Updating VMWare Tools on Mint 18.1 host with Windows guest

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Laugh2
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Updating VMWare Tools on Mint 18.1 host with Windows guest

Post by Laugh2 »

Hi, I've been running Windows in VirtualBox and VMWare for several years, but have always had the problem updating VMWare Tools for the Windows guest.

The LM18.1 host automatically suggests to download and update VMWare Tools. The download runs successfully but when I'm asked to put in the password by LM18.1 (the host) it rejects the password because it is not an administrator password. I'm running the VM as a normal user rather than administrator.

How can I update VMWare Tools when the VM is being run by a normal user of the LM18.1 host?
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Cosmo.
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Re: Updating VMWare Tools on Mint 18.1 host with Windows guest

Post by Cosmo. »

I do not know VMW, so I cannot give specific advice. But if you mean, that the account on the host is not member of the group sudo, than you cannot.
Laugh2
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Re: Updating VMWare Tools on Mint 18.1 host with Windows guest

Post by Laugh2 »

Thxs. Since I hadn't found a way I was afraid that was the case. Perhaps I need to make my User account Administrator temporarily just to update VMWare Tools.
Cosmo.
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Re: Updating VMWare Tools on Mint 18.1 host with Windows guest

Post by Cosmo. »

Do you use several accounts?

Enter in the terminal groups and see, if sudo listed in the output. If not you should have another account (usually the one, which got created, when you installed Mint), which is in this group. In this case you can switch to this account and install the tools. They should afterwards be present for all user accounts on the host.
Laugh2
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Re: Updating VMWare Tools on Mint 18.1 host with Windows guest

Post by Laugh2 »

Hi Cosmo, thank you for your reply. Yes, I made an administrator account and my user account at installation. (There is also a guest account or two.) The output of "groups" is:
  • <user> adm dialout fax cdrom floppy tape dip video plugdev vboxusers
Sudo is not there (presumably because it is not an administrator account?) The administrator doesn't have any VMs so can't install VMWare Tools. Perhaps I need to create one just for updating? Would it be sufficient to install a Linux VM as guest, or does it have to be a brand new Windows VM?
Cosmo.
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Re: Updating VMWare Tools on Mint 18.1 host with Windows guest

Post by Cosmo. »

Laugh2 wrote:Sudo is not there (presumably because it is not an administrator account?)
Correct.
Laugh2 wrote:Perhaps I need to create one just for updating? Would it be sufficient to install a Linux VM as guest, or does it have to be a brand new Windows VM?
As I already wrote, I cannot say any specific information about VMW. So I can only assume, that the VMW tools are somehow similar to the VirtualBox (which I know very well) extension pack. In VirtualBox the extension pack can either get installed by double clicking it in an file manager or from inside of the VB Manager, which is available for every user account, regardless, if this account does actually use a VM. Hopefully my answer gives you a hint how to install the tools in your system.
Laugh2
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[Solved] Re: Updating VMWare Tools on Mint 18.1 host with Windows guest

Post by Laugh2 »

Hi Cosmo, That did work - I created a VM using the administrator account, which included the installation of an updated VMWare Tools. This in turn also updated the VMWare Tools for the guest VMs. Thank you for your help.
:)
I used a new Windows VM as adminstrator, so next time I'll create a Linux VM as administrator to see if that will also update my guest's Windows VM's VMWareTools.

(btw: Since VirtualBox ver.5 I've been migrating across successively to VirtualBox and find it stable and generally user friendly.)
:D
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