VMware/Player

VMware Player
VMware Player - http://www.vmware.com/products/player/
 * Free tool to play VMs from a Windows/Linux desktop

Download VMware Player - http://www.vmware.com/go/downloadplayer/
 * VMware Player for Windows 64-bit
 * VMware Player for Linux 64-bit

Current version: VMware Player 7.0.0 (as of December 2014)

Free for Personal Use
The FREE VMware Player is free for personal use only (non-commerical use) and you must also agree to receive promotional emails from VMware related to VMware Player. If you need to use VMware Player for commercial use, see VMware Player Pro.

Windows
Straight forward, just download and execute the VMware-player-7.0.0-2305329.exe executable.

Linux
Download VMware-Player-7.0.0-2305329.x86_64.bundle and then...

Installation: chmod +x VMware-Player-7.0.0-2305329.x86_64.bundle ./VMware-Player-7.0.0-2305329.x86_64.bundle
 * 1) download VMware-Player-7.0.0-2305329.x86_64.bundle

Installation questions (just answer defaults): Extracting VMware Installer...done. You must accept the VMware Player End User License Agreement to continue. Press Enter to proceed.
 * 1) ./VMware-Player-7.0.0-2305329.x86_64.bundle

VMWARE END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT ... Do you agree? [yes/no]: yes

You must accept the VMware OVF Tool component for Linux End User License Agreement to continue. Press Enter to proceed.

VMWARE END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT ... Do you agree? [yes/no]: yes

Would you like to check for product updates on startup? [yes]:

Would you like to help make VMware software better by sending anonymous system data and usage statistics to VMware? [yes]:

Enter license key. (optional) You can enter this information later.:

The product is ready to be installed. Press Enter to begin installation or Ctrl-C to cancel.

Installing VMware Player 7.0.0 Configuring... [######################################################################] 100% Installation was successful.

Linux VNC
If you are running a bare bones Linux server, you can run the VMware Player under a minimal VNC server.

Ubuntu: apt-get update apt-get install tightvncserver vncpasswd vncserver

vncserver startup: xauth: file /root/.Xauthority does not exist
 * 1) vncserver

New 'X' desktop is oeey.com:1

Creating default startup script /root/.vnc/xstartup Starting applications specified in /root/.vnc/xstartup Log file is /root/.vnc/oeey.com:1.log

default: ~/.vnc/xstartup (with LXDE)
 * 1) !/bin/sh

xrdb $HOME/.Xresources xsetroot -solid grey export XKL_XMODMAP_DISABLE=1 /etc/X11/Xsession
 * 1) x-terminal-emulator -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &
 * 2) x-window-manager &
 * 3) Fix to make GNOME work

Then setup an SSH tunnel to connect to the VNC connection (or open your firewall).

First Time - enter email
$ vmplayer

VMware Player 7
 * I want to use VMware Player 7 for free for personal use. Enter a valid email address to use VMware Player for free for non-commerical use. You agree to receive promotional emails from VMware related to VMware Player.

NAT Port Forwarding
/etc/vmware/vmnet8/nat/nat.conf [incomingtcp]


 * 1) Use these with care - anyone can enter into your VM through these...
 * 2) The format and example are as follows:
 * 3) = :
 * 4) 8080 = 172.16.3.128:80

3389 = 192.168.225.128:3389
 * 1) RDP

7777 = 192.168.225.128:7777
 * 1) Terraria

Restart network services: vmware-networks --stop vmware-networks --start

Full Screen
In .vmx: gui.fullScreenAtPowerOn = "TRUE"

Source: http://communities.vmware.com/message/328738

No Toolbar
pref.vmplayer.fullscreen.nobar = "true"

Source: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=830048

Control Keys
In /etc/vmware/config or C:\Documents and Settings\ \Application Data\VMware\preferences.ini pref.hotkey.shift = "true" pref.hotkey.control = "true" pref.hotkey.alt = "true"

Source: http://communities.vmware.com/message/328738

Linux Full Screen
Everyone, I figured that some of you may have use for this information. Here is essentially a how-to for the kiosk system.

I use the following to change the keymapping, since ctrl-alt-shift are rarely used together.

In /etc/vmware/config add the following

pref.hotkey.shift = "TRUE"

pref.hotkey.control = "TRUE"

pref.hotkey.alt = "TRUE"

For auto launching and re-launching, this can be done several ways.

First, the Vmware machine should be fully accessible from the user, as in 777 rights.

Then, have following line to the .xinitrc in the users home folder. The only line.

vmplayer -X /path/to/virtual/machine.vmx

this way, when the program is closed, X will exit. The X makes it start full-screen.

Then, set startx as the users shell. This will make it so that when X exits when the machine is shutdown or the VMPlayer closes, the user will be logged off. Example:

vmtest:x:1001:100:,,,:/home/vmtest:/usr/bin/startx

Now, that being done, you can go several ways. If you want the VM to start up Automatically on computer start up, and to start again when the vm is shut down, but still have local access to the console. i.e. CTRL-ALT-SHIFT, then CTRL-ALT-F1, you would have the following as the last of the consoles that are created. If you dont want that type of access, have it be the first.

/etc/inittab

c6:12345:respawn:/bin/su - vmtest 38400 tty6 linux

This will auto-login the user on the 6th console, start X, launch Vmware Player, full screen, when the vm is shut down, vmplayer exits, X closes, the user is logged off, the console is re-started, and voila, it starts over.

A different way to do it would be on computer startup, and this is for gentoo linux, Im not sure with whatever distro you are using, the file is /etc/conf.d/local.start. Add a line of su  vmtest && halt. This will log in, have no console access, start X, load VMware player, start the vm, and on shutdown, shut the machine off completely.

Source: http://communities.vmware.com/message/328738