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Install Compiled Open VM Tools from Backports on Debian 11 arm64

IT Infrastructure Architect

An article called VMware Tools for Debian 10 arm64 on ESXi-Arm on Virten.net explains that a compiled version of Open VM Tools is not available in repositories for ARM builds of many common guest operating systems. Their workaround is to compile a version from the source code.

Disadvantages

This approach works, but disadvantages include:

  • a long compile time
  • a complex process for those unfamiliar with software development
  • the requirement to download supporting libraries that consume disk space and increase administrative surface
  • resulting compiled binaries will not be kept up to date by the system package manager

An alternative from Backports

So, an alternative approach is to install a compiled binary from an alternative repository. For Debian 11, a compiled binary is present in the Backports repository. Here are the steps to follow:

Add the backports repositories to the system by amending the apt sources file using a text editor of your choice:

nano /etc/apt/sources.list

append the backports repositories:

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-backports main contrib non-free deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-backports main contrib non-free

save and exit. Then, update the available packages from the new repositories:

apt update

Finally, install the compiled Open VM Tools package from the backports repository:

apt install open-vm-tools -t bullseye-backports -y

Advantages of this approach include:

  • quick and easy process versus compiling your own binary
  • less disk space consumed
  • system package manager will manage dependencies and apply available updates

A potential disadvantage is that the stability of your system may be risked by using packages that have not been so thoroughly tested versus packages from the official repositories. But overall, I consider this an acceptable risk.

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