VMware Tools is a set of utilities that enhances the performance and functionality of guest operating systems running on VMware virtual machines. However, there may be situations where you need to uninstall VMware Tools from your Linux, Solaris, or FreeBSD guest operating system. In this guide, we will show you how to uninstall VMware Tools on these operating systems.
Step 1: Shut down the virtual machine
Before uninstalling VMware Tools, you need to shut down the virtual machine. You can do this from within the guest operating system or by using the VMware vSphere client or web interface.
Step 2: Remove VMware Tools
After shutting down the virtual machine, you can remove VMware Tools from the guest operating system. The steps to do this may vary depending on the operating system.
Linux
To remove VMware Tools from a Linux guest operating system, you can use the following command as root:
vmware-uninstall-tools.pl
This will run the VMware Tools uninstaller script and remove VMware Tools from the guest operating system.
[root@geeks ~]# vmware-uninstall-tools.pl Uninstalling the tar installation of VMware Tools. Stopping services for vmware-tools initctl: Unknown instance: Stopping services for vmware-tools-thinprint initctl: Unknown instance: This program previously created the file /usr/lib/vmware-tools/lib64/libconf/etc/pango/pango.modules, and was about to remove it. Somebody else apparently did it already. File /etc/vmware-tools/vmware-user.desktop is backed up to /etc/vmware-tools/vmware-user.desktop.old.0. File /usr/lib/vmware-tools/lib64/libconf/etc/gtk-2.0/gtk.immodules is backed up to /usr/lib/vmware-tools/lib64/libconf/etc/gtk-2.0/gtk.immodules.old.0. File /usr/lib/vmware-tools/lib64/libconf/etc/gtk-2.0/gdk-pixbuf.loaders is backed up to /usr/lib/vmware-tools/lib64/libconf/etc/gtk-2.0/gdk-pixbuf.loaders.old.0. This program previously created the file /usr/lib/vmware-tools/libconf/etc/gtk-2.0/gdk-pixbuf.loaders, and was about to remove it. Somebody else apparently did it already. This program previously created the file /usr/lib/vmware-tools/lib64/libconf/etc/pango/pangorc, and was about to remove it. Somebody else apparently did it already. This program previously created the file /usr/lib/vmware-tools/libconf/etc/gtk-2.0/gtk.immodules, and was about to remove it. Somebody else apparently did it already. This program previously created the file /usr/lib/vmware-tools/lib64/libconf/etc/pango/pangox.aliases, and was about to remove it. Somebody else apparently did it already. This program previously created the directory /usr/lib/vmware-tools/lib64/libconf/etc/gtk-2.0, and was about to remove it. Since there are files in that directory that this program did not create, it will not be removed. This program previously created the directory /usr/lib/vmware-tools/lib64/libconf/etc, and was about to remove it. Since there are files in that directory that this program did not create, it will not be removed. This program previously created the directory /usr/lib/vmware-tools/lib64/libconf, and was about to remove it. Since there are files in that directory that this program did not create, it will not be removed. This program previously created the directory /usr/lib/vmware-tools/lib64, and was about to remove it. Since there are files in that directory that this program did not create, it will not be removed. This program previously created the directory /usr/lib/vmware-tools, and was about to remove it. Since there are files in that directory that this program did not create, it will not be removed. The removal of VMware Tools 9.2.2 build-893683 for Linux completed successfully. Thank you for having tried this software.
Solaris
To remove VMware Tools from a Solaris guest operating system, you can use the following command as root:
pkginfo -l VMwareTools pkgrm VMwareTools
This will list the VMware Tools package information and then remove it from the guest operating system.
FreeBSD
To remove VMware Tools from a FreeBSD guest operating system, you can use the following command as root:
cd /usr/local/etc/rc.d/ ./vmware-tools.sh stop ./vmware-tools.sh uninstall
This will stop the VMware Tools daemon and then remove VMware Tools from the guest operating system.
Step 3: Restart the virtual machine
After removing VMware Tools from the guest operating system, you can restart the virtual machine. You can do this from within the guest operating system or by using the VMware vSphere client or web interface.
Commands Mentioned:
- vmware-uninstall-tools.pl – runs the VMware Tools uninstaller script on Linux
- pkginfo – displays package information on Solaris
- pkgrm – removes a package on Solaris
- vmware-tools.sh – stops and uninstalls VMware Tools on FreeBSD
Conclusion:
In this guide, we have shown you how to uninstall VMware Tools from Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD guest operating systems. Removing VMware Tools may be necessary if you are migrating a virtual machine to a different hypervisor or if you no longer need the enhanced functionality provided by VMware Tools. Remember to shut down the virtual machine before removing VMware Tools and then restart it after the removal process is complete.
