Preparing to Install

Before you install VMware application you should become familiar with the components and concepts of the product (these are discussed in Chapter 1). You should also make sure that you meet the product requirements and that you are prepared to complete each step of the installation.

Installation Requirements

Before you install VMware or a guest operating system, you should make sure that you have everything that you require. You can find information in a number of different locations.

Note that, due to the requirements for installing the VMware application, only one version of VMware can exist on a PC at a time. Therefore, if you upgrade to a new version, the old version is erased.
Refer to "VMware Application Reference" for a list of the hardware and software requirements for VMware.
To verify that you have what you need to install a particular guest operating system, consult the documentation for that O/S.
Check the VMware Web site support pages. They are updated regularly.

Installation Media

You can obtain the VMware executables on CD-ROM or by downloading the software from the Internet. In either case the main installation components consist of the following:

a compressed file that contains all the VMware application files (for VMware for Linux the file is vmware.tar.gz.) When downloaded this file requires approximately 2 MB. This file contains the following components:
informational files:
- README contains last-minute information such as additional documentation or known problems.
- INSTALL contains an online description of the installation process. Note that it may contain different (newer) information from this manual.
- FILES contains a list of the files in the VMware application distribution
- EULA file contains the license agreement

For a given platform the installation procedure is the same, regardless of which media you use. The CD-ROM may contain additional programs or documentation. However, you can find most of this information at the VMware Web site.

Directories and Files used by VMware for Linux

Although VMware does not use an elaborate directory structure, you may find it useful to understand the directories and files that VMware uses, particularly if you want to use any non-default paths.


Directory or File and Default Value	Description	Shared or Local
distribution directory user_specific/vmware-distrib	Set by the user (no default), the directory where the tar file is downloaded and untarred.	Can be shared, or copied locally.
temporary directory for install /tmp/vmware-temp	Temporary directory used only during install. Automatically removed at end of installation.	(temporary)
/etc/vmware	Host-specific files. This directory must exist on every machine running VMware.	Local only.
VMware executable /usr/local/bin/vmware	VMware binary (BINDIR). Must be added to $PATH.	Can be shared.
Man page /usr/local/man/vmware.1	Man page for VMware (MANDIR). Must be added to $MANPATH.	Can be shared.
/dev/vmmon	Character device: major=10, minor=165. This location cannot be changed.	Local only.
/dev/vmnet*	Character device: major=119 This location cannot be changed.	Local only.
/lib/modules/preferred \| version_no/misc/vmmon (and vmnet)	Linux modules.	Local only.
/etc/rc.d/init.d/vmware	Init script (INITDIR)	Local only.
/etc/vmware/locations	Required file on each machine that will run VMware.	Local only.
/etc/vmware/config	Optional default configuration file for a host.	Local only.
$HOME/.vmware/preferences	Optional preferences file for a user.	Local only.
$HOME/.vmware/config	Optional default configuration file for user.	For each user.
$HOME/.vmware/license	License file for a user.	For each user