Installing VMware Server on Fedora Core 5
A few months back, I wrote about having converted the Windows XP installation on my company-supplied notebook PC to a virtual machine and was running it quite happily on Windows Vista using VMware Player. Unfortunately, it’s been slowing down (to the point that booting the Vista host, then the XP guest and logging in was taking me 15 minutes every day), so this week I rebuilt the host system. It’s still not the Vista/Linux dual boot setup that I originally intended, but I’m running a bit short on hard disk space and consequently I’m still using a single host operating system (this time it’s Fedora Core 5 as I couldn’t get SUSE 10 to install on my Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook S7010D) with VMware Server (I could have used the player again but the server product has now been released and it’s free too).
I don’t know what was wrong with the original setup - although it ran well at first, performance in both the host and guest operating systems became noticeably degraded at times but I was using a combination of a beta host operating system, a 5400RPM laptop hard disk and the VMware Player (which is probably not optimised for Vista either) what I can say is that running XP under VMware Server on Fedora rocks, even though Fedora is not a supported host operating system for VMware Server.
Incidentally, virtual machine (VM) performance can be improved by moving the VM to a separate disk and a colleague, Garry Martin, also suggested that improvements can be made by binding the VMnet adapters to a separate network interface; however in this case I only have one permanent Ethernet connection and do not want to have to connect an external disk each time I load my Windows XP environment.
Despite following the relevant sections in the VMware Server administration guide, because I used a Linux workstation distribution (and an unsupported one too), the installation of VMware Server was not entirely straightforward, but I got it working eventually and this is what I had to do:
- Download VMware Server (v1.0.1 - build 29996 - server and client components) and register for a serial number.
- In addition to the standard Fedora components, install the following (using the pirut Package Manager, yum or an equivalent method):
- gcc (v4.1.1-1.fc5.i386)
- gcc-c++ (v4.1.1-1.fc5.i386)
- kernel-devel (v2.6.17-1.2174_FC5.i686)
- xinetd (v2:2.3.13-6.2.1.i386)
- Elevate permissions to root (su -).
- Run the VMware Server installer (rpm -Uvh VMware-server-1.0.1-29996.i386.rpm).
- Before running the vmware-config.pl script, Download the VMware any-any update (I used v1.04 - thanks to Jean-Pierre Wenzel for highlighting the existence of this unofficial patch and the need to install kernel-devel).
- Extract vmware-any-any-update104.tar.gz and then execute ./runme.pl (this will call vmware-config.pl, allowing for the acceptance of the VMware end user license agreement, configuration of networking, specification of the server console port, definition of the location of virtual machine files and entry of the VMware serial number). If the patch is working correctly then all the prompts should work at their defaults; however it may be necessary to answer the question “What is the location of the directory of C header files that match your running kernel? [/usr/src/linux/include]” with /usr/src/kernels/2.6.17-1.2174_FC5-i686/include (or another version of the kernel-devel tools). Building the vmmon module will fail if gcc and gcc-c++ are not present and the configuration script will have to be re-run if it finds that inetd or xinetd are not installed.
- Unzip the client installer (VMware-server-linux-client-1.0.1-29996.zip)
- Install the VMware Server Console (rpm -Uvh VMware-server-console-1.0.1-29996.i386.rpm).
- Run the vmware-config-server-console.pl script (not vmware-config-console.pl as stated in the documentation).
- Drop back to a standard user account (exit) and run the vmware shell script (a wrapper for the real binaries) to start up the VMware Server Console.
- Create and run virtual machines as normal although there were a couple more points worth noting:
- After copying virtual machine files across from the original Windows Vista installation, I needed to make some edits to the configuration to reflect changes in file names (e.g. disk locations) to Unix formats (\ to / etc.).
- I created a group called vmware and ran chgrp vmware filename against the VM files so that any user in the vmware group could run the VMs (not just root).
Some configuration items may have been carried out in a slightly different sequence as I tried various advice and encountered a number of issues before I got everything working but the image below shows the end result:
So far, the only issue I have found is with the guest operating system clock (which is not keeping time). This could be because I originally installed VMware Tools from a Windows version of the Virtual Server beta - I’ll install the correct version next week to see if it makes any difference. In any case, performance is very good - in fact, when running full screen, it would be very difficult to tell that the Windows XP guest is not running on native hardware.
Posted: 0:16 on Saturday 19 August 2006 under VMware Server, Linux.
Comments: 41
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Comments
Comment from Anonymous
Time: Friday 8 September 2006, 1:45
Used these notes to install VMWare on an x86_64 based sytem. They worked first time. Thanks for the good documentation.
W1zz
Comment from Anonymous
Time: Tuesday 19 September 2006, 0:06
Hey Mark, I noticed the sound icon at the bottom on ur console’s screenshot. Does that mean that sound is enabled on ur VM coz I can’t get it to work on mine and I know about the VMaudio driver. I’ve been unable to install that either…any thots? What about removable usb devices, does that pop up on ur VM?
P.S: I’m running Pro on SuSE but didn’t do it the way u did, just a regular rpm install command.
