Startup the Ubuntu guest without installing vmware-tools. You should now see the standard Unity desktop.
If you don't have it push Ctrl+Alt+F1 to get to tty1 and after updating and installing build-essential and linux-headers-$(uname -r) continue with option 1) or 2), you don't have to open a terminal, just type the commands.
First, you need to update and upgrade and install build-essential and the latest linux-headers in the Ubuntu guest, in your case Ubuntu-13.04. Do it by running the following in a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+t opens the terminal):
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
This upgrades Ubuntu to the latest packages and the latest regular kernel.
When prompted for a password, enter your Ubuntu admin user password.
Note: For security reasons, the typed password is not displayed. You do not need to enter your password again for the next five minutes.
sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)
Now try installing vmware-tools regularly.
If this doesn't work there are two options:
1) Install vmware-tools via command line:
In the Ubuntu guest, run these commands (In the terminal):
sudo mkdir /mnt/cdrom
sudo mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom or sudo mount /dev/sr0 /mnt/cdrom
The file name of the VMware Tools bundle varies depending on your version of the VMware product. Run this command to find the exact name:
ls /mnt/cdrom
tar xzvf /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools-x.x.x-xxxx.tar.gz -C /tmp/
Note: x.x.x-xxxx is the version discovered in the previous step.
cd /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib/and nowsudo ./vmware-install.pl -d
Note: The -d switch assumes that you want to accept the defaults. If you do not use -d, press Return to accept each default or supply your own answers.
Run this command to reboot the virtual machine after the installation completes:
sudo reboot
After reboot vmware-tools should be working.
2) The Open Virtual Machine Tools (open-vm-tools) are the open source implementation of VMware Tools. They are a set of guest operating system virtualization components that enhance performance and user experience of virtual machines.
Install open-vm-tools:
sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools open-vm-dkms open-vm-toolkit
sudo reboot
After reboot open-vm-tools should be working.
Best Answer
Of course you can =) Actually trying Ubuntu in a virtualized environment is more than encouraged =)
Resources: