How to install VMWare converter on Ubuntu 12.04

Question

I bought a laptop. It came with windows. I prefer to use Ubuntu. I need to use Windows at times. I would like to migrate the OEM windows installation to a virtual machine within Ubuntu.

That is the long-term goal. For the moment I would like to install and use VMWare converter on Ubuntu 12.04 x64. Here is the most relevant google hit on this topic:

http://linhost.info/2009/04/vmware-converter-installation-on-ubuntu-linux/

You need to follow this link and register with VMware to download the converter. I did this. Note that v4.0.1 is the most recent version available for Ubuntu. http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/overview.html

I installed VMWare converter and the installer reported success. Here's what happens when I try to run it:

jack@lumpy:~/Downloads/vmware-converter-distrib$ vmware-converter-client 
/usr/lib/vmware-vcenter-converter-standalone/converter-gui: error while loading shared libraries: libXrandr.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

libxrandr-dev and libxrandr2 are installed via Synaptic. No help. No useful hits on google.

I tried to link the existing libraries on my system. A different error results.

jack@lumpy:~/Downloads/vmware-converter-distrib$ locate libXrandr.so.2
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXrandr.so.2
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXrandr.so.2.2.0
jack@lumpy:~/Downloads/vmware-converter-distrib$ sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXrandr.so.2 /usr/lib/libXrandr.so.2
jack@lumpy:~/Downloads/vmware-converter-distrib$ vmware-converter-client 
/usr/lib/vmware-vcenter-converter-standalone/converter-gui: error while loading shared libraries: libXrandr.so.2: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64

I've previously received ELF class errors when I've tried to substitute 64-bit libraries for 32-bit software.

Am I out of luck here? Is there no way to install VMWare converter on 64-bit Ubuntu?

Answer 1

The issue, which I experienced, appears to be related to a lack of 32bit libs.

Running strace shows a large number of system calls looking for libraries in '/lib/i686' and '/usr/lib/i686' etc, when i can see that the (64bit) libraries are exclusively installed into /lib/x86-64-linux-gnu/.

To fix you may need 32-bit libs on a 64bit Ubuntu, located in the right directories (I am using 14.04 LTS).

If you are running 64bit Ubuntu, run these (as root): apt-get install libxrandr2:i38 apt-get install libxcursor1:i386 apt-get install libxinerama1:i386

The installation of these allowed me to run VMWare Converter standalone on Ubuntu 14.04 (satisfying the 32bit library dependancies) by placing the 32bit libs in /usr/lib.

Simon

Answer 2

vmware-converter-client now works perfectly, even though nothing has changed. One of the necessary packages (possibly ia32-libs) must have been updated to fix this.