Comment from Anonymous
Time: Thursday 21 September 2006, 1:36
Yeah! thanks a lot, I finally got the sound to work. It just worked one day but I think the issue was not have the Host system use the speaker at the same time. Anywayz, still working on the USB connectivity. I’m sure I’ll figure it out. Thanks a lot tho
Comment from Brian
Time: Saturday 30 September 2006, 19:14
Awesome docs. Thanks. Have done this on 2 FC5 boxes, one @ work and one @ home. Dream come true! Thanks again for smooth sailing.
Comment from Anonymous
Time: Tuesday 3 October 2006, 16:08
I struggled with this for days.
My kernel is 2.6.17-1.2187_FC5smp and I I couldn’t figure out why vmware was saying that my kernels were different and why the updates didn’t work.
Then I stumbled upon this thread and it worked perfectly.
I just solved this issue for one of my CentOS VM’s.
When everyone was talking about “yum install kernel-devel”, some users are using the SMP kernel so this won’t work.
If you are using the SMP kernel you need to do: “yum install kernel-smp-devel” and that will allow vmware-config to finish the drivers / installation.
You need to have installed the GCC compiler / libraries as well.
I thought I would post this here since your thread comes up early in the google search results. Maybe this will save someone else from loosing their hair.
Comment from Anonymous
Time: Wednesday 4 October 2006, 21:29
Thanks for the posting. However, when I followed the steps to get VMware server console running and a virtual machine created, I was not able to install a guest operating system on the virtual machine. When I powered it on, it was not reading the installation CD. I tried the iso image option, but it didn’t work either. I had tried both Windows XP Pro and Suse Linux 10 as the guest. I could not get either of them installed. The black screen showed up all the time. Is there any configuration that I missed? Thanks!
Comment from Anonymous
Time: Wednesday 11 October 2006, 16:56
Your instructions are perfect. I was so IG-NARANT that I need reboot added after the 2nd step.
>>In addition to the standard Fedora components
ROFL, Good job, this really helped me.
James
Comment from Anonymous
Time: Friday 13 October 2006, 15:02
I must have not followed the instrcutions exactly on Oct. 4 when I got the black screen on the virtual machines I created. Later I reinstalled the vmware package again and it all worked great! Thanks Mark for your help!
Comment from Alex Stanhope
Time: Tuesday 24 October 2006, 19:33
Mark, thank you for taking the time to put together such a comprehensive and up-to-date tutorial. I found it invaluable - the Internet works because people like you make the effort!
Comment from Anonymous
Time: Tuesday 31 October 2006, 17:06
These notes look like what I’ve been trying to find. I am just wondering if they can be applied to a Fedora Core 6 installation that was upgraded from Fedora Core 5.
Comment from Anonymous
Time: Monday 11 December 2006, 17:26
These instructions helped me get VMWare workstation 5.5 running on FC6. I’m a Linux newbie and if I can do it, anyone can.
Thanks!
Dan
Comment from Anonymous
Time: Tuesday 2 January 2007, 15:38
Hi
I have the same problems regarding time synchronisation. My host is running core 6 and the client is also core 6. The timedrift is about +30 seconds per minute. That is alot. I have searched the net for a solution but I have’nt found any.
Comment from Anonymous
Time: Saturday 13 January 2007, 10:04
Hey, this is very helpful, used it to install VMWare on Mandriva’07
-Afz902k
Comment from Anonymous
Time: Tuesday 20 February 2007, 20:42
Hey Mark,
I am not an expert in this but here is something that I read in the VMWare Admin Guide. See if this rings any bells.
“The real-time clock function must be compiled into your Linux kernel.”
Comment from Anonymous
Time: Tuesday 6 March 2007, 6:00
For those who have asked, YES this does work on Fedora Core 6. I have just completed my install and it went without fault!
I now have WinXP running on top of FC6.
My only trouble is that I can’t get my guest OS to access the net through the host NIC. I guess that this is a configuration issue though not an install issue.
Thanks Mark, for a brilliant tutorial!!
Comment from Jimmy
Time: Friday 9 March 2007, 21:11
I have install Windows XP pro on Fedora5 using VMware server.
Everything works just fine except the soundcard and USB (not detected).
I have installed the vmware tools and it seems to me works as it should be. When I open VM>setting>hardware the sound card is not detected. It’s simply not there. The card is detected easily by windows XP as stand alone OS. Please help if some one know to fix it.
By the way the sound card (built in in motherboard is detected as VIA
Model: Technologies , Inc VT82C686 AC97 Audio Controller
Thanks
Pingback from Mark’s (we)Blog » Running VMware Server Console on a Mac
Time: Tuesday 10 April 2007, 23:49
[…] remotely with Apple’s X11; however Rui’s article was written a while ago now and my VMware Server (v1.0.1-build 29996) installation on Fedora Core 5 doesn’t use the command vmware-console - instead I have to use vmware. Nevertheless, it got […]
Comment from What is the Zune?
