How can I install vmware tools?

Question

I run Ubuntu 16.04 on Vmware box version 12.5.2. Trying to install Vamware tools using these commands:

VM->Install vmware tools
copy whole VMWare Tools directory to ~
run sudo ./run_upgrade.sh

But nothing is happening and no error messages appear? How can I install vmware tools in the correct way?

Solution

You should go to the console on the virtual machine while it is running and install the tools.

You can use 3rd-party vmware tools that are available in the Ubuntu repository (contrary to the VMware-provided packages that are not available in the main repo):

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools

For virtual machine that is a desktop installation you can also add some destkop-environment based tools:

sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools-desktop

But for server installation you should definitely drop this out.

EDIT: Actually, there is a comprehensive tutorial that answers your question. I hope nobody decides to remove this plot due to this... VMware Tools community help

Comments

[benJ]

This works nicely with VMWare Workstation Player 15 and Ubuntu Desktop