After the last article about Running VMware Player on Linux I thought that it would be very nice to be able to create new and modify existing machines. Ergo, let's try the latest version of VMware Server on the same machine. Well, this installation doesn't need any modifications in source code but it is also not without pains.

The main difference for sure is that the VMware server runs as a service - well, actually it is invoked by xinetd - and can be administrated locally and remotely. But let's focus on the installation first. As mentioned we need xinetd on our system. This is done via apt, aptitude or any other APT install client that you prefer:

sudo apt-get install xinetd

After that we just run the standard procedure. Unpacking the archive and running the installation script like so:

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

The installation process is nearly the same as for the VMware Player. Additionally you have to agree the EULA and enter the serial number for the server. The serial number is provided by the registration on VMware's website.

Alright, everything looks fine and we can try to fire up the VMware Server Console from the Applications :: System menu. In case that you don't get any reaction or feedback, open a terminal and run the command:

vmware

to see what's happening behind the scenes. I got several errors according to wrong version of gcc:

/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware: /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1: version GCC_3.4' not found (required by /usr/lib/libcairo.so.2)<br />/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware: /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1: version GCC_4.2.0' not found (required by /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6)
/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware: /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1: version GCC_3.4' not found (required by /usr/lib/libcairo.so.2)<br />/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware: /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1: version GCC_4.2.0' not found (required by /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6)
/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware: /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1: version GCC_3.4' not found (required by /usr/lib/libcairo.so.2)<br />/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware: /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1: version GCC_4.2.0' not found (required by /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6)

and therefore I did a short research on the web to find a nice solution:

cd /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libgcc_s.so.1
sudo mv libgcc_s.so.1 libgcc_s.so.1.org
cd ../libpng12.so.0
sudo mv libpng12.so.0 libpng12.so.0.org

Attention: The destination paths on your system might vary depending on your entries during the installation procedure. Renaming the library files provides access to the existing library files of your Linux system.

After this little tweak I could run the VMware Server Console directly from the console and from the menu without any problems. Now, it is your time to enjoy and operate your virtual machines with VMware Server.


Sincerely, JoKi