The following annotated installation assumes that the host operating system is one of the supported Linux versions as listed in the Appendix.
To install VMWare for Linux:
This can be any directory, as all directories and files created in it are temporary.
You can obtain the tar file from VMware's Web site or from the VMware application CD.
When you untar this file, a new directory called vmware-distrib is created. This temporary directory is the VMware application's installation directory. When you are done installing VMware, you can delete this directory and all the files in it.
During uncompression several files are written to the vmware-distrib directory. To see a list of these files, refer to the file called FILES found in vmware-distrib (and also on the installation media).
What follows is a sample installation script. During the installation you can simply press Return to accept the default answer.At several points you can ask for help before responding. You can use your system's interrupt sequence (often Control-C) to terminate the installation.
Perform default installation? (yes/no/help) [yes] no
Answer Yes to this question if you wish to perform the first (or a default) installation of VMware. If the directories do not exist, they will be created. If these directories happen to contain a previous installation, it will be uninstalled first. No questions are asked, unless problems arise
Answer No if you wish to do a custom installation, where you specify the paths to be used for various files. In this case, the script prompts for the names of the installation directories (unless the environment variables BINDIR, MANDIR, and INITDIR are set), and may ask further questions to direct the installation.
You must read and accept the End User License Agreement to continue.
[...license agreement information...]...
Enter binaries installation directory: [/usr/local/bin] /zoe/usr/local/bin
Binaries installation directory is /zoe/usr/local/bin.
This is the location of the executables.
Enter installation directory for manual pages: [/zoe/usr/local/man] (press Return)
Manual installation directory is /zoe/usr/local/man.
This is the location of the manual pages.
Enter the top directory under which the init scripts reside. It should contain init.d/, rc3.d/, rc5.d/, and rc6.d/: [/etc/rc.d] (press Return)
The boot-time init script will be stored under /etc/rc.d.
This is the location of the script that loads the vmware kernel modules on reboot.
Installing /zoe/usr/local/bin/vmnet-dhcpd
Installing /zoe/usr/local/bin/vmware
Installing /zoe/usr/local/bin/vmnet-sniffer
Installing /zoe/usr/local/bin/vmnet-bridge
Installing /zoe/usr/local/man/man1/vmware.1
Installing /zoe/usr/local/bin/vmware-wizard
Finding an installable vmmon module
Module 'vmmon-up-2.0.36' detected to work correctly
Do you want to install vmnet (networking support for the VM)? [yes] (press Return)
Finding an installable vmnet module
Module 'vmnet-up-2.0.36' detected to work correctly
Configure host-only networking support? (yes/no/help) [yes] help
Virtual machines configured to use host-only networking are placed on a virtual network that is confined to this host. Virtual machines on a host-only network can communicate only with each other and the host.
To set up this host-only networking you need to select a network number that is unreachable from the host. VMware can select this number for you, or you can specify a network number that you want.
The automatic selection process works by testing a series of Class C subnet numbers to see if they are reachable from the host. The first one that is unreachable is used. The subnet numbers are chosen from the private network numbers specified by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in RFC 1918 (http://www.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc1918.txt).
Remember that the host-only network that virtual machines reside on will not be accessible outside the host. This means that it is ok to use the same number on different systems so long as you do not enable communication between these networks.
Configure host-only networking support? (yes/no/help) [yes] (press Return)
Probe for an unused network number? (yes/no/help) [yes] (press Return)
Network number 192.168.0 (netmask 255.255.255.0) appears unused.
Configuring vmnet1 to use network 192.168.0 and mask 255.255.255.0.
The VMware host-only networking support uses a customized version of the DHCP server application distributed by the Internet Software Consortium (ISC).
[...DHCP server application information...]
Hit return to continue: (press Return)
Creating /etc/vmware/vmnet1.conf for vmnet-dhcpd
Creating empty leases file /etc/vmware/vmnet1.leases for vmnet-dhcpd
You appear to have Samba configured for normal use. Note that if you want to offer service to virtual machines running on the host-only network that you must update your /etc/smb.conf file to list the network interfaces on your system by adding the line:
interfaces = 209.220.69.168/25 192.168.0.1/24
You may also need to update any related security controls you might have setup such as the "hosts allow" specification.
Consult the smb.conf(5) manual page for more details.
Hit return to continue: (press Return)
Starting VM services: vmmon vmnet vmnet-bridge (host-only)
Now you can configure a virtual machine in which to install a guest operating system; refer to the next chapter, "Configuring a Virtual Machine" .
Changing Paths for a Default Install
You can install VMware application automatically by setting values for some environment variables beforehand. You should specify values for the variables BINDDIR, MANDIR, and INITDIR before invoking the install command. (See "Environment Variables Used by VMware for Linux" .)