Installing VMware Tools on Ubuntu

VMware Tools improves performance, mouse control and enables copy/paste between host and guest OSes.  If you create your own VM using VMWare workstation (see here for instructions) you should install the Tools. You can get the official guide from VMware here but it is missing a few points so I thought I would share them here:

1. Start up your VM in VMware Workstation and choose menu item VM -> Install VMware Tools. This sets up VMware tools from the cdrom drive. Note that you don’t need an actual disk or ISO image.
2. Install gcc:
   

   $ sudo apt-get install gcc

3. Install the C headers for your kernel:
   

   $ sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`

4. Mount the cdrom drive if VMware didn’t do it automatically. If you have selected the Install VMware Tools menu option, then you should see the /media/cdrom/vmware-linux-tools.tar.gz file:
   

   $ sudo mount /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom

5. Change to the tmp directory, extract the VMware tools and unmount the cdrom:
   

   $ cd /tmp
$ tar zxvf /media/cdrom/vmware-linux-tools.tar.gz
$ sudo umount /media/cdrom

6. Run the installer selecting all defaults. You can also choose your preferred resolution. (Note that VMware say you can’t install the tools from within an X session. I did and it seemed to work ok. Give me a shout if you know better):
   

   $ cd vmware-tools-distrib
$ sudo ./vmware-install.pl

7. Now all you have to do is restart your X session to pick up the changes using the following key combo:
   

   <ctrl>+<alt>+<backspace>

That is about it I think. Let me know if you have any comments or suggestions.