Parallels tools on CentOS virtual appliance (installer fails)

[Stephen Pope]

Hi all,

I'm trying to set up the CentOS 5.0.1 virtual appliance distribution (having given up on getting UbuntuStudio 9 to run at all with Parallels), and I can't get the parallels tools installer to run.

I installed the right version of the kernel sources, e.g.,

[stp:/home/stp] uname -r
2.6.18-8.el5
[stp:/home/stp] rpm -qa | grep kernel
kernel-2.6.18-8.el5
kernel-headers-2.6.18-8.el5
kernel-devel-2.6.18-164.6.1.el5

and I copied the Parallels tools installers off of the CD-ROM image into my home directory, but I still get an error that the installer fails and leaves a log file with the following:

----
2009-12-04T19:38:03-0800:

Parallels Tools 5.0.9220.531002 Installer started.
2009-12-04T19:38:05-0800: execCmd: ./installer/pm.sh check_guest_tools 2>&1 [1]
2009-12-04T19:38:10-0800: Loading "installonlyn" plugin
Setting up Install Process
Setting up repositories
Reading repository metadata in from local files
Parsing package install arguments
Nothing to do
2009-12-04T19:38:10-0800: execCmd: ./installer/pm.sh download_guest_tools 2>&1 [0]

Fri Dec 4 19:38:10 PST 2009
Start installation or upgrade of Guest Tools
Found Guest Tools directory: /usr/lib/parallels-tools
Start removal of user space modules
head: cannot open `/usr/lib/parallels-tools/.backup/.psf' for reading: No such file or directory
sed: -e expression #1, char 0: no previous regular expression
Cannot umount ""

rmdir: : No such file or directory
grep: /usr/lib/parallels-tools/.backup/.psf: No such file or directory
ls: /usr/lib/parallels-tools/.backup/.libgl: No such file or directory
Removing of X server configuration is skipped.
Removal of user space applications and drivers was finished successfully
cat: /usr/lib/parallels-tools/kmods/../version: No such file or directory
cat: ./installer/../version: No such file or directory
Start removal of prl_eth kernel module
Error: could not unload prl_eth kernel module
sed: can't read /usr/lib/parallels-tools/.backup/.kmods.list: No such file or directory
Start removal of prl_tg kernel module
Error: could not unload prl_tg kernel module
sed: can't read /usr/lib/parallels-tools/.backup/.kmods.list: No such file or directory
Start removal of prl_fs kernel module
Error: could not unload prl_fs kernel module
sed: can't read /usr/lib/parallels-tools/.backup/.kmods.list: No such file or directory
Start removal of prl_fs_freeze kernel module
Error: could not unload prl_fs_freeze kernel module
sed: can't read /usr/lib/parallels-tools/.backup/.kmods.list: No such file or directory
Removal of kernel modules was finished successfully
Register service to install new Guest Tools
Perform installation into the /usr/lib/parallels-tools directory
cp: cannot stat `./kmods': No such file or directory
cat: /usr/lib/parallels-tools/kmods/../version: No such file or directory
cat: ./installer/../version: No such file or directory
Start installation of prl_eth kernel module
tar: /usr/lib/parallels-tools/kmods/prl_mod.tar.gz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
make: *** /usr/lib/parallels-tools/kmods: No such file or directory. Stop.
Error: could not build kernel modules
Error: failed to install kernel modules
2009-12-04T19:38:11-0800: execCmd: ./install --install [143]
2009-12-04T19:38:11-0800: Error: An error occurred when installing Parallels Tools. Please go to /var/log/parallels-tools-install.log for more information.

----

Has anyone else seen this?

...any reply appreciated...

stp

 

[EricO]

You will probably have noticed that the tools don't install on Centos 5.4 either.

The only thing I can think of is are you running as root? If so then you have probably found something else that parallels doesn't support.

 

[Drew212]

Is SELinux enabled in the kernel? (It's on by default now in CentOS 5, unlike CentOS 4).

To verify, try:

# sestatus

Does it say enabled or disabled? If enabled, I don't think it's going to install. You need to disable it first. (Note: I haven't tried to install the tools yet, but I believe the Parallels docs even mention you can't be using SELinux with shared folders.)

Even if this doesn't fix it, it will make your life easier to disable SELinux since you aren't likely using the virtual machine as a multi-user environment requiring extreme NSA security. By turning it off, it will act more like the Linux you are used to.

--drew

 

[Stephen Pope]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys!

sestatus isn't installed at all, so I assume it's turned off (may be a mistake)...

I'm using the CentOS 5.0.1 release from one of the Parallels-supplied virtual appliances, so I assumed it'd work (may be a mistake)...

stp

 

[Paul Linden]

I installed the right version of the kernel sources, e.g.,

[stp:/home/stp] uname -r
2.6.18-8.el5
[stp:/home/stp] rpm -qa | grep kernel
kernel-2.6.18-8.el5
kernel-headers-2.6.18-8.el5
kernel-devel-2.6.18-164.6.1.el5

Sorry for replying to such an old post ... but I was having the same problem and found this while searching for an answer. This part of your post switched on a light and gave me the answer.

I thought I'd reply to help out anyone else.

In your case, you have kernel-2.6.18-8.el5 installed, but your kernel-devel package is 2.6.18-164.6.1.el5. You need to update your kernel package so the same version of both is installed and reboot.

That was my problem. I'd updated my kernel but forgot to reboot, so I was still running the old kernel while kernel-devel was correctly updated.

So if anyone is having this problem, make sure the kernel-devel version matches the response from uname -a.