How to install VMware Server 2.0.1 (build 156745) on Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope).

Go to the VMware download page. Login or register, and you also get two license keys: one for VMware install on Linux hosts, the other one for MS. Download the TAR file for Ubuntu, I use the 32 bit version of VMware Server 2 for Linux Operating Systems.

Then we need to install some Ubuntu packages in order to be able to compile the VMware code:


sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` build-essential

So we can untar and compile now:

sudo mkdir -p /opt/vmware
cd /opt/vmware
sudo tar xfz ~/Desktop/VMware-server-2.0*.tar.gz
cd vmware-server-distrib
sudo ./vmware-install.pl
rm ~/Desktop/VMware-server-2.0*.tar.gz

It also uninstalls any prevoius version of VMware, if any.

During this process, say yes to accept defaults, except to this point:


Do you want to be able to use NAT networking in your virtual machines? (yes/no)
[yes]

I used to config VMware Server with bridged networking, where each virtual machines can see each other using they own IP address. Using bridged networking, you will need different IP addresses for all the virtual machines. Having a basic router, it must not have a problem. Otherwise you should use the NAT networking modus. So, if you want bridged networking and no NAT, say here no, instead of accepting the default yes.


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

Here says yes, and type one Ubuntu user, who has the sudo rights. If you accept the default, then the root user can use the VMware, and you want to set its password as well.


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

It must be a directory with some GB for the files of the virtual machines. Change this according to your preferences, I used to have an LVM based directory here.


Please enter your 20-character serial number.
Type XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX or 'Enter' to cancel:

It the place for your registration code, provided by vmware.com at the registration. Use the code for Linux here!

Finally open your browser, and type: http://127.0.0.1:8222/, and you can log in with the user specified above.

Good luck!