How to install VMware tools in Kali linux

If you managed to install Kali Linux inside of VMware Player, a free virtual machine manager program.

Then u should now install VMware Tools cause it comes with some nice additions to Kali Linux, it allows you to stretch the windows freely, copy files from the host OS to the guest (Kali) and from the guest to the host.

But in order for these features to work, you have to install VMware Tools.

This can sometimes be a hard project for beginners.

Step One:

Start Kali Linux up via the VMware Player

Step Two:

Once your virtual machine is booted up

Login to the root account (you need root privileges to install vmware tools)

After u logged in u should be on your desktop

Now since u recently installed Kali linux the iso is still mounted on the CD-Rom drive, so we need to eject it first before we can mount the VMware tools ISO

Eject the Kali Linux ISO by clicking on Places in the top Navigation Bar and the click on Home Folder like shown below

Now u should see this 

 And click on the upward arrow (eject) like shown on the picture above.

Next do the following

Click in the top left on Player —-->Manage—->Install VMware Tools

like shown in picture below

Now this should have opened up the cdrom drive automatically once u clicked Install VMware tools

The VMware tools iso mounted on the virtual cdrom drive on the left

And inside the file VMware Tools-9.6.1-1378637.tar.gz

Like shown below

 Now right click on the VMwareTools-9.6.1-1378637.tar.gz and choose Copy

like shown below

Now that your file is copied u should move it to somewhere in you virtual machine

I prefer u click in the left bar on Home

and u should now be here

Now that u are in the Home folder u should again right click and select Paste

Like shown below

after u clicked paste the file VMwareTools-9.6.1-1378637.tar.gz should be in your Home folder like shown below

 Now open up a terminal window like shown below

After u clicked the icon u should see this

Now that u see this u should type

ls

and see this

The file VMwareTools-9.6.1-1378637.tar.gz in your terminal

Now that u see this file listed in your terminal

Type 

tar -xf VMwareTools-9.6.1-1378637.tar.gz

 and press Enter

 Like shown below

after u done this u should type

ls 

and see the a folder vmware-tools-distib in blue (Blue indicates it’s a folder)

Now that u see the folder in your terminal listed we should enter it

you do this by entering

cd vmware-tools-distrib

 and press Enter

like shown here

 u should now be here

Now that u are in the vmware-tools-distrib folder

type

ls

and press Enter

and should see this

a file in green named vmware-install.pl (Green means it’s executable)

so now we need to execute the file u do this by entering

./vmware-install.pl

 after u entered this u should press Enter

 like shown below

 after u pressed enter u should see this

Now follow along with the Pictures

Now u see it’s asking In which directory do you want to install the binary files

and [/usr/bin]

just press Enter

What is the directory that contains the init directories (rc0.d/ to rc6.d) ?

[/etc]

just press Enter

What is the directory that contains the init scripts?

[/etc/init.d]

press Enter

In which directory do you want to install the daemon files?

[/usr/sbin]

press Enter

In which directory do you want to install the library files?

[/usr/lib/vmware-tools]

press Enter

The path “/usr/lib/vmware-tools” does not exist currently. This program is going to create it, including neede parent directories. Is this what u want?

press Enter

In which directory do you want to install the documentation files?

[/usr/share/doc/vmware-tools]

press Enter

The path “/usr/share/doc/vmware-tools” does not exist currently. This program is going to create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you want? [yes]

press Enter

The installation of VMware Tools 9.6.1 build-1378637 for Linux completed successfully. You can decide to remove this software from your system at any time by invoking the following command: “/usr/bin/vmware-uninstall-tools.pl” .

Before running VMware Tools for the first time, you need to configure it by invoking the following command: “/usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl” . Do you want this program to invoke the command for you now? [yes]

press Enter

and you should see this happening

 and then this again

The VMware Host-Guest Filesystem allows for shared folders between the host OS and the guest OS in a Fusion or Workstation virtual environment. Do you wish to enable this feature? [yes]

press Enter

The path “/usr/bin/gcc” appears to be a valid path to the gcc binary.

Would you like to change it? [no]

press Enter

Now the next image is very important 

The path “” is not a valid path to the 3..14-kalil-amd64 kernel headers.

Would you like to change it? [yes]

now type NO

and then press Enter

u will then see this message

just press Enter to continue

and you will then see this

also just press Enter to continue

and u will then see the following

The vmblock enables dragging or copying files between host and guest in a Fusion or Workstation virtual environment. Do you wish to enable this feature? [yes]

press Enter

VMware automatic kernel modules enables automatic building and installation of VMware kernel modules at boot that are not already present. This feature can be enabled/disabled by re-running vmware-config-tools.pl .

Would you like to enable VMware automatic kernel modules? [no]

press Enter

and u will the see this happening

Congratulations you now successfully installed VMware Tools on your virtual machine 🙂

The only thing left to do is to restart your virtual machine.