Install VMware server to Debian Lenny

After Debian Lenny (x64) has installed onto my computer, I proceed to install VMware Server for getting virtual machine to work. So that my computer run more than one O/S at a same time (Debian and Windows Vista, and Windows server as well). The below are some of the basic steps on how to install/setup VMware Server.

There are some pre-installation steps, before installing VMware Server, please read this post for more details.

Open Terminal and logon as root,
# su
... and then run the below commands to install some important packages:

# aptitude install linux-headers-`uname -r` build-essential xinetd gcc-4.1

When we have newer version of gcc installed, the VMware installer will have problem to run, unless we make /usr/bin/gcc a symlink to /usr/bin/gcc-4.1

# ln -sf /usr/bin/gcc-4.1 /usr/bin/gcc

Then go to the folder where you downloaded and saved the VMware Server .tar.gz file. And run the below commands (to unpack and then start the setup)

# tar xvfz VMware-server-*.tar.gz
# cd vmware-server-distrib
# ./vmware-install.pl

The installer will ask a lot of questions. You can just accept the default values simply by press enter key. Until when the installer asks for a serial number, and you must enter the correct serial number, where you can get it from your last VMware registration for the download.You may have a pre-created new user account (with root priviledge), and during the installation, you can include the username for the VWmare login username.

After successfully install VMware Server 2, then you may create & manage virtual machine via web browser (e.g. Firefox/Iceweasel). It can be accessed with HTTPS (https://server-url-or-ip-address:8333) or HTTP (http://server-url-or-ip-address:8222). You may need to install "VMware Tools" for each Guest O/S to enable better integrated with the Host O/S.


If you wish to re-run the configuration script again, go back to the last unpacked location .../vmware-server-distrib and then run the command
# ./vmware-config.pl

You may also install VMware on Ubuntu, see the below for the installation steps.
http://tech.wk2u.com/2008/11/081102a.html

Note: The following ports are used by default:
port 902 for the VMware Authorization Service
port 8222 for http connections
port 8333 for https connections

To stop and start vmware-serverd service :

# /etc/init.d/vmware stop
# /etc/init.d/vmware start