vmware-server on x86_64 CentOS4 / Redhat EL4

vmware-server is a 32bit app. Which is sort of strange, given that vmware claim it can host and run on x8664 kernel + userland. The stangeness sort of goes away when, at install time it drops vmmon and vmnet kernelspace modules with :

vmmon.o: ELF 64-bit LSB relocatable, AMD x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), not stripped
and
vmnet.o: ELF 64-bit LSB relocatable, AMD x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), not stripped


but userspace vm management tools are still all i386/32bit stuff. And even though I like, much like most people, to keep my x86_64 box's x86_64 clean - here's whats needed to make vmware-server run :

expat.i386                               1.95.7-4               
fontconfig.i386                          2.2.3-7                
freetype.i386                            2.1.9-1                
glibc.i686                               2.3.4-2.19             
libgcc.i386                              3.4.5-2                
libselinux.i386                          1.19.1-7               
xorg-x11-Mesa-libGL.i386                 6.8.2-1.EL.13.25       
xorg-x11-libs.i386                       6.8.2-1.EL.13.25       
zlib.i386                                1.2.1.2-1.2 

once you have all these installed, along with vmware-server, you should be able to ssh -Y, into the machine and run the 'vmware' tool with display on your local machine. If you only intend to access the vmware-server with vmware-console, you might get away without the xorg related stuff.

--
Karanbir Singh