Las vmwaretools son herramientas y módulos que se puenden/deben instalar en las máquinas virtuales ( cuando se esta usando algún producto de vmware) para mejorar el desempeño del equipo virtualizado.

De ser posible es recomendable usar kernels (optimizados para virtualización) en las máquinas virtuales (no 686, k7, etc).

El UbuntuJEOS es la rama de Ubuntu optimizada para virtualización.  Este tutorial se hizo en base a esto.
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/jeos/releases/8.04.1/release/

Procedimiento:

Preparación de entorno:

Como se van a necesitar descar paquetes para poder llevar adleante la instalación primero vamos a actualizar la lista de paquetes disponibles.

< sudo apt-get update

A continuación se ejecuta el comando para realizar la decarga de los paquetes a actualizar (esto se puede hacer en un solo paso, pero es  tener los paquetes descargados localmente antes de realizar la actualización).

< sudo apt-get -ud upgrade
> Reading package lists... Done
> Building dependency tree
> Reading state information... Done
> The following packages have been kept back:
>    linux-image-virtual
> The following packages will be upgraded:
>    libdbus-1-3 linux-libc-dev tzdata
> 3 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
> Need to get 1481kB of archives.
> After this operation, 4096B of additional disk space will be used
> Do you want to continue [Y/n]? < n

Se canselo porque en este caso apareció una nueva versión del kernel (el linux-image-virtual, es un kernel optimizado para virtualización que desarrollo la gente de canonical con la de vmware).

Para que actualice el kernel se debe hacer un dist-upgrade.

< sismo@ubuntujeos:~$ sudo apt-get -ud dist-upgrade
> Reading package lists... Done
> Building dependency tree       
> Reading state information... Done
> Calculating upgrade... Done
> The following NEW packages will be installed:
>   linux-image-2.6.24-21-virtual linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-21-virtual
> The following packages will be upgraded:
>   libdbus-1-3 linux-image-virtual linux-libc-dev tzdata
> 4 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
> Need to get 12.5MB of archives.
> After this operation, 32.3MB of additional disk space will be used.
> Do you want to continue [Y/n]? < y
> ...
> ...
> ...
> Fetched 12.5MB in 2min54s (71.3kB/s)                                                                                                                        
> Download complete and in download only mode

Una vez finalizada la descarga, realizar la actualización.

< sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
> Reading package lists... Done
> Building dependency tree       
> Reading state information... Done
> Calculating upgrade... Done
> The following NEW packages will be installed:
>   linux-image-2.6.24-21-virtual linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-21-virtual
> The following packages will be upgraded:
>   libdbus-1-3 linux-image-virtual linux-libc-dev tzdata
> 4 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
> Need to get 0B/12.5MB of archives.
> After this operation, 32.3MB of additional disk space will be used.
> Do you want to continue [Y/n]? < y
> Preconfiguring packages ...
> ...
> ...
> ...

Una vez finalizado esto se debe instalar el paquete

< sudo apt-get -ud install build-essential linux-headers-virtual
> Reading package lists... Done
> Building dependency tree       
> Reading state information... Done
> The following extra packages will be installed:
>   linux-headers-2.6.24-21 linux-headers-2.6.24-21-virtual
> The following NEW packages will be installed:
>   linux-headers-2.6.24-21 linux-headers-2.6.24-21-virtual linux-headers-virtual build-essential
> 0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
> Need to get 8712kB of archives.
> After this operation, 66.2MB of additional disk space will be used.
> Do you want to continue [Y/n]? < y

Una vez finalizada la descarga

< sudo apt-get -u install build-essential linux-headers-virtual
> The following extra packages will be installed:
>   linux-headers-2.6.24-21 linux-headers-2.6.24-21-virtual
> The following NEW packages will be installed:
>   linux-headers-2.6.24-21 linux-headers-2.6.24-21-virtual linux-headers-virtual build-essential
> 0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
> Need to get 0B/8712kB of archives.
> After this operation, 66.2MB of additional disk space will be used.
> Do you want to continue [Y/n]? < y

Se debe reiniciar el equipo para que cargue el nuevo kernel, así los módulos de los dispositivos que van a crear las vmware-tools sirven para el kernel que recién se instaló.

< sudo shutdown -r now

Desde la consola de vmware o el portal se debe iniciar la instalación de las vmwares.  Esto va dejar disponible una iso en la unidad de cdrom de la máquina virtual.

Para acceder a los archivos se debe montar la unidad de cdrom (de la máquina virtual).

< mount /media/cdrom
> mount: block device /dev/scd0 is write-protected, mounting read-only

Ahora se va a proceder a descomprimir el instalador.  Reemplazar  < version > por la versión de vmware tools que corresponda.

