How to Install VMware Workstation 17 Pro on Ubuntu 22.10

In this article, we will set up and use the VMware Workstation 17 Pro virtualization software which allows you to create virtual machines and install various operating systems on Ubuntu 22.10 (Kinetic Kudu).

How to Install VMware Workstation 17 Pro on Ubuntu 22.10

How to Set Up VMware Workstation 17 Pro to Run a Virtual Machine on Ubuntu 22.10

As you know, VMware Workstation is the most popular virtualization program and this software works in Microsoft Windows operating systems as well as in all Linux distributions such as Ubuntu.

Installing VMware on the Windows 10 platform is simple as it only takes a few steps, however, although the installation process on Linux-based systems is simple, in some cases you may need to install dependent packages.

With VMware Workstation, you can create virtual machines and run multiple virtual computers on your computer at the same time. Also, this virtualization program is not an open source and free program, but you can purchase it after taking advantage of a 30-day free trial period.

How to Download and Install VMware Pro

First of all, if you are using both Windows and Ubuntu with dual boot configuration on your computer, do not install them directly on your running system whenever new versions of this virtualization software or other 3rd party software are released. First, install Ubuntu on a virtual machine, then install new versions of the relevant programs and check system compatibility, and then install them on your current system.

   Step 1

To download VMware for Linux, visit https://www.vmware.com/products/workstation-pro/workstation-pro-evaluation.html and start the download by clicking “Download Now” as in the image below.

You can easily download Workstation software via a web browser from VMware’s official website. But you can also do this with a single command from the terminal.

cd ~/Downloads
wget https://download3.vmware.com/software/WKST-1700-LX/VMware-Workstation-Full-17.0.0-20800274.x86_64.bundle

Downloading the VMware Workstation Bundle File

   Step 2

After downloading the bundle extension setup file, execute the “sudo apt update” and “sudo apt upgrade” commands in the terminal to update the package list of the applications and components installed on your system.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Now, you need to download and install the necessary Linux kernel packages on your system for the VMware program to run smoothly. Otherwise, you will get the GNU C Compiler error and will not be able to start the program.

To fix the GNU C Compiler error and install the dependent packages required to run the virtual machine program, execute the “sudo apt install build-essential” command in the terminal, and then press Y and Enter to confirm the installation of the dependent packages.

sudo apt install build-essential dkms

Installing Linux Kernels for VMware

   Step 3

After downloading the VMware virtual machine software to the Downloads location, execute the commands below in the terminal to edit the executable permissions of the file and start the installation.

chmod +x VMware-Workstation-Full-17.0.0-20800274.x86_64.bundle
sudo ./VMware-Workstation-Full-17.0.0-20800274.x86_64.bundle

Installing VMware Workstation Pro from Terminal

   Step 4

After the installation process is completed, find the VMware Workstation program from the Show Applications section and run it. You can also see that the Virtual Network Editor and VMware Player software are installed after the installation.

NOTE: If you encounter the error “Unable to install all modules” when you run the VMware program at this stage, you need to manually download and compile the vmmon and vmnet modules of the Workstation program.

To solve the “Unable to install all modules” error in Ubuntu, execute the commands below in the order in the terminal to download the required modules from Github and copy them to the relevant location.

sudo apt install git
git clone https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules
cd vmware-host-modules
git checkout workstation-17
sudo make && sudo make install
tar -cf vmnet.tar vmnet-only && tar -cf vmmon.tar vmmon-only
sudo cp -v vmmon.tar vmnet.tar /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/
sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all

Running the VMware Program

   Step 5

After installing the necessary packages, when the VMware End User License Agreement window opens, read the license terms and select “I accept the terms in the license agreement” to accept, and click the Next button.

Accepting the Workstation End User License Agreement

   Step 6

Also, accept the OVF Tool component for Linux license agreement and click Next.

Accepting the Workstation OVF Tool License Agreement

   Step 7

If you want the virtual machine software to check for updates at system startup, select Yes and click Next.

Enabling Checking for Program Updates at System Startup

   Step 8

Select Yes to confirm participation in the VMware customer experience program, and then click Next.

Confirming Participation in the VMware Customer Experience Program

   Step 9

If you purchased the program for Linux, enter your license key. If you want to use and try the virtualization program for 30 days free of charge, select “I want to try VMware Workstation 17 for 30 days” and click the Finish button.

