Installing Headers for VMware Tools on Ubuntu with PAE Kernel

I recently upgraded the memory on the main system I use for VMware Workstation from 4Gb to 8Gb so I could allocate more memory to an Ubuntu 11.10 VirtualMachine. For the Ubuntu VM to take advantage of the memory, I had to install the PAE kernel which stopped VMware Tools from working.

There are good instructions on this VMware post but here's a summary of the steps.

$ uname -r

Find the kernel version, mine was 3.0.0-16-generic-pae.

$ apt-cache search  | grep headers

Find the header package name associated with your kernel. Mine was linux-headers-3.0.0-16.generic-pae. Install the headers with this command

$ sudo apt-get install

You can run the following command to confirm the directory where the headers have been placed. On my system it was /usr/src/linux-headers-3.0.0-16-generic-pae

$ dpkg -L

As described on this earlier post, you then run vmware-config-tools.pl script and when prompted for the location of the kernel headers, enter:

# sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/java" "java" "/usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.5.0_22/bin/java" 2
# sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/javac" "javac" "/usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.5.0_22/bin/javac" 2

You can switch between the installed versions of Java using the command:

$ /usr/src/

Unlike my prior post, the 3.0.0-16 pae kernel headers now work with VMware Tools.


        


        


          
          ← Previous
              Post
          
          
          Next
              Post →