From Wsms

prerequsites

If this it the first time you have installed vmware on your system, make sure inetd is installed and running.

You also need to have the headers for your kernel.

download, install, configure

HOWTO install VMWare server on Linuxmint.

These instructions should also work from Ubuntu and Debian.

Go to vmware.com and download the latest vmware server rpm. At present, it is: http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmserver/VMware-server-2.0.0-110949.i386.rpm Check the md5sum against that listed on the website. For mine it is: ca656f290dfb4c47ba7af31e236ab824

Convert the rpm to a deb:

ggeller@roosevelt:~/Desktop$ sudo alien --scripts VMware-server-2.0.0-110949.i386.rpm
[sudo] password for ggeller:
vmware-server_2.0.0-110950_i386.deb generated

Install the deb:

ggeller@roosevelt:~/Desktop$ sudo dpkg -i vmware-server_2.0.0-110950_i386.deb 
(Reading database ... 111201 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace vmware-server 1.0.6-91892 (using vmware-server_2.0.0-110950_i386.deb) ...
[: 50: upgrade: bad number
[: 651: ==: unexpected operator
[: 651: ==: unexpected operator
Unpacking replacement vmware-server ...
[: 45: upgrade: bad number
Setting up vmware-server (2.0.0-110950) ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/vmware/pam.d/vmware-authd ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/vmware/installer.sh ...
[: 1762: configure: bad number

The installation of VMware Server 2.0.0 for Linux completed successfully.
You can decide to remove this software from your system at any time by
invoking the following command: "rpm -e VMware-server".

Before running VMware Server for the first time, you need to
configure it for your running kernel by invoking the
following command: "/usr/bin/vmware-config.pl".

Enjoy,

    --the VMware team

Configure vmware:

ggeller@roosevelt:~/Desktop$ sudo vmware-config.pl 
Making sure services for VMware Server are stopped.
...

see also

md5sum