Solutions Log by Dan Reiland

Install VMware Tools on a Gentoo Guest

1. emerge pciutils mkinitrd
2. mkdir /etc/rc.d
3. cd /etc/rc.d
4. for i in `seq 0 6`; do mkdir rc$i.d; done
5. File -> Install VMware Tools
6. mount /mnt/cdrom
7. cd /tmp
8. tar xvfz /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools-3.5.0-158874.tar.gz
9. cd vmware-tools-distrib/
10. ./vmware-install.pl
11. All defaults with the exception of:
    /etc/rc.d -> location of the rc.d directories
    /etc/init.d -> location of the init scripts
12. When prompted to run vmware-tools-config, decline
13. rc-update add vmware-tools default
14. /usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl
15. Verify that everything compiles without error
16. Reboot
17. Verify that VMware tools are reported as running in the VI console

Note: This was tested and found working under VMware VI 3.5.x with Gentoo x86_64, kernel 2.6.27-gentoo-r8.