Activating the I Want to Try Workstation Program for 30 Days Option

   Step 10

After successfully installing VMware Pro software, you can now install and test new or old versions of Windows, Linux, or macOS operating systems on your host computer.

Checking the Version of Virtualization Software

How to Create a Virtual Machine on Ubuntu

After installing VMware Workstation on Ubuntu, you can start installing the operating system you want by creating a new VM.

   Step 1

Open the VMware Workstation 17 Pro software on your Linux system and click Create a New Virtual Machine.

Creating a New Virtual Machine

   Step 2

To configure the virtual machine with advanced settings, tick Custom (Advanced) and click Next.

Advanced Virtual Machine Creation

   Step 3

Configure the hardware compatibility of the virtual computer as the latest version of your VMware software and click Next.

Changing the Hardware Compatibility Version

   Step 4

You can use your physical drive or ISO installation media as the method to install the operating system. However, to better configure the virtual machine’s settings, select I will install the operating system later and click Next.

Choosing the I'll Install the Operating System Later Option

   Step 5

If you have planned to install Windows 10 as the guest operating system, select Microsoft Windows, then select Windows 10 and later x64 from the Version section and click Next.

Choosing a Guest System

   Step 6

Create a new folder in the location where you want to install the Windows 10 virtual computer and select it.

Configuring the Virtual Machine Installation Location

   Step 7

Select UEFI as the firmware type and continue.

Selecting the UEFI/Secure Boot Firmware Type

   Step 8

In the virtual processor configuration, determine the number of processors and cores according to the power of your host computer.

Setting the Number of Virtual Processor Cores

   Step 9

Likewise, configure the virtual memory size for the Windows 10 guest machine according to the RAM capacity of your host.

Configuring Virtual Memory Size

   Step 10

If you want to connect the guest machine to your physical network, you can choose Bridged network. If you do not want your virtual computer to obtain an IP address from your local network, continue with the default option Network Address Translation (NAT).

Choosing the Network Address Translation (NAT) Adapter

   Step 11

Continue with the recommended LSI Logic SAS option as the I/O controller type.

Selecting the I/O Controller Type

   Step 12

You can specify the type of virtual machine’s virtual disk as IDE, SCSI, SATA, or NVMe. Since NVMe is a newer technology, it makes your guest operating system more efficient. Therefore, select the NVMe disk type for the virtual disk type and click Next.

Selecting the NVMe Virtual Disk Type

   Step 13

When choosing the disk structure you want to use, select the Create a new virtual disk option and continue as you will install a Windows 10 from scratch.

Creating a New Virtual Disk

   Step 14

Determine the virtual disk capacity of the guest machine depending on the actions you will take and choose to backup the virtual disk as a single file type.

Storing a Virtual Disk as a Single File

   Step 15

Leave the virtual disk location at default and continue.

Virtual Disk Location

   Step 16

You can see the hardware information of the Windows 10 virtual computer you have configured in the summary window. After checking the hardware information of your virtual system for the last time, click Finish and close the wizard.

Viewing the Hardware Settings of the Virtual System

   Step 17

After installing your guest system, close the warning window informing you that the first thing you need to do is to install the VMware Tools software and continue.

VMware Tools Info Window

   Step 18

To further configure the hardware settings of your Windows 10 guest system, click Edit Virtual Machine Settings from the Workstation interface.

Editing Virtual Machine Settings

   Step 19

To increase the performance of the Windows 10 virtual PC, open the Processors hardware settings and tick all the features in the Virtualization Engine section and close the window.

Enabling Virtualization Engine Features

   Step 20

After selecting the CD/DVD device from the Hardware section, select the Use ISO Image option and then click Browse to specify the location of the image file. Next, select the Windows 10 image file you downloaded to your Linux computer and click Open.

Adding Windows 10 ISO File to Virtual PC

   Step 21

For faster file transfer on your Windows 10 VM, select the USB 3.x controller from the USB hardware settings and close the settings window.

Selecting USB 3.1 Compatibility

   Step 22

Click Start up this guest operating system to run your Windows 10 x64 virtual machine.

Running the Guest OS

   Step 23

The Windows setup window will open after pressing any key on your keyboard to start the installation during the Windows 10 operating system boot phase.

