Help installing VMware tools for Ubuntu 7.04

[tronsr71]

Ok, first off, I am very very new to Ubuntu and Linux; please keep this in mind 🙂

My question is... how do I install vmware tools for ubuntu?

So far i have done the following...
1.) Installed Ubuntu 7.04 as a virtual machine
2.) Selected "Install VM Tools" from the VM tab.
3.) extracted the tar.gz file placed on my desktop to a folder on my desktop.
4.) tried double clicking the .pl file but nothing happens

I'm really not sure where to go from here

 

[Nothinman]

Run it from a terminal window, VMWare doesn't include a GUI installer or Debian package for it AFAIK.

 

[tronsr71]

Ok perfect.... so far so good. I had tried what you suggested before, but i was running into bash user-error problems. I am familiar with ms-dos / windows xp / windows 2003 command line syntax, but not BASH.

When i typed "sudo ./vmware-install.pl" everything worked fine.

Why is it, however, that when i typed "sudo vmware-install.pl" in the terminal it returned "sudo: vmware-install.pl: command not found"?

 

[Nothinman]

Because your current working directory isn't in your PATH like it is in Windows.

 

[tronsr71]

gotcha... makes sense.


Second Question:
So the main reason I installed vm tools was to improve the graphics performance within my ubuntu virtual machine. My biggest gripe is that when dragging or resizing windows, it seems extremely choppy....

Even after installing vm tools...

I've tried restarting x session (used key combination of alt + ctr + backspace as recommended from here: www.go2linux.org/node/97).... I've also tried restarting the virtual machine from ubuntu....

any ideas? is it just expected to be somewhat choppy because of the virtualization?

Btw.... thanks for all the great answers so far... and thanks for showing patience with a linux noob!

 

[Nothinman]

VMtools shouldn't affect the graphics performance since most distros ship with the VMWare Xorg driver out of the box. Open up /etc/X11/xorg.conf and look for the video card definition, see if it's using vmware or vesa.

 

[tronsr71]

I'm assuming it uses vmware per this section of xorg.conf

' Section "Device"
Identifier "VMware SVGA"
Driver "VMware"
EndSection'

 

[Nothinman]

Yup looks like it's already using the right driver, off the top of my head I don't know anything else to speed it up. You could try poking around the VMWare site, they may have a performance FAQ or something.

 

[tronsr71]

i suspect that the vmware tools is not properly installing... even after the install runs.... when i right click on the ubuntu virtual machine in the server console, it still has the option "install vmware tools"

 

[Nothinman]

Honestly, in Linux I don't think it matters too much. The only thing I can think of that you might get out of it is the better vmnet network module and the seamless mouse grab/release stuff.

 

[tronsr71]

hmmmm.... i did an install of win xp pro (sp2) as a virtual machine... after installing, i ran the vm tools for winxp....

what do you know.... same results as through ubuntu. My guess is that my expectations were just to high and there never was a problem. Nevertheless, i ended up learning some things in the process so I can't complain to much. 😀 THanks again for your help Nothinman...

If I ever get the gui to run smoother (less latency/delay), I'll update this thread.