How to install .bundle packages in Ubuntu?

First be warned, installing files from outside of Ubuntu repository may compromise the system. VMware is probably safe, but it still should be mentioned.

1. You need to change permission of the file to make it executable:

   chmod a+x VMware-Player-6.0.3-1895310.x86_64.bundle
   

2. Start the file. You will most probably need root privileges to install VMWare, but that is not always the case. So in this case:

   sudo ./VMware-Player-6.0.3-1895310.x86_64.bundle
   

How to find out what kind of file it is?

The .bundle files for VMware Player, Workstation, and other products are actually shell scripts, with embedded binary data. You can discover or verify this with the file utility, which is handy for finding out what kind of file something (probably) is:

ek@Ilex:~$ file VMware-Player-6.0.3-1895310.x86_64.bundle
VMware-Player-6.0.3-1895310.x86_64.bundle: a /usr/bin/env bash script executable (binary data)

How to use the file, based on this information?

You can make it executable with chmod, then run it:

chmod +x VMware-Player-6.0.3-1895310.x86_64.bundle
sudo ./VMware-Player-6.0.3-1895310.x86_64.bundle

(If it's the only .bundle file in your current directory, you can just use chmod +x *.bundle and ./*.bundle. Or type the first few characters of the filename and press Tab, and the shell will type the rest out for you.)

Why sudo?

Virtualization software, such as VMware products, must be installed as root. This is why I put sudo at the start of the second line. (In contrast to virtualization, emulators not employing any virtualization may generally be installed and used by a limited user, without any action by root.)

Why is plain sudo okay here, when the installer is graphical?

VMware product installers are graphical (at least for part of the installation). Although it's generally recommended to avoid running a graphical program with sudo program (preferring gksudo program or sudo -H program), in this case it should be fine:

• The VMware Player installer, and executable installers in general, are unlikely to attempt to write configuration files to the home directory of the user running them.
• And even if they did, the configuration files would pertain to the installer itself--they wouldn't prevent programs from being run normally by the limited user because you're unlikely to want to run such an installer as a non-root user.