Recently I had to install VMware Server 1.0.6 and the Management User Interface (MUI) on a fresh installation of Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) 64bit edition. Not all went well, but I found some really great information from other people struggling with the same problems. But because all this information is scattered around, I decided to make this post as a compilation of all the information I needed to successfully install VMware Server 1.0.6 and the Management User Interface (MUI) on Ubuntu Hardy Heron.

I found most of this information on :

• Ubuntu Forums : How to VMWare Server 1.0.6 and 2.0 RC1 in Ubuntu 8.04
  
• Wolf’s Ubuntu corner : Updating VMWare Server, MUI and Console
• Installing VMware Server on x64 Linux without pain

Many thanks to those people!

VMware Server

Required Packages

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sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r` xinetd libpng12-0

In addition, 64 bit users also need ia32-libs (which is in universe so you may need to enable the repository first):

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sudo apt-get install ia32-libs

Download

1. Download VMware server from : http://www.vmware.com/download/server/
2. Request a free VMware serial number from : http://register.vmware.com/content/registration.html

Install

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tar xzf VMware-server-1.0.6-91891.tar.gz
cd vmware-server-distrib
sudo ./vmware-install.pl

Select defaults.

Post-install Fixes

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sudo cp /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libgcc_s.so.1
sudo cp /usr/lib/libpng12.so.0 /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libpng12.so.0

In addition, 64 bit users should also do:

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sudo ln -s /usr/lib32 /usr/l32
sudo sed -i -e 's:usr/lib/:usr/l32/:g'  /usr/lib32/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/loader-files.d/libgtk2.0-0.loaders
sudo sed -i -e 's:usr/lib/:usr/l32/:g' /usr/lib32/libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.so.0.1200.9

VMware Server Management User Interface (MUI)

Download

Download VMWare Server Management User Interface from : http://www.vmware.com/download/server/

Install

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tar xzf VMware-mui-1.0.6-91891.tar.gz
cd vmware-mui-distrib
sudo ./vmware-install.pl

Select defaults.

If you encounter the following error:

VMware Server must be installed on this machine for the VMware Management Interface to work Installation aborts.

Remove the library libgcc_s.so.1 in /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libgcc_s.so.1 :

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mv libgcc_s.so.1 libgcc_s.so.1_orig

And try again.

Post-install Fixes

Linked 32bit Libraries (only for 64bit install)

When you installed VMware Server Management User Interface (MUI) on an Ubuntu 64bit, the MUI will fail to start. When attempting to manually start the httpd.vmware binary (/usr/lib/vmware-mui/apache/bin/httpd.vmware) the following error will appear:

error while loading shared libraries: libdb.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

This error appears because the MUI binary (/usr/lib/vmware-mui/apache/bin/httpd.vmware) is linked to three libraries that are not installed with the ia32-libs package:

• libdb.so.3
• libssl.so.4
• libcrypto.so.4

VMware shippes these necessary libraries with the Management User Interface (in /usr/lib/vmware-mui/lib). it is just a matter of making sure the Management User Interface (MUI) can see them. Ubuntu x64 stores 32-bit libraries in /lib32, so we’ll create symlinks in /lib32 that point to the libraries:

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sudo ln -s /usr/lib/vmware-mui/lib/libdb.so.3 /lib32/libdb.so.3
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/vmware-mui/lib/libssl.so.4 /lib32/libssl.so.4
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/vmware-mui/lib/libcrypto.so.4 /lib32/libcrypto.so.4

Apache Configuration Path

Edit /etc/init.d/httpd.vmware

Change

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#!/bin/sh

Into

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#!/bin/bash

Survive Reboot

The Management User Interface won’t start (not automatically, nor manually) after the next reboot. To fix this, add the following lines at the beginning of /etc/init.d/httpd.vmware:

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RUNDIR="/var/run/vmware/httpd"
OWNER="www-data"
GROUP="www-data"

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/usr/bin/test -d "$RUNDIR" || \
/bin/mkdir -p "$RUNDIR" && /bin/chown "$OWNER:$GROUP" "$RUNDIR"

Usage

Access the interface at : https://<host>:8333/