Windows 10 Setup Wizard

How to Delete the Virtual Machine

When you decide not to use the guest virtual systems you have installed on Ubuntu or other Linux platforms, you can easily delete them completely from the virtual machine library of the Workstation software.

To completely delete all files related to Windows 10 VM from your host disk, right-click on it, click Manage / Delete From Disk, and click Yes to confirm the deletion of all files in the window that opens.

Completely Wipe the Windows 10 Guest Machine

How to Uninstall VMware Workstation

When you want to remove the VMware virtualization software that you have installed on your Linux/Ubuntu system, you can do this quickly by using the terminal.

Open the terminal and execute the command “vmware-installer –list-products” to list the VMware products installed on your system.

vmware-installer --list-products
OR
vmware-installer -l

Then, after checking that the VMware Workstation program is installed on your system, execute the “sudo vmware-installer -u vmware-workstation” command to completely remove it from your system.

sudo vmware-installer -u vmware-workstation

Uninstalling VMware Workstation

   Video

Installing Old Versions

Ubuntu
VMware Workstation
YouTube Video
Slide
17.04
14 Pro
17.10
14 Pro
18.04
14 Pro
18.10
14 Pro
18.10
15 Pro
20.10
16 Pro
21.10
16 Pro
22.04
16 Pro
22.10
16 Pro
22.10
17 Pro (NEW)

Possible Installation Errors

   Unable to copy the user’s Xauthorization File Error

This error usually appeared when installing on Ubuntu 17.04 and 17.10. To resolve the Xauthorization error, execute the commands below in the order in the terminal and try to open the VM again.

touch ~/.Xauthority
chmod 600 ~/.Xauthority

   GCC7 Error

The GCC7 error appeared during installation on Ubuntu 18.04 or 18.10. To resolve this error, it will be sufficient to execute the following command in the terminal.

sudo apt install gcc-7

   Related Articles


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♦ How to Install VMware on Linux Mint
How to Install VMware on Kali
Download VMware for Linux
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14 Comments
  1. Ahmed Majid 30 November 2017

    Thanks for the tutorial, its helped alot

    Reply
    • tolqabaqci 2 December 2017

      Thanks for your comment!

      Reply
  2. c 2 March 2018

    Thanks for the tip on the Xauthority file!!!

    Reply
    • tolqabaqci 3 March 2018

      You’re welcome! Very thanks for your feedback!

      Reply
  3. SERAJ AHMAD 11 March 2018

    Thank you for the help on Xauthorization tip sir. But now I am unable to open the License key Page in order to activate the VMWare

    Reply
    • tolqabaqci 11 March 2018

      You’re welcome, Seraj Ahmad! To resolve the key page error of VMware Workstation, open the terminal and switch to root access. After that, execute the vmware command.

      Reply
  4. SERAJ AHMAD 13 March 2018

    Thank you for your reply sir. But when I tried I got this Error message
    seraj@seraj-Inspiron-3537:~$ sudo -i
    root@seraj-Inspiron-3537:~# vmware
    No protocol specified
    xcb_connection_has_error() returned true
    No protocol specified
    xcb_connection_has_error() returned true
    No protocol specified

    ** (vmware-modconfig:12139): WARNING **: Could not open X display
    No protocol specified

    (vmware-modconfig:12139): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: :0
    .

    Reply
  5. Gabriel 1 April 2018

    Really thanks for the post !

    Reply
    • tolqabaqci 1 April 2018

      You’re welcome Gabriel! Also thank you for your comment!

      Reply
  6. Byron 28 November 2022

    Sorry to say this, but the git instructions do not work: git checkout workstation-17
    Stuck at that point.

    Reply
  7. Don 24 December 2022

    Trying to install VMware on a Ubuntu 22.10 system and it will not load the kernal. at the end of the install I get:
    Starting VMware services:
    Virtual machine monitor failed
    Virtual machine communication interface done
    VM communication interface socket family done
    Virtual ethernet failed
    VMware Authentication Daemon done
    Unable to start services

    Reply
  8. Don 24 December 2022

    For Byron
    It has to be ….. workstation 17.0.0

    Reply
  9. Harish 1 June 2023

    While installing vmware-modconfig – Virtual machine monitor & Virtual ethernet are getting failed and unable to start the services. Please suggest

    Reply
  10. Harish 1 June 2023

    Same error here with same Ubuntu 22.10

    Reply
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