Time: Thursday 12 April 2007, 17:42
The any-any update script is great. Running Fedora I have a new kernel every 2 weeks, so this script is an absolute must. Thanks for the tip.
Comment from Jeff
Time: Sunday 15 April 2007, 19:53
Hi, I followed your instructions as carefully as possible. However, when I go to run ‘vmware’, I get the following:
vmware is installed, but it has not been (correctly) configured
for this system. To (re-)configure it, invoke the following command:
/usr/bin/vmware-config.pl.
Of course, I have tried this (using runme.pl), but no luck. Any suggestions? Thanks.
Comment from Shakawat
Time: Monday 16 April 2007, 9:17
Hi Gurus,
I was trying to install vmware server at my Fedora Core 5 as abobe instruction. But I failed with following error. Would you please help me.
—————————————————————–
[root@DBServer vmware-any-any-update109]# ./runme.pl
Updating /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl … now patched
The file /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmmon.tar that this script was about to
install already exists. Overwrite? [yes]
The file /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmnet.tar that this script was about to
install already exists. Overwrite? [yes]
Updating /usr/bin/vmware … No patch needed/available
Updating /usr/bin/vmnet-bridge … No patch needed/available
Updating /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx … No patch needed/available
Updating /usr/lib/vmware/bin-debug/vmware-vmx … No patch needed/available
VMware modules in “/usr/lib/vmware/modules/source” has been updated.
Before running VMware for the first time after update, you need to configure it
for your running kernel by invoking the following command:
“/usr/bin/vmware-config.pl”. Do you want this script to invoke the command for
you now? [yes]
Making sure services for VMware Server are stopped.
sh: /etc/rc.d/init.d/vmware: /bin/sh^M: bad interpreter: No such file or directo ry
sh: /etc/rc.d/init.d/vmware: /bin/sh^M: bad interpreter: No such file or directo ry
Unable to stop services for VMware Server
Execution aborted.
—————————————————————–
thanx in advance
Comment from Shakawat
Time: Tuesday 17 April 2007, 7:02
Hi Mark,
Thanx for quick response. I found solution where I didn’t need to install vmware-any-any-update package. I just installed following RPMs before installing “VMware-server-1.0.2-39867.i386.rpm”:
1. hardlink-1.0-1.21.2.i386.rpm
2. kernel-smp-devel-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5.i686.rpm
3. xinetd-2.3.13-6.2.1.i386.rpm
Thank once again.
Comment from Fung
Time: Tuesday 17 April 2007, 14:58
Mark,
To your knowledge, are there anyone that can run VMWare Server without the GUI?
I was testing it the other day by using a VM of Ubuntu on FC5, shutdown the client, and I can still get into the Ubuntu system via NX.
that got me to thinking, what If I can start VMWare Server without even logging into Fedora Core? If that’s possible, that’d be great!
Comment from Ingo Schaefer
Time: Monday 30 April 2007, 12:50
Mark, you are right. VMWare Server can be set to start automatically on system boot (and I think it is doing so by default).
So the services are running all the time. Every VM which is set to power on on host startup will be powered on. Before this can happen the VM has to be set to run as a specific user.
In contrast there is a perl api with examples included, so the regular user could use cron or other scripting mechanisms to control execution of virtual machines as well.
Regards,
Ingo
Pingback from Mark’s (we)Blog » Installing VMware Server on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
Time: Thursday 31 May 2007, 2:14
[…] year, I wrote about installing VMware Server on Fedora Core 6. At the time, I was using version 1.0.1 (build 29996) and tonight I needed to load the latest […]
Comment from Anonymous
Time: Tuesday 26 June 2007, 15:30
Thanks for uber-help!
Check this… to ensure latest Kernel and Kernel-Dev Tools”
run
yum install kernel
and
yum install kernel-devel
Comment from nisha
Time: Friday 21 September 2007, 4:14
Hi Mark,
Thanks for the perfect guide! My vm runs perfectly as root, but not as a different user. I see the step to change the grp of the vm files to the group vmware, but i’m slightly unsure.
This is what I understand:
1. $sudo find / -name vm* -print
/etc/vmware
/etc/rc.d/init.d/vmware
/home/x/Documents/vmware_installers/vmware-mui-distrib/mui/apache/htdocs/vmware
/home/x/vmware
/root/vmware
/usr/lib/vmware
/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware
/usr/bin/vmware
/usr/share/doc/vmware
/var/lock/subsys/vmware
/var/run/vmware
/var/lib/vmware
/var/log/vmware
2. $sudo chgrp -R /etc/vmware –> followed by all the above
3. Then i add the user that i want to run vmware with, in the vmware group, then i’m set to go?
Is this correct? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Comment from nisha
Time: Thursday 27 September 2007, 7:50
Hey mark,
Thanks a bunch for your help… man, i had a serious row with this thing… but it works now…so thanks again! 
Comment from brnzn
Time: Sunday 30 December 2007, 7:36
About the realtime clock stuff, this might help: http://www.brendonmatheson.com/2007/12/30/vmware_server_on_debian_linux_with_accurate_timekeeping.html
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