The implementation is specific to each supported guest operating system, but the steps are similar for each

method.

Generally, to configure a guest operating system with a package manager involves:

1. Import the VMware Packaging Public GPG Key.
2. (Optional) Edit the proxy.
3. Configure the package software.
4. Install VMware Tools.

Disable Signature Check

If you are using RHEL 5.3, the rpm -- import command does not properly install the public key that VMware uses to sign the OSPs. This, in turn, might cause OSP installation attempts to fail because the RHEL package management system cannot verify the validity of VMware package signatures.

If you are experiencing this error, disable the signature check during OSP installation.

To disable the signature check during OSP installation

Follow the instructions for installing OSPs as outlined in the section, “Install VMware Tools for RHEL 5 Guest

OS” on page 17, with the following exceptions:

• Skip the installation of the VMWARE-PACKAGING-GPG-KEY.pub file.
• Add the --nogpgcheck option to every invocation of the yum install command.

Download OSPs for the RHEL 5 Guest OS

The OSPs must be downloaded locally to the virtual machine where VMware Tools are to be installed.

To download RHEL 5 for VMware Tools

1. If you have not already registered RHEL 5, from the guest operating system of the virtual machine where the VMware Tools are to be installed, configure and register RHN (Red Hat Network). This command registered the RHEL 5 GUI elements
   
   
   1. Run:
      # rhn_register
      
      
   2. Accept Red Hat Network configuration and registration defaults.
      
      
   3. Log in to the operating system using your existing licence credentials.
      
      
2. Obtain and import the VMware Packaging Public GPG Key.
   
   
   1. If it does not exist, create the directory on your virtual machine to store the key:
      /<key-path>/
      
      
   2. Using a Web browser, copy the file from:
      http://packages.vmware.com/tools/VMWARE-PACKAGING-GPG-KEY.pub
      
      
   3. Save the file to the directory you created:
      /<key-path>/VMWARE-PACKAGING-GPG-KEY.pub
      
      
   4. Import the key. Run the command appropriate for your guest OS, for example:
      # rpm --import /<key-path>/VMWARE-PACKAGING-GPG-KEY.pub
      
      
3. Configure the proxy, as needed.
   # rhn_register --proxy=http://squid.example.com:3128
   
   
4. Create and edit the VMware repository directory and file.
   1. If it does not exist, create the directory and repository file on your virtual machine. This file can haveany name, but it must end with .repo, for example:
      /etc/yum.repos.d/vmware-tools.repo
   2. Open the repository file to edit.
   3. Add the following contents to the file and save the file.
      
      [vmware-tools]
      name=VMware Tools for Red Hat Enterprise Linux $releasever - $basearch
      baseurl=http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/<esx-version>/rhel5/<arch>
      enabled=1
      gpgcheck=1
      gpgkey=file:///<key-path>/VMWARE-PACKAGING-GPG-KEY.pub
      <arch> is the architecture option. For 32‐bit, this is i686. For 64‐bit, this is x86_64.
      <esx-version> is replaced with either 3.5u2, 3.5u3, 3.5u4, 4.0, or 4.0u1 depending upon your ESX/ESXi version.
      <key-path> is the path and directory you created when you obtained and imported the VMware Packaging Public GPG Key in Step 2.

Install VMware Tools for RHEL 5 Guest OS

1. Install the top level VMware Tools package, from the command line of the guest operating system virtual machine, type:
   # yum install vmware-tools
   When this command is run, all the other packages are installed in the correct order.
2. (Optional) Install VMware provided SVGA and/or mouse driver replacing the Red Hat provided versions. The installation skips these packages if they are older versions than the installed Red Hat versions.
   # yum install vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-display
   # yum install vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-mouse

If you later uninstall VMware OSPs and want to use the Red Hat provided drivers, you need to reinstall them.

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