Howto: Install VMware Tools In Linux

Here are some quick and dirty steps to install the VMware Tools on a Linux server.

Within Debian and Ubuntu Server

Become Root
sudo -s

Refresh Available Packages
apt-get update

Upgrade to the latest available packages
apt-get upgrade -y

Make a directory to mount the CD drive into
mkdir /mnt/cd

Install compiler tools and kernel headers
apt-get install build-essential kernel-headers-$(uname -r) -y

Attach VMware Tools .ISO Image
Within the VMware Infrastructure client Guest, Install/Upgrade VMware Tools

 Mount the CDROM drive
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cd

Copy the VMware Tools locally
cp /mnt/cd/V*.tar.gz /tmp

Extract the VMware Tools
cd /tmp
tar xzvf V*.tar.gz

Compile and install to default location
cd vmware-tools-distrib
./vmware-install.pl -d

Tidy Up
cd /tmp
rm -rf vmw*
apt-get remove build-essential kernel-headers-$(uname -r) -y
apt-get autoremove -y
apt-get autoclean

Reboot
init 6

That's it! VMware tools should be working upon reboot.