Install vmware-tools in Debian Sarge

Since Debian Sarge is not officially supported by VMWare, getting Debian to work efficiently on VMWare needs some minor adjustments. Like the video driver, NIC and mouse driver needs to be updated. To take the full functionality of VMWare and to get better performance, user needs to install the vmware-tools. Below is a quick guide on how to install the vmware-tools in Debian Sarge. Note: need to log-in as root. 1) Get the version of Linux kernel.

#: uname -r

A sample output of the above command could be:

>> 2.8.18-4-686

which basically says that you have a linux-2.8.18-4-686. 2) Now let us check if we have Linux headers for the version as shown above.

#: apt-get install -s linux-headers-2.6.18-4-686

The statement above means that we will do a simulated install of package "linux-headers-2.6.18-4-686". See below for a sample output:

technomachine:/home/techno# apt-get install -s linux-headers-2.6.18-4-686
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
linux-headers-2.6.18-4-686
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Inst linux-headers-2.6.18-4-686 (2.6.18.dfsg.1-12etch2 Debian-Security:stable)
Conf linux-headers-2.6.18-4-686 (2.6.18.dfsg.1-12etch2 Debian-Security:stable)

3) Since it looks like it is good, then lets install this package.

#: apt-get install linux-headers-2.6.18-4-686

4) Do create a smylink of the linux header.

#: ln -s /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.18-4-686 /usr/src/linux

5) Install GCC.

#: apt-get install -s gcc

Sample output should look like the following:

technomachine:/home/techno# apt-get install -s gcc
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Suggested packages:
manpages-dev autoconf automake1.9 libtool flex bison gcc-doc
Recommended packages:
libc6-dev libc-dev
The following NEW packages will be installed:
gcc
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Inst gcc (4:4.1.1-15 Debian:4.0r0/stable)
Conf gcc (4:4.1.1-15 Debian:4.0r0/stable)

Again, since it looks like it is okay, then let us install GCC.

#: apt-get install gcc

6) Define our C compiler now.

#: export CC=/usr/bin/gcc-4.1

7) In VMware Host, do VM->Install VMware Tools... 8) Now back in the virtualized Debian, do:

#: mount /dev/cdrom
#: cd /mnt/cdrom #I am assuming that the cdrom is mounted here, else consult manpage
#: mkdir ~/temp
#: cp VMwareTools-1.0.3-44356.tar.gz ~/temp
#: cd ~/temp
#: tar -xvzf VMwareTools-1.0.3-44356.tar.gz
#: cd vmware-tools-distrib
#: ./vmware-install.pl

Then just use the default values (thus say, hit the Enter key :) 8) After all is done, we need to copy the VMware mouse driver for mouse integration.

#: cd /usr/lib/vmware-tools/configurator/XOrg/7.0
#: cp vmmouse_drv.so /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers

9) Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf to use the new mouse driver:

#: nano -w /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver  "vmmouse"  #<---this part   Option  "CorePointer"   Option  "Device"  "/dev/input/mice"   Option  "Protocol"  "ps/2"   Option  "Emulate3Buttons" "true" EndSection

10) Reboot the machine :). We need this so that the fast network driver will also load. This is the easiest anyway. Happy Debian :) ~ts~