Using VMware Workstation 17.5.2 on Ubuntu in CI/CD pipelines fails

[Brett Taylor]

I'm trying to build OVA's using a CI/CD pipeline and I'm having trouble with Workstation 17.5.2 running on `ubuntu-latest` in Github Actions. It appears to install correctly but the actual builds fail to start. Is it possible to use a personal use license? I know that when I run Workstation locally, I am prompted at the start of the first run to either add a license or select "personal use". However, I'm not sure if there is a way to avoid this question when installing and running in a scripted environment with no TTY.

Packer and Vagrant apparently fail when they try to use `vmrun` or `vmplayer` and take a snapshot, which is not supported, and people are reporting that overriding the license type with "professional" fixes that issue. However, when I do that the process hangs with no output which I can only assume is because I don't have a professional license enabled and the process is waiting on some type of input which is not shown.

my current installation lines are

```
wget -q https://softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds/vmw-desktop/ws/17.5.2/23775571/linux/core/VMware-Workstation-17.5.2-23775571.x86_64.bundle.tar
tar xf VMware-Workstation-17.5.2-23775571.x86_64.bundle.tar
sudo bash VMware-Workstation-17.5.2-23775571.x86_64.bundle --console --eulas-agreed --required --set-setting vmware-workstation serialNumber "" --set-setting vmware-player serialNumber "" 
```

So, are there directions somewhere for installing and running VMware Workstation 17.5.2 on Linux (Ubuntu) with a free, personal license in a scripted, no-tty, environment?

Thanks.

[Brett Taylor]

I'm still having this issue with 17.6.1. I found a few commands to get me a little but further, but I still can't successfully boot a VM and ssh into it in the build pipeline with packer (or vagrant). I think the issue is that I'm in a full CLI environment so I never launch the GUI to "select a license" (either pro or free). When I try to do it manually on a remote machine with X11 forwarded, I get asked:

Authentication is needed to run `/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-setup-helper' as the super user
Authenticating as: root

but when I type in the password it always fails. I've tried several times, even copying and pasting the plaintext password and it never passes.

In my build script, i have:

sudo touch /etc/vmware/license-ws-foo

sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all

sudo modprobe -a vmw_vmci vmmon

those are all after the regular install script. I can't get past this bug. I can't find any options for `/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-setup-helper` that will show me how to use it on the cli to get past the license screen and run the actual product.