Automatically accepting all the defaults when installing VMware Tools on Linux

by with No Comment Misc

You know when you’ve spent hours (or at least it seems like hours) completing a very dull repetitive task, and then suddenly you go “Doh!”?

I had one of those this morning when installing VMware Tools on a CentOS VM that I will clone to be the basis of about 5-10 other VMs.  Usually this is a long process of accepting a bunch of default answers – it is really very unusual for me to take any non-default option, particularly when there is no X Windows installed. It’s one of those tasks that’s not fast enough to not be dull and yet not slow enough that you can go make a coffee while it completes.  There are at least 15 prompts to answer.

So I had a flash of inspiration, probably fuelled by those final drops of cold coffee from the previous monotonous task! ”I wonder if there’s an option to just have the installer accept all the defaults, and not ask every single time?”

Well guess what, there is…

[box color=”gray”]./vmware-install.pl –default[/box]

Tricky huh? 😉

Now I can just set the installer going (or indeed, script the entire process of getting the package on the machine, unpacking it, installing and then cleaning up).  Colour me one crazily happy man 😛

‘MyTools’ – an upcoming series

by with One Comment Misc

A few years ago, I ran a series of blog posts on apps, services, products and tools that I use in my day-to-day job and to run Collaboration Matters.

Given the advances we’ve seen in the consumer and enterprise IT sectors, and particularly in cloud and mobile technologies, I figure that it is time to revisit the meme.

So look out for a number of posts over the next month – I’d love to have your feedback on whether you agree with my selections, or indeed if you have similar tips of your own!