Open a new terminal, and as a regular user (e.g. falko), go to the location where you saved the VMware Server .tar.gz file, e.g. /home/falko/Downloads (replace falko with your own username!):

cd /home/falko/Downloads/

Take a look at the contents of the directory:

ls -l

[falko@localhost Downloads]$ ls -l
total 494192
-rw-rw-r-- 1 falko falko 506047036 Dec 16 16:31 VMware-server-2.0.2-203138.i386.tar.gz
[falko@localhost Downloads]$

Because the original VMware installer doesn't work for kernel 2.6.35, we have to download a script from http://radu.cotescu.com/how-to-install-vmware-server-ubuntu-fedora-opensuse/ that helps us to install VMware Server 2:

wget --no-check-certificate http://codebin.cotescu.com/vmware/vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh

Take a look at the directory again:

ls -l

You should now see a raducotescu-vmware-server-linux-*.tar.gz file:

[falko@localhost Downloads]$ ls -l
total 494204
-rw-r--r-- 1 falko falko      8696 Dec 16 16:46 raducotescu-vmware-server-linux-2.6.3x-kernel-release-1.5-1-g71f8b66.tar.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 1 falko falko 506047036 Dec 16 16:31 VMware-server-2.0.2-203138.i386.tar.gz
[falko@localhost Downloads]$

Unpack that file:

tar xvfz raducotescu-vmware-server-linux-2.6.3x-kernel-release-1.5-1-g71f8b66.tar.gz

This should create a raducotescu-vmware-server-linux-* directory:

ls -l

[falko@localhost Downloads]$ ls -l
total 494208
drwxrwxr-x 2 falko falko      4096 Nov 14 22:24 raducotescu-vmware-server-linux-2.6.3x-kernel-71f8b66
-rw-r--r-- 1 falko falko      8696 Dec 16 16:46 raducotescu-vmware-server-linux-2.6.3x-kernel-release-1.5-1-g71f8b66.tar.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 1 falko falko 506047036 Dec 16 16:31 VMware-server-2.0.2-203138.i386.tar.gz
[falko@localhost Downloads]$

Move the VMware-server-* file to that directory and change to that directory:

mv VMware-server-2.0.2-203138.i386.tar.gz raducotescu-vmware-server-linux-2.6.3x-kernel-71f8b66/
cd raducotescu-vmware-server-linux-2.6.3x-kernel-71f8b66

Take a look at its contents:

ls -l

[falko@localhost raducotescu-vmware-server-linux-2.6.3x-kernel-71f8b66]$ ls -l
total 494236
-rw-rw-r-- 1 falko falko      1321 Nov 14 22:24 LICENSE
-rw-rw-r-- 1 falko falko      1980 Nov 14 22:24 README
-rwxrwxr-x 1 falko falko       702 Nov 14 22:24 start-VMware-console.sh
-rw-rw-r-- 1 falko falko      1111 Nov 14 22:24 vmware-config.patch
-rw-rw-r-- 1 falko falko 506047036 Dec 16 16:31 VMware-server-2.0.2-203138.i386.tar.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 1 falko falko     13618 Nov 14 22:24 vmware-server-2.0.2-203138-update.patch
-rwxrwxr-x 1 falko falko     11095 Nov 14 22:24 vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh
[falko@localhost raducotescu-vmware-server-linux-2.6.3x-kernel-71f8b66]$

The vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh script is the script that we need to execute (with root permissions) to install VMware Server 2 - it scans the current directory for the VMware-server-*.tar.gz file:

sudo ./vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh

The installer will ask you a lot of questions. You can always accept the default values simply by hitting <ENTER>.

You will get stuck at the following question:

What is the location of the directory of C header files that match your running
kernel? [/usr/src/linux/include]

Type CTRL+C to leave the installer, and then open /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl:

sudo chmod 755 /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl
sudo vim /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl

(I use vim instead of vi because vim shows the line numbers; /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl is a very large file.)

Around line 2702 replace

[...]
    if (-e $answer . '/linux/utsrelease.h') {
      $uts_headers .= "#include <linux/utsrelease.h>\n";
    }
[...]

with

[...]
    if (-e $answer . '/generated/utsrelease.h') {
      $uts_headers .= "#include <./generated/utsrelease.h> \n";
    }
[...]

(You can find out the exact line number by running:

grep -n utsrelease /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl

[falko@localhost ~]$ grep -n utsrelease /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl
2697:  # use utsrelease.h.  We include both just in case somebody moves UTS_RELEASE
2698:  # back while leaving utsrelease.h file in place.
2702:    if (-e $answer . '/linux/utsrelease.h') {
2703:      $uts_headers .= "#include <linux/utsrelease.h>\n";
[falko@localhost ~]$

)

Then run

sudo /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl

This will now finish the VMware Server 2 installation. Again, accept the default values simply by hitting <ENTER>, except for the following two questions:

The current administrative user for VMware Server is ''. Would you like to
specify a different administrator? [no] <-- yes

Please specify the user whom you wish to be the VMware Server administrator
<-- root

When the installer asks you

In which directory do you want to keep your virtual machine files?
[/var/lib/vmware/Virtual Machines]

you can either accept the default value or specify a location that has enough free space to store your virtual machines.

At the end of the installation, you will be asked to enter a serial number:

Please enter your 20-character serial number.

Type XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX or 'Enter' to cancel:

Fill in your serial number for VMware Server.

After the successful installation, you can delete the downloaded VMware Server files:

cd /home/falko/Downloads
rm -fr raducotescu-vmware-server-linux-2.6.3x-kernel-*

VMware Server 2 does not have a desktop application for managing virtual machines - this is now done through a browser (e.g. Firefox). You can access the management interface over HTTPS (https://<IP ADDRESS>:8333) or HTTP (http://<IP ADDRESS>:8222); the management interface can be accessed locally and also remotely. If you want to access it from the same machine, type https://127.0.0.1:8333 or http://127.0.0.1:8222 into the browser's address bar.

The https interface (https://127.0.0.1:8333) did not load for me, so I used http://127.0.0.1:8222 instead.

You will see the VMware Server login form. Type in root and your root password:

This is how the VMware Server web interface looks. The structure is similar to the old VMware Server 1 desktop application, so the usage of the web interface is pretty straightforward.

4 Links

• Fedora: http://fedoraproject.org/
• VMware Server: http://www.vmware.com/products/server/
• Script to install VMware Server 2: http://radu.cotescu.com/how-to-install-vmware-server-ubuntu-fedora-opensuse/