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Installing VMware Tools for FreeBSD

VMware Tools for FreeBSD include:

To install VMware Tools for FreeBSD:

  1. Power on the virtual machine.
  2. Prepare your virtual machine to install VMware Tools by selecting Settings > VMware Tools Install.

    Note: The following steps all take place inside the virtual machine, not on the host computer.

  3. As root, mount the VMware Tools CD-ROM, copy its contents to /tmp, then unmount it:
    mount /cdrom
    cp /cdrom/vmware-freebsd-tools.tar.gz /tmp
    umount /cdrom

  4. Untar the VMware Tools tar file in /tmp, and install it:
    cd /tmp
    tar zxf vmware-freebsd-tools.tar.gz
    cd vmware-freebsd-tools
    ./install.pl

  5. Start X and your graphical environment if they are not started yet.
  6. In an X terminal, launch the VMware Tools background application:
    vmware-toolbox &

You may run VMware Tools as root or as a normal user. VMware Tools has additional capabilities if you run it as root.

By default, the resolution of the X server is set to the resolution of the screen as determined at install time. If you wish to change this, you can edit the configuration file.

To configure the X server for different resolution:

  1. Locate the XF86Config file. This file stores X server configuration information and is typically located in the directory /etc/X11, or sometimes in /etc.
  2. Look for the line:
       Section "Screen"
    and under this there will be a line that sets the resolution:
        Modes "1280x1024"

  3. Change this line to the desired resolution. There are several example mode lines, which are commented out.

If you are dual-booting note that there is an XF86Config.vm file and an XF86Config.org file, which are linked to XF86Config, depending on whether you are booting in a virtual machine or not. Be sure to edit the correct one of these files.

Dual Booting your FreeBSD System

The install script attempts to set up your system so that it can boot either in a virtual machine or on the real hardware. These things are different in the two environments:

To handle these differences, the install script creates links to the current versions of the X server and the X config file. Then it installs new versions of these files, for use when booting in a virtual machine.

The Workstation install modifies the /etc/rc file (making backups to /etc/rc.old.n, where n is a number from 1 to 3). At init time, Workstation's addition to /etc/rc calls checkvm to determine if the system is running in a virtual machine. If so, /etc/rc.dualconf.vm is called; otherwise /etc/rc.dualconf.org is called. These scripts switch the links to point to the correct X server and X config file. They also provide a good place for the user to introduce virtual machine dependent behavior.

Note: The rc.conf link is set after the rc.conf file is read, which means it does not take effect until the next boot. If rc.conf.org and rc.conf.vm are different for your setup, then you will always have to boot twice when switching from running FreeBSD in a virtual machine to running on the real machine (and vice versa). The reason for this behavior is that the rc.conf file is read in while the root file system is still mounted read only, so the links cannot be switched before rc.conf is read in.

The installation program will make every effort to find the correct place to modify /etc/rc (before networking is set up, but after local disks have been mounted). If it is not successful, you may have to insert the lines into your /etc/rc file before networking but after local disks are mounted:

if [ -x /etc/vmware/checkvm ]
then
if /etc/vmware/checkvm > /dev/null
then
if [ -f /etc/rc.dualconf.vm ];
then . /etc/rc.dualconf.vm
fi
else
if [ -f /etc/rc.dualconf.org ];
then . /etc/rc.dualconf.org
fi
fi
fi

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