Most Linux distributions include open-vm-tools and some distributions install open-vm-tools by default.
The
open-vm-tools provided by Linux distrubutions meet the need of many users.
Note: Different Linux distributions update their version of
open-vm-tools at different times.
Users can update their
open-vm-tools from the package repository provided by a Linux distribution. The install instructions vary depending on the package management system used by a Linux distribution. Sometimes another package repository can be configured to install a newer version from the OS vendor. For detailed instructions, refer to the documentation of the OS vendor.
In general,
open-vm-tools is supported for OSs that use three different package management systems:
- Ubuntu, Debian and Related OSes from this family use apt to install Debian (*.deb) packages
- Red Hat, Fedora and CentOS use dnf or yum to install RPM (*.rpm) packages
- SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE) and openSUSE use zypper to install RPM (*.rpm) packages
All distributions split the package into a system and a desktop component. The desktop component is useful on systems that have a graphical UI (X11, Wayland, and so on). The package names are 'open-vm-tools' and 'open-vm-tools-desktop'. SLE and openSUSE ship another package 'libvmtools' as a dependency. The package management system automatically installs this dependency when 'open-vm-tools' or 'open-vm-tools-desktop' are installed.
Prerequisites
Like installing any other software on the guest, set up the package repository properly for the guest.
