for vmnet0.

The following bridged networks have been defined:

. vmnet0 is bridged to eth0

All your ethernet interfaces are already bridged.

Do you want to be able to use NAT networking in your virtual machines? (yes/no)
[yes] <-- yes

Configuring a NAT network for vmnet8.

Do you want this program to probe for an unused private subnet? (yes/no/help) <-- yes
Probing for an unused private subnet (this can take some time)...

The subnet 192.168.246.0/255.255.255.0 appears to be unused.

The following NAT networks have been defined:

. vmnet8 is a NAT network on private subnet 192.168.246.0.

Do you wish to configure another NAT network? (yes/no) [no] <-- no

Do you want to be able to use host-only networking in your virtual machines?
[yes] <-- yes

Configuring a host-only network for vmnet1.

Do you want this program to probe for an unused private subnet? (yes/no/help)
[yes] <-- yes

Probing for an unused private subnet (this can take some time)...

The subnet 172.16.37.0/255.255.255.0 appears to be unused.

The following host-only networks have been defined:

. vmnet1 is a host-only network on private subnet 172.16.37.0.

Do you wish to configure another host-only network? (yes/no) [no] <-- no

Trying to find a suitable vmnet module for your running kernel.

The module bld-2.6.15-23-i386server-Ubuntu6.06 loads perfectly in the running
kernel.

Please specify a port for remote console connections to use [902] <-- 902

Stopping internet superserver: xinetd.
Starting internet superserver: xinetd.
Configuring the VMware VmPerl Scripting API.

Building the VMware VmPerl Scripting API.

Using compiler "/usr/bin/gcc". Use environment variable CC to override.

Installing the VMware VmPerl Scripting API.

The installation of the VMware VmPerl Scripting API succeeded.

Generating SSL Server Certificate

In which directory do you want to keep your virtual machine files?
[/var/lib/vmware/Virtual Machines] <-- /var/vm

Please enter your 20-character serial number.

Type XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX or 'Enter' to cancel: <-- your VMware Server serial number

Starting VMware services:
Virtual machine monitor done
Virtual ethernet done
Bridged networking on /dev/vmnet0 done
Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet1 (background) done
Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet8 (background) done
NAT service on /dev/vmnet8 done

The configuration of VMware Server 1.0.0 build-28343 for Linux for this running
kernel completed successfully.