This is what I did for Ubuntu 16.04:
sudo apt remove --auto-remove open-vm-tools
sudo apt purge open-vm-tools
It complained about not being able to delete a directory since it is not empty so I manually removed one file that resides in that directory using:
sudo rm /etc/vmware-tools/scripts/vmware/network.old.0
And now you can run vmware-install.pl again.
To install the VMWare Tools provided by VMWare as an iso:
Step 1: Install the build tools.
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential
Step 2: Every time you update your kernel, install the headers:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
Step 3: Install/Update the tools from the vmware-tools-distrib directory:
To Install:
sudo ./vmware-tools-install.pl
To Update:
sudo ./vmware-tools-config.pl
The newer VMWare Tools installers warns you in advance to try and find an open-vm-tools package if available.
To install open-vm-tools from the console, type in:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools open-vm-tools-desktop
Restart the PC, log in and you're done!
However, there are some caveats, listed here.
Best Answer
You need to install
open-vm-tools-desktop, justopen-vm-toolsis for console only VMs.