VMware tools not working 14.04

Solution 1:

To install the VMWare Tools provided by VMWare as an iso:

Step 1: Install the build tools.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential

Step 2: Every time you update your kernel, install the headers:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Step 3: Install/Update the tools from the vmware-tools-distrib directory:

To Install:

sudo ./vmware-tools-install.pl

To Update:

sudo ./vmware-tools-config.pl

The newer VMWare Tools installers warns you in advance to try and find an open-vm-tools package if available.

To install open-vm-tools from the console, type in:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools open-vm-tools-desktop

Restart the PC, log in and you're done!

However, there are some caveats, listed here.

Solution 2:

If I remember correctly, at some point Ubuntu switched to open-vm-tools, try this package instead of the old vmware tools. Those packages are based on the source code VMware released, but are open source.