How can I install Linux Mint in a VMware Fusion VM? It fails to boot

Question

I have downloaded linuxmint-14-kde-dvd-32bit.iso and tried to install it, selecting "Linux" and "Ubuntu" for the installation as that looked like the closest match for Mint.

Upon attempting to boot, I get a text error screen that doesn't boot on hitting enter:

EDD: Error 8000 reading sector 535681
No DEFAULT or UI configuration directive found!
boot: 

Does this look like I have a corrupt DVD ISO? Are there more helpful things I could be telling VMware Fusion? Is Mint a poor guest?

Advice on what would be helpful diagnostics, or what I can do to create a virtual machine from the DVD ISO, would be welcome.

Thanks,

Solution 1

Migrated to an answer:

Check the md5 of what you downloaded vs what the download site says it should be to check on the integrity of your disc, I think mint also has a "check disc for defects" if you interrupt the normal boot (during the 9second count down).

Mint should be a fine guest, I can't really think of any really poor guests.

Solution 2

A breadcrumb remark for people who have this question turn up:

Linux Mint appears AFAICT to work as a guest under VMware Fusion on Mountain Lion.

However, it requires VMware tools for the mouse cursor to appear some or all of the time.

To address this issue:

1. Select "Install VMware Tools" or the like from VMware's menubar. (You may have to hit control-command to get the mouse cursor released if it is in possession of the guest.)
2. When it installs, Mint will briefly display a not-terribly helpful window. You may or may not be able to get anything useful out of this blip; these instructions ignore it.
3. Sudo to root, giving your own password when prompted ("sudo su").
4. As the virtual CD-ROM used to install VMware tools may or may not be mounted, create a directory like /mnt/cdrom (or /tmp/cdrom for that matter). ("mkdir /tmp/cdrom")
5. Type "mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom" (or "mount /dev/cdrom /tmp/cdrom").
6. From somewhere outside of the mounted directory, where you can write, extract the contents of the CD-ROM directory ("cd /tmp; tar xzf /mnt/cdrom/*gz").
7. Go into the newly created vmware-tools-distrib directory ("cd vmware-tools-distrib"), and run vmware-install.pl ("./vmware-install.pl").
8. Ask to configure VMware tools when prompted to do so.
9. Reboot your computer. (This may not be strictly necessary, but I did it to have a clean slate.)

If you're not a technical person, some of the questions in 6 and 7 may be more technical than you're used to. If you don't understand a technical question, just hit enter and you will usually be right. (Or ask for help from your friendly local Linux User's Group which will probably provide cheerful assistance in getting you up and running.)

Comments

[nerdwaller]

Check the md5 of what you downloaded vs what the download site says it should be to check on the integrity of your disc, I think mint also has a "check disc for defects" if you interrupt the normal boot (during the 9second count down). Mint should be a fine guest..

[Christos Hayward]

Thank you. The 32-bit MD5 hash was different between my initial download and the one published on the site. -- I'm downloading from another site now.

[Christos Hayward]

@nerdwaller, could you state your response as an answer? I can't accept a comment, but your comment gave me everything I was looking for.

[nerdwaller]

Done! Hopefully the new download let you install and get going!