How do I add VMware Tools to a NAM Linux Access Gateway?

  • 7009831
  • 01-Dec-2011
  • 27-Apr-2012

Environment

Novell Access Manager 3.1 Linux Access Gateway
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11

Situation

While trying to install VMware Tools on a NAM AG the configuration step fails after asking for the location of the kernel headers, which do not seem to be there.  The error message displayed when running vmware-config-tools.pl shows below:

Searching for a valid kernel header path...
The path "" is not a valid path to the 2.6.27.19-5-pae kernel headers.
Would you like to change it? [yes]


Resolution

The kernel headers required by the VMware configuration script can be built by having the kernel-source ISO from the LAG's installation media.  With the media available to the system run one of the the following commands:

sudo zypper in kernel-source

or

cd /media/<mediaName>/suse/i586
sudo rpm -Uvh ./kernel-source*.rpm

When completed the VMware configuration script should be able to find valid headers for the running system.

If the system has had its kernel updated since the original installation the kernel-source package will need to match the version of the running kernel to work properly.  The kernel version for the running system can be found by running uname as shown below:

uname -r

The kernel-source package version is in the package name or can be found using the following command for an installed package:

rpm -qi kernel-source

or the following command when just pointing to a package file in the same directory:

rpm -qip ./kernel-source*.rpm

The 'Version' and 'Release numbers combine to make the full kernel version that matches the uname output.