Linux: VMWare Server Under Ubuntu Dapper

Well, as I continue to rebuild my desktop PC after removing Debian in favor of Ubuntu, there are times where I kick myself for not having the same applications installed. Most applications can easily be installed via apt, however I had yet to reinstall VMWare. Since I have taken up Chess again with a passion, I wanted to get some VM's running DOS for Battle Chess and Windows for Fritz. With a stock Ubuntu install, however, installing VMWare was not nearly as straightforward as it should have been.

(Note: This is under Ubuntu Dapper.)

First thing was to get the VMWare Server files from VMWares site. Follow the directions for registering for an account, and don't forget to get the serial number.

Once you have downloaded the tar file, extract it to a temporary location. Once extracted, you will need to get a few pre-requisite packages for Ubuntu. To get these packages, type in a terminal window:

sudo apt-get -f install gcc g++ linux-headers-`uname -r` build-essential xinetd

or, if like me, you already have the kernel headers installed, just type:

sudo apt-get -f install build-essential xinetd

The build essential option probably isn't necessary, however I used it, it worked, so thats why I am documenting it that way.

Once done, go into your temporary directory, and run the vmware-install.pl file with:

sudo ./vmware-install.pl

Follow the directions. Once completed, the program will show up under the Applications/System Tools menu as “VMWare Server Console”.

-Note: When I initially tried to do the install, I did not have the xinetd package installed. This caused the configuration of the kernel modules to fail. Thanks to this Ubuntu forums message, I was given the above command to get the xinetd package, which is why I kept the build-essentials flag in.