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Hi all -

For those who have been left wondering - here is instructions for installing VMWare Tools.
*Stolen From: VMWare Communities


yum upgrade
yum install gcc kernel-devel
uname -r
rpm -q kernel-devel
(make sure the versions of the above two match exactly)

4: Now, using the vSphere Client, do the "Guest -> Install Vmware tools" fun stuff...
5: Returning back to the SSH / vSphere console session:

mkdir /mnt/cdrom
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom/
cd /mnt/cdrom/
cp -rp VM*.tar.gz /tmp
cd /tmp
tar -zxvf VMwareTools-xxxxxxxx(your.ver).tar.gz,

There is a bug with VMXNET module under CentOS - patch is as follows:

cd /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib/lib/modules/source/
mkdir 1
cp vmxnet.tar 1
cd 1
tar -xvf vmxnet.tar
nano -w vmxnet-only/compat_netdevice.h

Comment out the line as per: http://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=3977
(add a /* before, and a */ after:)
Before:
struct napi_struct {
int dummy;
};

So it will look like this:

/*
struct napi_struct {
int dummy;
};
*/


Now, hit CTRL-O to save, and CTRL-X to exit nano
copy patched module back to sources dir
rm vmxnet.tar
tar -cvf vmxnet.tar vmxnet-only/
mv vmxnet.tar

and complete the install of vmware tools

cd /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib/
./vmware-install.pl --default

And that will build the tools - with all the default choices...
Tuesday, June 29 2010, 05:25 AM
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  • Accepted Answer

    Tuesday, June 29 2010, 08:09 AM - #Permalink
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    Great! thanks :)
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    Tuesday, June 29 2010, 08:57 PM - #Permalink
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    Biggest problem i found with VMWare install was the local GUI was scrambled (local web browser interface) - installing the VMWare tools fixed this, as well as the advantages of power control
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    Friday, October 22 2010, 07:29 PM - #Permalink
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    Luke,

    Thanks so much for posting this info. I was stuck with the "can't find the gcc lib" message when I ran the vmware-install.pl on an ESXi 4.1 VM.

    After running the following (as you suggested)

    yum upgrade
    yum install gcc kernel-devel

    the install script found the gcc lib and proceeded to completion.

    Re the garbled video (when Tools is not installed): I found that, in the virtual machine video card settings, specifying the "Auto-detect video settings" corrected the display problem.

    I agree with you that a major advantage of installing Tools is the ability to restart or shutdown from the VMware menu (either Workstation or vSphere Client):

    http://www.imageurlhost.com/images/raezy21c9ixrgrwlap.png

    If the clearOS GUI gets frozen, having these VMware power settings available allows you to recover gracefully.
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  • Accepted Answer

    Tuesday, December 14 2010, 02:06 AM - #Permalink
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    Ah sweet! Thanks for this one.
    Jim
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  • Accepted Answer

    smccloud
    smccloud
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    Wednesday, October 19 2011, 02:00 PM - #Permalink
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    mkdir /mnt/cdrom
    mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom/
    cd /mnt/cdrom/
    cp -rp VM*.tar.gz /tmp
    cd /tmp
    tar -zxvf VMwareTools-xxxxxxxx(your.ver).tar.gz,

    can be condensed to
    mkdir /mnt/cdrom
    mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom/
    tar -xzvf /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools-xxxxxxxx(your.ver).tar.gz -C /tmp
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  • Accepted Answer

    gwblok
    gwblok
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    Thursday, November 10 2011, 06:49 PM - #Permalink
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    I'm Installing ClearOS 5.2 SP1 on Vmware ESXi 5.0. I got the scrambled screen, so I'm installing the VMware tools. However the section that pertains to "There is a bug with VMXNET module under CentOS - patch is as follows:" didn't work. Either the new Vmware tools is slightly different, or I miss understood. I was unable to find the file "vmxnet-only/compat_netdevice.h" to edit. I just skipped this part of the install. After rebooting, the Screen scrambling was fixed. I could also see it loading the Vmware Tools Daemons during boot. I use all

    Thank you for this walk-through.
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  • Accepted Answer

    Jon
    Jon
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    Thursday, November 17 2011, 03:57 PM - #Permalink
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    I found that the bug is not present in the vSphere 5 tools. I downloaded the ISO file from VMWare, transferred it over to my ClearOS and installed it from there. The commands went something like:

    yum update
    mkdir /mnt/cdrom
    yum install gcc kernel-devel
    mount -o loop /root/VMware-tools-linux-your_version.iso /mnt/cdrom/
    tar -xzvf /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools-xxxxxxxx(your.ver).tar.gz -C /tmp
    cd /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib/
    ./vmware-install.pl --default

    FYI: The installer may look like it is waiting for a response, but don't press any keys. Doing so may cause the installer to endlessly echo out letters (if it does this, just CTRL+C out of the install, and restart it).
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  • Accepted Answer

    Wednesday, February 29 2012, 08:26 AM - #Permalink
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    Yep, I can confirm that the bug is fixed in later kernel builds. I just installed 4.1 VM Tools without the need for the workaround
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  • Accepted Answer

    Tuesday, August 27 2013, 07:43 PM - #Permalink
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    Guys it worked also for me with ClearOS Community 6.4 in ESXi 5.1. Thank you very much.
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  • Accepted Answer

    EVA-NB
    EVA-NB
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    Tuesday, January 06 2015, 12:12 PM - #Permalink
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    Be sure to enable the correct repo as a first step, then everything works without any issuses:

    yum --enablerepo=clearos-dev install kernel-devel kernel-headers

    :P
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  • Accepted Answer

    Mike M H
    Mike M H
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    Saturday, May 13 2017, 01:26 AM - #Permalink
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    Looks like the relevant section of code is #ifdef'd out these days - any confirmation that the CentOS/vmw-tools bug is gone?

    Also, in the original post exists a very slight typo, or perhaps a change since the original post was written. The line where you actually edit the file is missing the intermediate 'shared' directory. The below change to the line will fix the issue.

    nano -w vmxnet-only/shared/compat_netdevice.h
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