Member Avatar for paulmarrington

This recipe is designed to only highlight exceptions. Other screens and choices are either subjective or obvious. One of the biggest problems to overcome is with respect to file sharing. I like keeping my files on the mac with Ubuntu reading and changing them as required.

* Insert DVD including Ubuntu CD Image.
* Run Fusion
* Start a new VM - Linux/Ubuntu of course
* Give it at least a 4Gb drive size. Basic install is just over 3Gb. I used 8Gb.
* When starting, use installation image - and point to the ISO on the DVD with the Ubuntu install.
* After boot double-click on the Install desktop icon.
* When you get to keyboard layout don't forget to set it to Macintosh.
* Don't use a user the same as you pack at this point. I suggest Owner/owner. (I tried Administrator/administrator and could not log in).
* Restart in the newly created system - removing the CD when asked.
* Go to the Virtual Machine menu option in Fusion and ask to install the tools.
* Return to the VM. A cdrom0 browser has opened.
* Double-click on VMwareTools-e.x.p-49528.tar.gz. The rpm says it isn't the correct version.
* Press the extract button and save vmware-tools-distrib to your home directory.
* Change the root password from menu System / Administration / Users and Groups.
* Open a terminal from menu Applications / Accessories.
* Type su and press enter. Enter your password.
* Enter the following commands:
o cd vmware-tools-distrib
o ./vmware-install.pl
* The default answers are all suitable - but the process takes out your network connection.
* The last thing it does is run vmware-config-tools.pl. Ignore it's pleas to change the network configuration manually. This is only when you need to reconfigure after an upgrade.
* Reboot the Ubuntu vm - and the nertwork comes back.
* Go to the Fusion VM machine settings and enable shared folders (also at power on).
* Press the plus (+) and add a new shared folder. Personally I called it Host and pointed it to my home directory. Don't forget to tick the enabled box here also or it can't be seen.
* Return to Ubunto and open the finder (menu Places | Home will do).
* Open a location with ^L or menu Go | Location and type /mnt/hgfs.
* Open a terminal and type:
o cd /mnt/hgfs/Host
o ls -l
* Since this is your home directory there should be files and directories owned by you. Record the user and group IDs. If you are the only user on your Mac they will probably be 501.
* Open System / Administration / Users and Groups.
* Create a new group with the same user name and password as for the Mac and an ID recorded from above (501).
* Create a new user. Set the UID to that of the Mac and the group created above in the Advanced tab.

If you have multiple Mac users, create users with matching names, passwords and UID/GUID on Ubuntu. That way they can share files with their home directory.

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A short, modern addendum to 's 2007 recipe and the follow-ups from and .

The recommended way to get VMware guest integration on contemporary Ubuntu guests is the distro-supplied Open VM Tools rather than the old VMwareTools tarball. Open-vm-tools installs and updates cleanly through apt, avoids compiling kernel modules, and is what both Ubuntu and VMware now recommend. Installing the packages keeps clipboard, display resizing and (desktop) integration maintained by the OS update cycle. (wiki.ubuntu.com)

When the goal is keeping files on macOS and letting Linux read them, HGFS (the Fusion “Shared Folders” feature) still exists but now relies on a FUSE driver (vmhgfs-fuse) and has known edge cases for heavy or git-style workloads. For a more robust, portable setup (especially if the VM files are moved between hosts), use a network share from the Mac (SMB) or NFS and mount it inside Ubuntu. Example useful commands (install helpers and mount a CIFS/SMB share) are shown below:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y open-vm-tools open-vm-tools-desktop cifs-utils

# mount an SMB share (example)
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/hostshare
sudo mount -t cifs //MAC_HOST/ShareName /mnt/hostshare \
  -o credentials=/etc/smbcredentials,uid=1000,gid=1000,vers=3.0

SMB on macOS is built in (File Sharing / SMB options in System Settings) and is often the simplest cross-host option; the CIFS mount options allow mapping file ownership without changing guest UIDs. If HGFS is still preferred, be prepared to mount vmhgfs-fuse manually or add an fstab entry and to test heavy-write workloads for correctness. (support.apple.com)

A final note on hardware: on Apple Silicon hosts Fusion requires ARM guest images — x86 guests will not run on M1/M2/M3 machines. Boot Camp is unrelated to virtualization and is only for Intel Macs. These platform limits affect choice of Ubuntu ISO (use arm64 on Apple Silicon). (knowledge.broadcom.com)

This complements 's steps (guest-side accounts and sharing preferences) and echoes 's suggestion to consider SMB/NFS when Shared Folders proves flaky. Back up the VM before moving it between different hosts or running it off removable media.

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Member Avatar for MacJunkie

Nice write-up. I've been running it under Parallels for some time now and enjoy it a lot.

Member Avatar for jbennet

Why not just use NFS or Samba?

Member Avatar for paulmarrington

Why not just use NFS or Samba?

You can. I use Samba for my XP VM since I can't get the Shared Folders to work. It requires that I have Windows Sharing enabled on the Mac - a security hole I would rather have plugged. It has also disconnected once or twice. Since I keep my accounts files on the Mac being accessed by the XP VM, I find this a little concerning.

My Mac is a notebook. It floats between networks. I run my machines NATted so that they can get out but are isolated from the networks. Shared Folders appeared to be a nice private solution - and simpler to set up than Samba or NFS. I tried Samba but had difficulties.

Member Avatar for jbennet

Yeah. I dont have a mac myself though, i was just recommending that from experience.

I myself use Virtual PC to run XP from within Vista (compatibility reasons) and the Sharing Fodlers never work so I just use SMB.

And you dont need to use SMB to share between linux/osx . I thaught the mac has NFS?

Member Avatar for paulmarrington

And you dont need to use SMB to share between linux/osx . I thaught the mac has NFS?

It does - 'cept for 2 things. Firstly I was too lazy to find out how it is set up for the Mac. Secondly I use the same VM (on a USB drive) on both Mac and Windows machines.

Member Avatar for H8 New Accounts

"Don't use a user the same as you pack at this point."

What does that mean?

Member Avatar for H8 New Accounts

Here's a link that goes over the process of ironing out folder sharing issues between OS X and Linux with a Fusion setup.

Member Avatar for kidsoo

did you try bootcamp ?
i do not try it,but i think it may works

Member Avatar for John A

>did you try bootcamp ?
Boot Camp is only intended to aid a native installation of Windows on Mac hardware. It has nothing to do with emulating WIndows on a Mac.

Member Avatar for jbennet

Also, this post was from 2007 so its quite possible it was an old PowerPC mac (which doesnt support bootcamp)

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