Most Linux distributions include open-vm-tools and some distributions install open-vm-tools by default.
The open-vm-tools provided by Linux distrubutions meet the need of many users.
Note: Different Linux distributions update their version of open-vm-tools at different times.
Users can update their open-vm-tools from the package repository provided by a Linux distribution. The install instructions vary depending on the package management system used by a Linux distribution. Sometimes another package repository can be configured to install a newer version from the OS vendor. For detailed instructions, refer to the documentation of the OS vendor.
In general, open-vm-tools is supported for OSs that use three different package management systems:
- Ubuntu, Debian and Related OSes from this family use apt to install Debian (*.deb) packages
- Red Hat, Fedora and CentOS use dnf or yum to install RPM (*.rpm) packages
- SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE) and openSUSE use zypper to install RPM (*.rpm) packages
All distributions split the package into a system and a desktop component. The desktop component is useful on systems that have a graphical UI (X11, Wayland, and so on). The package names are 'open-vm-tools' and 'open-vm-tools-desktop'. SLE and openSUSE ship another package 'libvmtools' as a dependency. The package management system automatically installs this dependency when 'open-vm-tools' or 'open-vm-tools-desktop' are installed.
Prerequisites
Like installing any other software on the guest, set up the package repository properly for the guest.
Procedure
- Ubuntu, Debian, and Related OSes
- Ensure that the package index is updated:
sudo apt-get update
- If the VM has a GUI (X11, and so on), install or upgrade open-vm-tools-desktop:
sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools-desktop
- Otherwise, use the command to install open-vm-tools:
sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools
- Ensure that the package index is updated:
- RHEL, Fedora and CentOS
- If the VM has a GUI (X11, and so on), install or upgrade open-vm-tools-desktop:
sudo yum install open-vm-tools-desktop
- Otherwise, install open-vm-tools:
sudo yum install open-vm-tools
- If the VM has a GUI (X11, and so on), install or upgrade open-vm-tools-desktop:
- SLE and openSUSE
- If the VM has a GUI (X11, and so on), install or upgrade open-vm-tools-desktop:
zypper install open-vm-tools-desktop
- Otherwise, install open-vm-tools:
zypper install open-vm-tools
- If the VM has a GUI (X11, and so on), install or upgrade open-vm-tools-desktop:
