[SOLVED] VMware Tools and GCC

I installed Zorin 6 Lite to a VMware virtual machine hosted on Windows7. So far, it works fine. I am pleased that the mouse cursor is not 'trapped' within the VMware window, but can freely move in and out of it while the VM is running.

I wish to install VMware Tools, which will let the Zorin VM run full-screen, and will simplify using the shared folder between the Zorin VM and the Windows 7 host. I followed instructions on How to Install VMware Tools in Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) with some success, but the installation process stops at the step where it must compile modules. The message on the Terminal is:

Before you can compile modules, you need to have the following installed. . .

make
gcc
kernel headers of the running kernel

Searching for GCC...
The path "" is not valid path to the gcc binary.
Would you like to change it? [yes]

So, I don't know what the path is to GCC for Zorin. This information does not seem to be addressed in the Development section of the forum, nor does a search give me much to work with.

So, can anyone help here? If I can get this to work, I'll do a more detailed write-up on using ZorinOS within a VMware machine under a Windows host.

Update: I figured it out. (how do I mark this thread as "Solved"?)

OK, so it looks like Zorin 6 Lite does not come with GCC, kernel headers or make. I had to install all three.
Fortunately, I was able to do this using the "sudo apt-get" command.

Note: I am not a complete newcomer to Linux or to Ubuntu, but Zorin-OS is supposed to be targeted to people migrating from Windows. One characteristic of Windows is that software is easy to install. I can understand that Zorin-OS can't offer the same kind of 'click and go' ease of use that Windows has for installing new stuff, but there should be some way for a user to easily find out how it is done. Otherwise, it gets to be a real barrier. I know that, had I not been a user of Puppy Linux for many years, I'd have been completely out of my depth. I would have given up on Zorin-OS as a viable substitute for Windows on my computer, and would have resigned myself to simply purchasing a new PC loaded with Windows 7.

Ok, that said, here's what I did:

1. Creating a Zorin-OS 6 Lite VMware Virtual Machine (VM) as guest on my Windows 7 host
I am including this first, because there is no forum entry on this first step.

My PC has VMware Player installed. VMware Player can be downloaded from VMware.com for free, and the Windows installation is pretty easy.

1. Download the liveCD .iso image of Zorin-OS 6 Lite to my computer. Remember the location of this file
2. Run VMware Player, and select "Create a new virtual machine"
3. Pretty much do what it says. Tell it that you're installing from a disc image file, and direct it to the .iso image file you downloaded. Tell it you're installing Ubuntu Linux, and give your new VM a name that makes sense. Accept the default location of the machine, or tell it to put the machine in a location of your choice. I set up a 20 GB hard drive image for it, and also removed the "floppy drive" option, because I don't like it.
4. Once you've defined the machine, run it. It should now load the liveCD image and run Zorin Lite for you.
5. Tell it to install, and it will do all the stuff you'd expect. Now you have a VMware VM with Zorin-OS 6 Lite!

2. Prepare to install VMware Tools
VMware Tools are a set of utilities that let your VM share a folder with your host computer, and run in full-screen mode, or even stretch its 'monitor' to any window size. It's nice to have. Often, VMware Player will ask if you want to download and install it. I generally say 'yes' to this, and then Player will download a CD image file containing the VMware Tools installer. This image, called "linux.iso" is located on your PC in

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Player\linux.iso

You will also need some files and programs related to compiling the VMware Tools source files for your VM. These are:
GCC (Gnu C Compiler, I think)
make (some program that runs the installation scripts and "makes" the program that's being installed, or something like that)
As you can see, I am pretty ignorant

NOTE in EDIT: GCC and Make appear to exist already in the Core version. The "sudo apt-get update && apt-get upgrade" command mentioned further down appears to get kernel headers, I think. In any case, a Zorin 5.1 Core VMware machine did not require GCC or Make to be installed.

To get these things, you need to run a Terminal. Click the Start menu in Zorin, go to Accessories, and run Terminal. A command terminal should come up. Your command prompt, telling you that you can type in commands looks kind of like blahblahblahsomething~$

Because you are installing stuff, you'll need to make use of the "sudo" command phrase/secret word. This word basically tells the Linux system that you really have authority to do these risky terrible things to it, and you have a password. I hope you remember your user password!

__ Install GCC
In the Terminal, type:

sudo apt-get install gcc

Your Zorin VM will go out into the network and find the installer for GCC, and then install it. When it's done, it should end with your 'blahblahblahsomething~$' prompt.
__ Install Make
It's just like installing GCC, really. In the Terminal, type:

sudo apt-get install make

Again, Zorin will find Make and install it for you, then bring you to the $ prompt.

I am pretty sure your Linux kernel headers are already present, or maybe they've been installed with GCC and Make. Dunno. Still, you're now set.

3. Load the 'linux.iso' image as a CD-ROM on your VM, and extract the installation files

The VM can be told that the .iso image is a real CD. In the VMware toolbar of your VM, click Virtual Machine, then Removable Devices, then CD/DVD (IDE), then Settings.

In the dialog, click the checkbox for Device status: Connected. Click the radio button Use ISO image file:, and browse to the location of the linux.iso file in the VMware Player program files. Click OK, and your Zorin-OS VM will think it has a CD inserted into a drive.

Zorin will ask what to do, and you can tell it to "Open in File Manager".

OK, now the image file is mounted.

4. Extract the installation files
The installation files are in a compressed archive on the CD image. You'll need to uncompress these to a location on the VM's drive before you can run them. Fortunately, someone wrote some very useful instructions on how to do this. I am in their debt. The following is a quote of their instructions (You're doing this inside the Terminal):

First attach the ISO image containing VMware Tools to the virtual machine. Then open a terminal window and execute the following commands:

sudo apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

sudo mount /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom

cp /media/cdrom/VMware*.tar.gz /tmp

sudo umount /media/cdrom

cd /tmp

tar xzvf VMware*.gz

cd vmware-tools-distrib/

sudo ./vmware-install.pl

When the installation scripts prompts for answers, just hit Enter since defaults are OK.

The "apt-get update" line does something, but I don't know what. It looked important, though.
The "mount" command may not be needed, but it didn't hurt.
The "cp" command copies the compressed archive file to your /tmp directory
The "tar xzvf" command uncompresses the archive
The "cd" command changes your directory into the vmware-tools-distrib directory
Using "sudo", you run the .pl script file (a Perl script?) to begin the installation. You may be asked for your password.

At some point, you may be asked to provide a path to GCC or kernel headers. These are what I used:

Path to GCC: /usr/bin/gcc
Path to kernel headers: /usr/src/linux-headers-3.0.0-17-generic/include/

Just continue accepting the default settings until the installation is done.
=====================
After installation, the terminal had the following information:

/usr/bin/vmware-toolbox-cmd or /usr/bin/vmware-toolbox to start VMware Tools

To enable advanced X features, do:
1. Manually start /usr/bin/vmware-user
2. Log out and back into desktop session
3. Restart your X session

Tried to do the 'vmware-user' command, but it is not found. This didn't seem to matter, though.
Did the 'vmware-toolbox' command and got the toolbox for configuring VMware Tools. That's good.
After this, can run the VM full-screen.

I re-booted the VM at this point, and then maximized the VMware Player window. It goes to full-screen, and stretches the Zorin-OS desktop to match. The toolbar at the bottom of the screen takes a minute to finally move and resize itself, but it does this without trouble.

I haven't tried to use the Shared Folder yet. If anyone gets that to work, please add your instructions to this thread. Thanks

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When I have figured out how a particular thing is done, I try to write up very detailed and complete instructions that can be followed by a beginner. This is because I believe the only way to gain more Linux users is to be nice to new users. Forum advice that says "Just use sudo apt-get and you'll be fine" is very unhelpful when you don't know where those words go, and what they do. I hope others in this forum will be similarly helpful in their advice.
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Thanks for the (Solved) tag!

You're right about the software center. It is indeed quite extensive and easy to use. I have been telling my friends and co-workers about Zorin-OS, and have set up a laptop at work to show to them.