Get the latest tar.gz package from the vmware site and unpack it. Go to the vmware-distrib directory and run the script vmware-install.pl
In order to be able to install vmware you will need gcc, the binutils, the linux source, and the kernel header files...
apt-get install binutils gcc linux-source-2.6.10 linux-kernel-headers
To be able to compile vmware you need to compile the kernel at least once. After that, some changes will have to be made:
cd /usr/src/ ln -s linux-source-2.6.10 linux cd linux make menuconfig make cd include ln -s asm-i386 asm cd linux vi version.h
version.h should look like this:
#define UTS_RELEASE "2.6.10-5-386" #define LINUX_VERSION_CODE 132618 #define KERNEL_VERSION(a,b,c) (((a) << 16) + ((b) << 8) + (c))
Perhaps the /dev/parport0 should habe to be changed in order for VMWare to be able to access it. I don't know about security issues here ;-)
chmod 0+rw /dev/parport0
Also make sure that lp is not running as a loaded modules and grabs /dev/parport0. Disable lp in /etc/modules and remove the module from system.