From LQWiki

VMware allows you to run one or more virtual machines at the same time on one computer.

The company VMware has recently released VMware Player and VMware Server to be used for free.

Caveats

When upgrading versions of VMware, you might break LDAP integration. If this happens, check /etc/pam.d/vmware-authd. By default, it will look like:

#%PAM-1.0
auth sufficient /lib/security/pam_unix2.so shadow nullok
auth required /lib/security/pam_unix_auth.so shadow nullok
account sufficient /lib/security/pam_unix2.so
account required /lib/security/pam_unix_acct.so

To get LDAP authentication working again, change it to:

#%PAM-1.0
auth include system-auth
account required pam_nologin.so
account include system-auth
password include system-auth
session optional pam_keyinit.so force revoke
session include system-auth
session required pam_loginuid.so


TroubleShooting

• If you get a pop-up saying "Failed to initialize mouse-keyboard-screen control", you have probably tried to start your virtual machine in an nx session. Better use a vnc session.

External links

• VMware Workstation 4.5.2 review (www.extremetech.com)
• VMware on gentoo (escargot.icehouse.net)