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

Download OSPs for the RHEL 4 or RHEL 3 Guest OS

Download the packages for your platform into a directory in the guest of the virtual machine where the VMware Tools will be installed. That is, download all the rpm packages for a given distribution and architecture. For example, if you are using RHEL 4, download everything in the rhel4/i586 directory. This section applies to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3. Higher level package management, such as yum, are not currently supported for Red Had Enterprise Linux 4 (RHEL 4) or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 (RHEL 3).

To manually configure the guest OS

1. Locate the VMware Tools required packages.
2. Obtain and import the VMware Packaging Public GPC Key from the guest operating system installed on the virtual machine where you plan to install the OSP Tools.
3. Download the OSP packages to the virtual machine where you plan to install them.
   

To obtain and import the VMware Packaging Public GPC Key for RHEL 4 or RHEL 3

1. If a directory does not exist, create a directory on the virtual machine to store the key:
   /<key-path>/
   
   
2. Use a Web browser to copy the packages from
   http://packages.vmware.com/tools/VMWARE-PACKAGING-GPG-KEY.pub
   
   
3. Save the file to the directory you created.To import the key, run the following command:
   rpm --import /<key-path>/VMWARE-PACKAGING-GPG-KEY.pub

/<key-path>/ is the path you created to the directory on your virtual machine to store the key.

To download OSPs for VMware Tools RHEL 4 or RHEL 3

1. Browse the following repository:
   http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/<esx-version>
   <esx-version> is replaced with either 3.5u2, 3.5u3, 3.5u4, 4.0, or 4.0u1 depending upon your ESX/ESXi version.
   
   
2. Locate the subdirectory:
   Go to /rhel4 or /rhel3
   
   
3. Identify the rpms required for VMware Tools installation. For example: vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod-7.4.6-110268.130320.el4.i686.rpm
   
   The following naming conventions are used for packages:
   
   <package-name>-<version>-<tools-build>.<package-build>.<dist>.<arch>.rpm
   <package-name> is the package name for each required file.
   <version> is the version for the package.
   <tools-build>.<package-build> is the release build for the tools and the package. Multiple versions might exist in the repository. Select the most recent (higher numbered)
   <tools-build>.<package-build>.
   <dist> is Linux distribution version. Use rhel4 or rhel3.
   <arch> is the architecture option. For 32-bit, this is i686. For 64-bit, this is x86_64.
   
   
4. Create a directory for the RPMS on the virtual machine where the VMware Tools are to be installed.
   /<vmware-tools-path>/
   
   
5. Download RPMs into the directory you created.

Install VMware Tools for RHEL 4 or RHEL 3 Guest OS

1. (Optional) Back up Red Hat provided SVGA driver, from the command line of the guest operating system virtual machine:
   
   For 64-bit, type:
   # cp /usr/X11R6/lib64/modules/drivers/vmware_drv.o /usr/X11R6/lib64/modules/drivers/vmware_drv.o.backup
   
   For 32-bit, type:
   # cp /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/vmware_drv.o /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/vmware_drv.o.backup
   
   
2. Install the VMware Tools packages, type:
   # rpm -ivh vmware-open-vm-tools-*.rpm vmware-tools-*.rpm
   When this command is run, all the other packages are installed in the correct order.
   
   
3. (Optional) Install VMware provided SVGA and mouse drivers replacing the Red Hat provided versions.
   The automatic installation skips these packages if they are older versions than the installed Red Hat versions.
   If you uninstall VMware OSPs and want to use the Red Hat provided drivers, you need to reinstall them.
   
   For RHEL 4
   # rpm -ivh --force vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-display-<version>-<tools-build>.<package-build>.<dist>.<arch>.rpm
   
   For RHEL 3
   # rpm -ivh --force vmware-open-vm-tools-xfree86-drv-display-<version>-<tools-build>.<package-build>.<dist>.<arch>.rpm
   
   <version> is the version for the package.
   <tools-build>.<package-build> is the release build for the tools and the package.
   <dist> is Linux distribution version. Use rhel4 or rhel3.
   <arch> is the architecture option. For 32‐bit, this is i686. For 64‐bit, this is x86_64.

Add to Favourites
Print this Article