Installing VMware Server 1.0.x in hardy —15 May 2008

Install required packages:

• linux-headers-FLAVOR where FLAVOR is for example generic, server, etc. Instead of flavor it can be the exact kernel version (uname -r).
• gcc and g++ and inetd or xinetd
• On 64-bit platforms ia32-libs too, as this version of VMware is a 32-bit app.

With the above and the vmware server tarball you usually would be able to build the vmware modules. Unfortunately that’s not always the case given that you are on an unsupported platform etc etc etc. To make it work there is a vmware-any-any-update tarball developed by a Czech dude called Petr. His FTP site is here:

http://platan.vc.cvut.cz/ftp/pub/vmware/

There is a runme.pl script inside that you are supposed to run as the super-user… Scary stuff. But it worked for a lot of people, including me.

Oh and one more thing. Even though vmware-config.pl completed successfully, vmware still didn’t run due to the following library issue:

/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware: /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1: version `GCC_4.2.0' not found (required by /usr/lib32/libstdc++.so.6)

I made a backup of usr/lib/vmware/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1 and replaced with /lib/libgcc_s.so.1