Problem installing Parallels tool in Debian - solved

I could not get the Parallels tools to install properly in Debian 9 on Parallels 13.2.0 (on a Mac running OS 10.13.2, High Sierra). After half a day of mucking about (which would have gone more quickly if I weren't such a Linux noob), I found the problem.

I was following the Parallels help article 124110 Installing Debian Linux on your Mac using Parallels Desktop. Everything was going well until I got to an odd command in step 11 of that process:
chmod -R 777 /home//Documents/pt cd /home//Documents/pt ./install
I tried a few other help documents with no luck, and eventually returned to 124110.

It turns out there are several errors in that odd command: It's actually 3 commands, and there are multiple errors in the pathnames. It should read like this:

chmod -R 777 /home/parallels/Documents/pt
cd /home/parallels/Documents/pt/cdrom0
./install​

I spent so much time monkeying around with this, I'm not sure if there is also any need to mount prl-tools-lin.iso to the virtual machine's CDROM or not. It shows up mounted every time I launch Debian

 

Hello JohnM36,
We are glad that you are able to install Parallels Tools. We have shared your feedback to marketing team for updating the terminal commands in the article. If Parallels Tools are installed then you can disconnect the ISO.

 

Dear from Parallels,
I could not install parallel tools on my mac using parallels 10.4 (29337), debian 9.4.0, on mac OS Sierra 10.12.6.
Please see last page of the parallels-tools-install.log file bellow.
I have spent a lot of time reading the knowledge base and trying to solve from modifying code to installing headers, etc, but hitherto with no success.
Could you please help me?
Kind regards,
Brenner

...
/usr/lib/parallels-tools/kmods/prl_tg/Toolgate/Guest/Linux/prl_tg/prltg.c:866:8: warning: assignment makes pointer from integer without a cast [-Wint-conversion]

sbuf = vmalloc(ssize);

^

/usr/lib/parallels-tools/kmods/prl_tg/Toolgate/Guest/Linux/prl_tg/prltg.c:888:6: warning: assignment makes pointer from integer without a cast [-Wint-conversion]

dst = vmalloc(dsize);

^

cc1: some warnings being treated as errors

/usr/src/linux-headers-4.9.0-6-common/scripts/Makefile.build:298: recipe for target '/usr/lib/parallels-tools/kmods/prl_tg/Toolgate/Guest/Linux/prl_tg/prltg.o' failed

make[5]: *** [/usr/lib/parallels-tools/kmods/prl_tg/Toolgate/Guest/Linux/prl_tg/prltg.o] Error 1

/usr/src/linux-headers-4.9.0-6-common/Makefile:1517: recipe for target '_module_/usr/lib/parallels-tools/kmods/prl_tg/Toolgate/Guest/Linux/prl_tg' failed

make[4]: *** [_module_/usr/lib/parallels-tools/kmods/prl_tg/Toolgate/Guest/Linux/prl_tg] Error 2

Makefile:152: recipe for target 'sub-make' failed

make[3]: *** [sub-make] Error 2

Makefile:8: recipe for target 'all' failed

make[2]: *** [all] Error 2

make[2]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-4.9.0-6-686-pae'

/usr/lib/parallels-tools/kmods/prl_tg/Toolgate/Guest/Linux/prl_tg/Makefile.v26:29: recipe for target 'prl_tg' failed

make[1]: *** [prl_tg] Error 2

make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/lib/parallels-tools/kmods/prl_tg/Toolgate/Guest/Linux/prl_tg'

Makefile.kmods:23: recipe for target 'installme' failed

make: *** [installme] Error 2

make: Leaving directory '/usr/lib/parallels-tools/kmods'

Error: could not build kernel modules

Error: failed to install kernel modules

2018-06-25T23:36:22+0100: execCmd: ./install --install [143]

2018-06-25T23:36:22+0100: Error: An error occurred when installing Parallels Tools. Please go to /var/log/parallels-tools-install.log for more information.

2018-06-25T23:36:23+0100: Exiting with code 1