I just tried to build VMWare Tools from a source "vmware-tools-distrib" that I got from an .ISO from VMware's website and got the following results:

sudo ./vmware-install.pl
[sudo] password for user:
Creating a new VMware Tools installer database using the tar4 format.

Installing VMware Tools.

In which directory do you want to install the binary files?
[/usr/bin]

What is the directory that contains the init directories (rc0.d/ to rc6.d/)?
[/etc]

What is the directory that contains the init scripts?
[/etc/init.d]

In which directory do you want to install the daemon files?
[/usr/sbin]

In which directory do you want to install the library files?
[/usr/lib/vmware-tools]

The path "/usr/lib/vmware-tools" does not exist currently. This program is
going to create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you want?
[yes]

In which directory do you want to install the documentation files?
[/usr/share/doc/vmware-tools]

The path "/usr/share/doc/vmware-tools" does not exist currently. This program
is going to create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you
want? [yes]

The installation of VMware Tools 8.6.0 build-425873 for Linux completed
successfully. You can decide to remove this software from your system at any
time by invoking the following command: "/usr/bin/vmware-uninstall-tools.pl".

Before running VMware Tools for the first time, you need to configure it by
invoking the following command: "/usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl". Do you want
this program to invoke the command for you now? [yes]

Initializing...

This configuration program is to be executed in a virtual machine.

Execution aborted.
I can't seem to get a GUI or vmware-toolbox running (but it looks like most of the programs are in /usr/bin/ )

Here are some links to VMWare downloads:

http://www.vmware.com/products/server/overview.html

https://www.vmware.com/tryvmware/?p=...0180000000wMmf