< cd /tmp/ 
< tar -xzf /media/cdrom/VMwareTools-< versión >.tar.gz 

Instalación de las vmwaretools

< cd vmware-tools-distrib/ 
< sudo ./vmware-install.pl  
> Setup is unable to find the "killall" program on your machine. Please make sure
> it is installed. Do you want to specify the location of this program by hand? 
> [yes] <intro>

> What is the location of the "killall" program on your 
> machine? < /sbin/killall5
> Creating a new VMware Tools installer database using the tar4 format.

> Installing VMware Tools.

> In which directory do you want to install the binary files? 
> [/usr/bin] <intro>   
> What is the directory that contains the init directories (rc0.d/ to rc6.d/)? 
> [/etc] <intro> 
> What is the directory that contains the init scripts? 
> [/etc/init.d] <intro>


> In which directory do you want to install the daemon files? 
> [/usr/sbin] <intro>

> In which directory do you want to install the library files? 
> [/usr/lib/vmware-tools] 
> The path "/usr/lib/vmware-tools" does not exist currently. This program is 
> going to create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you want?
> [yes] <intro>

> In which directory do you want to install the documentation files? 
> [/usr/share/doc/vmware-tools] <intro>

> The path "/usr/share/doc/vmware-tools" does not exist currently. This program 
> is going to create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you 
> want? [yes] <intro>  > The installation of VMware Tools 2.0.0 build-116503 for Linux completed 
> successfully. You can decide to remove this software from your system at any 
> time by invoking the following command: "/usr/bin/vmware-uninstall-tools.pl".

> Before running VMware Tools for the first time, you need to configure it by 
> invoking the following command: "/usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl". Do you want 
> this program to invoke the command for you now? [yes] <intro>  > Stopping VMware Tools services in the virtual machine:
>    Guest operating system daemon:                                      done
> The bld-2.6.24-19-i386virtual-Ubuntu8.04.1 - vmmemctl module loads perfectly 
> into the running kernel.

> The bld-2.6.24-19-i386virtual-Ubuntu8.04.1 - vmhgfs module loads perfectly into
> the running kernel.

> The bld-2.6.24-19-i386virtual-Ubuntu8.04.1 - vmxnet module loads perfectly into
> the running kernel.

> update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-21-virtual
> update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-virtual
> The bld-2.6.24-19-i386virtual-Ubuntu8.04.1 - vmblock module loads perfectly 
> into the running kernel.

> [EXPERIMENTAL] The VMware FileSystem Sync Driver (vmsync) is a new feature that
> creates backups of virtual machines. Please refer to the VMware Knowledge Base 
> for more details on this capability. Do you wish to enable this feature? 
> [no] <intro>

> The bld-2.6.24-19-i386virtual-Ubuntu8.04.1 - vmci module loads perfectly into 
> the running kernel.

> The bld-2.6.24-19-i386virtual-Ubuntu8.04.1 - vsock module loads perfectly into 
> the running kernel.

> No X install found.

>    Checking acpi hot plug                                              done
> Starting VMware Tools services in the virtual machine:
>    Switching to guest configuration:                                   done
>    Guest filesystem driver:                                            done
>    Mounting HGFS shares:                                              failed
>    Guest memory manager:                                               done
>    Guest vmxnet fast network device:                                   done
>    VM communication interface:                                         done
>    VM communication interface socket family:                           done
>    Blocking file system:                                               done
>    Guest operating system daemon:                                      done

> The configuration of VMware Tools 2.0.0 build-116503 for Linux for this running
> kernel completed successfully.

> You must restart your X session before any mouse or graphics changes take 
> effect.

> You can now run VMware Tools by invoking the following command: 
> "/usr/bin/vmware-toolbox" during an X server session.

> You will need to either manually start /usr/bin/vmware-user or log out and log 
> back in to this desktop session to obtain the following features: guest 
> resolution fit, drag and drop, and file and text copy/paste.  vmware-user is 
> configured to automatically start at a graphical login, but that won't take 
> effect until the next login.

> To use the vmxnet driver, restart networking using the following commands: 
> /etc/init.d/networking stop
> rmmod pcnet32
> rmmod vmxnet
> modprobe vmxnet
> /etc/init.d/networking start

Para finalizar la instalación se deben remover los módulos de red que están en uso e instalar el compilado por el sistema.  Finalizada esta operación hay que reiniciar el servicio de red.

< sudo /etc/init.d/networking stop
< sudo rmmod pcnet32
< sudo rmmod vmxnet
< sudo modprobe vmxnet
< sudo /etc/init.d/networking start