Automatically install open-vm-tools when installer running in a VMware VM

[vmware-gos-Yuhua]

It is valuable for open-vm-tools to install automatically for both desktop and server if their OS installer detects that it is running on a VMware VM.

This may require first work with the Debian community to get this implemented for Debian since Ubuntu is based on Debian.
[Debian bug#782287]
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=782287

[vmware-gos-Yuhua (yhzou)]

Currently open-vm-tools is installed automatically by default when install guestOS ubuntu server in ESXi. But It's not installed automatically when install guestOS ubuntu desktop in ESXi and we need to install it with command "sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools"

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

I linked the Debian bug here in the bug taskss.

I supplied a rewritten simplified approach in [1] and would hope for feedback and testing on the Debian bug.

On the Ubuntu side we are well past 18.10 feature freeze, so we are not in a hurry.

[1]: https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/hw-detect/merge_requests/2

[Joshua Powers (powersj)]

+subiquity task

[Joshua Powers (powersj)]

@yhzou

>But It's not installed automatically when install guestOS ubuntu desktop in ESXi

1) Can you please link to the Ubuntu Desktop ISO you are using?
2) Can you confirm this is working with the Ubuntu Server and Ubuntu Server live ISOs?

[Joshua Powers (powersj)]

From latest sync notes:

Currently open-vm-tools is installed automatically when install Ubuntu Live Server image (cosmic-live-server-amd64.iso) and ubuntu cloud image(cosmic-server-cloudimg-amd64.ova) in ESXi and the open-vm-tools works well.

But for server image (ubuntu-18.10-server-amd64.iso) and desktop image (ubuntu-18.10-desktop-amd64.iso), open-vm-tools is not installed by default and we need to install it manually by using command "apt install open-vm-tools"

---

This would indicate that this is only occurring on the debian-installer (d-i) based ISOs and not the cloud image (OVA) or live-iso (subiquity).

Can you please confirm this?

[vmware-gos-Yuhua (yhzou)]

>But It's not installed automatically when install guestOS ubuntu desktop in ESXi

> 1) Can you please link to the Ubuntu Desktop ISO you are using?
> 2) Can you confirm this is working with the Ubuntu Server and Ubuntu Server live ISOs?

  1) Ubuntu Desktop ISO: ubuntu-18.10-desktop-amd64.iso and ubuntu-18.04-desktop-amd64.iso

  2) For Ubuntu Server live ISOs(cosmic-live-server-amd64.iso),open-vm-tools is installed automatically when install guestOS. But for Ubuntu Server(ubuntu-18.10-server-amd64.iso), it's not.

[vmware-gos-Yuhua (yhzou)]

> From latest sync notes:

> Currently open-vm-tools is installed automatically when install Ubuntu Live Server image
  (cosmic-live-server-amd64.iso) and ubuntu cloud image(cosmic-server-cloudimg-amd64.ova) in ESXi
  and the open-vm-tools works well.

  But for server image (ubuntu-18.10-server-amd64.iso) and desktop image (ubuntu-18.10-desktop-
  amd64.iso), open-vm-tools is not installed by default and we need to install it manually by
  using command "apt install open-vm-tools"

  ---

> Can you please confirm this?

  Yes. I confirm this.

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

@Josh hearing the above confirmed you might find someone in foundations who would consider my MP at least for our branch of D-I?

[Joshua Powers (powersj)]

I've marked the subiquity task as invalid given the updated information and added the debian-installer task

[Will Cooke (willcooke)]

Desktop would be firmly in favour of adding this feature to the Ubiquity based installer. We've had a look and other than seeding open-vm-tools and adding the change to d-i, everything else should just work.

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

On Desktop we need open-vm-tools-desktop which has dependencies on "open-vm-tools" core package and X libraries and provides additional desktop specific features.

I don't have ESX but with 19.04 and VMWare player easy install, this package is installed and desktop integration works out of the box on first boot. However we have to add this feature to the installer for manual installation for a seamless desktop integration (copy/paste, DnD, …)

open-vm-tools-desktop is in universe and must be promoted to main to integrate it to the installer.

[vmware-gos-Yuhua (yhzou)]

VMware PR https://bugzilla.eng.vmware.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1316614 for tracking this issue.

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

On a side note, on Disco (and probably previous release) to install drivers from vmware player's UI you have to manually install libncursesw5.

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

Hi,
open-vm-tools already is in main and so is the source [1]
Therefore all you need to get open-vm-tools-desktop to main is to seed it (or add a dependency at the right place from your installer if that is better for you).
It is ready and the component mismatch can be fixed up by an AA then.

@Jibel - about the need for libncursesw5 I'd ask you to file a new bug with more details what happens, and what is missing. That sounds like a Recommends: libncursesw5 missing on some open-vm-tools package right? libncursesw5 is in main as well already, so adding that isn't a problem we just need to ensure this really is what we need.

[1]: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/open-vm-tools/+bug/1220950

[Joshua Powers (powersj)]

Hi,

Is there an update we can provide on enabling this in the desktop ISO?

Thanks!

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

@josh the FFe bug for desktop is bug 1819207, the only remaining bit we need is a release of ubiquity.

[vmware-gos-Yuhua (yhzou)]

this issue is fixed in ubuntu 19.04 desktop