How to install VMware Workstation Player on Ubuntu Linux

This post shows students and new users the steps to install and use VMware Workstation Player on Ubuntu Linux. VMware Workstation Player is cross-platform virtualization software that allows you to run multiple guest machines (virtual machines) simultaneously on a single host computer.

Although VMware Workstation Player is free for personal use only, it is not open source software. If you are looking for open source virtualization software, you might want to give VirtualBox a try.

If you are going to use VMware Workstation Player in a commercial environment, you will need to purchase a license. Business users can also use VMware Workstation Pro, which offers more features than the player.

If you are a student or a new user learning Linux, the easiest place to start learning is on Ubuntu Linux. Ubuntu is the modern open source Linux operating system for desktops, servers, and other devices.

For more information on VMware Workstation Player, see your Homepage.

When you are ready to install VMware Workstation Player on Ubuntu Linux, follow the steps below:

For best performance, your system must meet the following requirements:

1.3 GHz or faster 64-bit CPU.
2GB RAM minimum / 4GB RAM or more recommended.

How to packages in Ubuntu Linux

To install VMware Workstation Player on Ubuntu, you must first install the support packages and create dependencies.

To do that, run the following commands.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install wget gcc build-essential linux-headers-generic linux-headers-$(uname -r)

How to download and install VMware Player

After installing the above packages, download VMware Workstation Player from its download page and install it. The link below takes you there.

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/downloads

Alternatively, run the following commands to download the latest version of VMware Workstation Player.

cd /tmp
wget --user-agent="Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:91.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/91.0" https://www.vmware.com/go/getplayer-linux

After downloading the above, run the following commands to make the package executable and install VMware Workstation Player.

chmod +x getplayer-linux
sudo ./getplayer-linux

On Ubuntu, the installation will run non-interactively. This means that you will not have to complete an installation wizard.

After a short moment, the installation should complete with a success message similar to the one shown below. Once you see the message below, you are done.

Extracting VMware Installer...done.

Installing VMware Player 16.1.2

    Configuring...

[######################################################################] 100%

Installation was successful.

After the above installation, launch VMware Workstation Player from the Activity Pane. Click on the Show app button at the bottom left.

In the apps panel, find and select VMware Player.

Once you click on the app, its welcome wizard will open. Accept the license terms to continue

Agree to check for product updates at startup and continue

For personal use, choose “Use VMWare Player free for non-commercial use“. If you are going to use it in a commercial environment, you must purchase a license key and enter it here or after installing the program.

Click End up

After that, the VMware Player console should open ready to start creating guest machines.

The first thing you’ll want to do is update the VMware Player components. To do that, click Proceedings and select Player Preferences.

On the preferences screen, click Download all components now button. Please wait for all guest tools to finish downloading before creating virtual machines.

You should do that!

Conclusion:

In this tutorial we have seen how to install and use VMware Workstation Player on Ubuntu Linux. If you find any errors above or have something to add, please use the comment form below.