Ubuntu – Booting from USB inside VMware Workstation

install Ubuntu Studio 12.04 on my laptop by using VMware Workstation 7.1.5

The problem is that the VMWare Tools included with 7.1.5 is fairly old at this point and is not compatible with the Linux 3.2 kernel that Ubuntu 12.04 runs on. The latest VMWare Workstation is 8.x, and I can confirm that it works fine with Ubuntu 12.04, including VMWare Tools.

Other than upgrading VMWare Workstation to v8.x, you can try the following:

• Install WITHOUT Easy Install - it will install OK and you can try installing VMWare Tools later.
• Download and install the latest Tools for Linux for Workstation 7.1.5 on Windows from here and see if those install.
• Finally (and note that this is totally unsupported): try the patch for 7.1.5 here intended to make it compatible with Linux Kernels 3.2 and 3.3, and then try installing Tools again.

(You can always run sudo vmware-config-tools.pl to try to recompile the modules).

Possible workaround:

After editing the VM's .vmx file to add

mouse.vusb.enable = "TRUE"
mouse.vusb.useBasicMouse = "FALSE"
usb.generic.allowHID = "TRUE"

you'll be able to use your five-button mouse in the VM. To do so, open your VM, then navigate to Virtual Machine > Removable Devices > [Your Mouse] > Connect (Disconnect from Host). You'll get a couple warnings that you won't be able to use your mouse with the host anymore, and just click OK.

Now you can only use your mouse within the VM whether it's full-screen or in windowed mode. Hit Ctrl-G on your keyboard to get rid of the host mouse icon and fully immerse yourself in the VM. Once you need your mouse again outside the VM, hit Ctrl+Alt, then release. Now the focus is back to your host OS. Hold Alt and push V to bring up the Virtual Machine menu, and use your arrow keys to navigate to Virtual Machine > Removable Devices > [Your Mouse] > Disconnect (Connect to Host).

Now everything is back to normal. Hopefully something will change in either Ubuntu or VMWare Player soon to make it easier than this.