Please note that these instructions are for Ubuntu 7.10. Newer versions of Ubuntu can just follow the normal installation instructions at http://www.vmware.com/download/player/.

So it turns out that the current release of Ubuntu (at least for another four days), “Gutsy Gibbon”, gave VMware Player the big cold shoulder and removed it as an installable package.

To top it off, the email-capture marketing application that VMware uses is broken, so you can’t download vmware-player through their website now. (How is this acceptable? Shame on both companies–eloqua for downtime with something as simple as a form capture, and vmware for not canceling their service).

Some sleuthing came up with the direct URL to the download for VMware Player 2.0.3.

While that downloads, go install the required packages:

sudo apt-get install \
  build-essential linux-headers-generic \
  linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Uncompress the archive:

sudo mkdir -p /opt/vmware-player
sudo chown $(whoami) /opt/vmware-player
cd /opt/vmware-player
tar xvzf ~/Desktop/VMware-player-2.0.3-80004.i386.tar.gz

Then start the install. I’d recommend not putting the binaries into /usr/bin (as this will be a non-.deb installation, and it will make the uninstalling easier):

sudo ./vmware-install.pl
...
In which directory do you want to install the binary files?
[/usr/bin] /opt/vmware-player/bin
...

From here on out, take the default values.