FreeBSD Install VMWare Guest Tools

How do I install VMWare tools under FreeBSD guest operating systems?

VMware Tools is a suite of utilities that enhances the performance of the virtual machine's guest operating system and improves management of the virtual machine. Although the guest operating system can run without VMware Tools, you lose important functionality.

Step #1: Download and/or Update VMWARE Tools

To grab all software components to the host click on
Edit > Preferences > Select the Updates tab and click Download All Components Now to start the download.

Fig.01: Install VMware Tools with Software Updates

Step #2: Install VMware Tools in a FreeBSD Guest

Make sure the guest operating system is running in text mode as you cannot install VMware Tools while X (GUI or window manager) is running. Now, select VM > Install VMware Tools from host operating system.

Please note that if an earlier version of VMware Tools is installed, the menu item is Update VMware Tools. If the current version is installed, the menu item is Reinstall VMware Tools.

On the FreeBSD guest, log in as root. You need to switch to the root user by typing su - and entering the root password, when prompted:
$ su -

Next mount CD-ROM, enter:
# mount /cdrom

Untar the VMware Tools tar file, enter:
# tar zxpf /cdrom/vmware-freebsd-tools.tar.gz -C /tmp

Finally, run the VMware Tools installer, enter:
# cd /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib # ./vmware-install.pl

Unmount /cdrom, enter:
# umount /cdrom

Run the following command to configure VMWARE Tools, enter:
# /usr/local/bin/vmware-toolbox-cmd
OR run the following during X session
# /usr/local/bin/vmware-toolbox