In a Linux guest OS

Before installing Parallels Tools in a Linux guest OS, perform the following actions:

Close all applications in the guest operating system.
Disable the 3D accelerated window manager if you use any.
Make sure that you have the gcc package and kernel sources installed. If these packages are not installed, the Parallels Tools installer will warn you. The kernel sources package name depends on the type of Linux operating system you use: it can be kernel-devel, or kernel-headers, or something else. For more information about the kernel sources, refer to the Installing the GCC package and Kernel Sources in Linux section.

Note: To install Parallels Tools in your virtual machine, you must have the root privileges.

Installing Parallels Tools in the most recent versions of Linux guest OSs

If you have one of the most recent versions of Linux OSs (Fedora 10) in your virtual machine, the prl-tools-lin.iso image file will be mounted automatically after you connect it to the CD/DVD-ROM drive. To install Parallels Tools, do the following:

Start the virtual machine.
When the guest OS boots up, click the Virtual Machine menu and choose Install Parallels Tools.
Note: If the Install Parallels Tools option is grayed out, make sure that Parallels Tools can be installed in your guest operating system. To see the list of guest OSs supported by Parallels Tools, refer to the Parallels Tools Overview section in Parallels Desktop User's Guide.
The prl-tools-lin.iso image file will be connected to the virtual machine's CD/DVD-ROM drive and mounted.
You can connect and mount the Parallels Tools ISO image file manually. Right-click the CD/DVD-ROM icon in the virtual machine's window status bar and choose Connect Image. In the Finder window, go to the hard disk folder (normally named "Macintosh HD"), select the /Library/Parallels/Tools/ folder, select the prl-tools-lin.iso file, and click Open to connect it to the virtual machine.
Start a terminal in your Linux guest OS. Type the following command to gain the root privileges:
su
Change the directory to the CD/DVD-ROM directory using
cd /media/cdrom/

Note: In some of the Linux operating systems, the mount point for the virtual CD/DVD-ROM drive may appear as /media/Parallels\ Tools/.
In the CD/DVD-ROM directory, enter the following command to launch Parallels Tools installation:
./install
Follow the Parallels Tools Installer instructions to complete the installation.
When the installation of Parallels Tools is complete, restart your virtual machine.

Installing Parallels Tools in other versions of Linux guest OSs

To install Parallels Tools in the older versions of Linux OSs, you have to mount the prl-tools-lin.iso image file manually. Do the following:

Start the virtual machine.
When the guest OS boots up, click the Virtual Machine menu and choose Install Parallels Tools.
Note: If the Install Parallels Tools option is grayed out, make sure that Parallels Tools can be installed in your guest operating system. To see the list of guest OSs supported by Parallels Tools, refer to the Parallels Tools Overview section in Parallels Desktop User's Guide.

The prl-tools-lin.iso image file will be connected to the virtual machine's CD/DVD-ROM drive.
Start a terminal in your Linux guest OS. Type the following command to gain the root privileges:
su
Check if the Parallels Tools CD image is mounted by entering
mount | grep iso9660

If this command does not return anything, proceed to the next step.

If this command returns anything like

/dev/cdrom on /media/cdrom type iso9660 (ro,exec,nosuid,nodev,uid=0),

skip the next step and proceed to the following one.

If this command returns anything like

/dev/cdrom on /media/cdrom type iso9660 (ro,noexec,nosuid,nodev,uid=0)

with the noexec option present in parentheses, you need to unmount the disc using the following command and then proceed to the next step:

umount /dev/cdrom
To mount the Parallels Tools installation disc image, enter the following:
mount -o exec /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom

Note: /dev/cdrom is the virtual machine's CD/DVD-ROM drive and /media/cdrom is the mount point for this device. In some of the Linux operating systems the virtual CD/DVD-ROM drive may appear as /dev/hdb and the mount point /mnt/cdrom. Some Linux OSs do not have the CD/DVD-ROM mount point. In this case, you should create the mount point directory manually.
When the installation disc image is mounted, change the directory to the CD/DVD-ROM directory using
cd /media/cdrom/
In the CD/DVD-ROM directory, enter the following to launch Parallels Tools installation:
./install

Note: You must have the root privileges to run this command.
Follow the Parallels Tools Installer instructions to complete the installation.
When the installation of Parallels Tools is complete, restart your virtual machine.

Note: If X Server fails to start in your virtual machine, you can install Parallels Tools manually in text mode.
To edit the settings of Parallels Tools installed in your virtual machine, use the Services pane of the Virtual Machine Configuration dialog.

Reinstalling Parallels Tools

To reinstall Parallels Tools, remove them first, and then install them again using the above procedure.

How to check if Parallels Tools are installed

If you are not sure whether Parallels Tools are installed, you can easily check this. Start your virtual machine and look at the status bar of its window: if the tip "Press Ctrl + Alt to release the mouse and keyboard" appears in the status bar of the virtual machine's window, this means that Parallels Tools are not installed. When Parallels Tools are installed, you do not need to press any key to release the mouse and keyboard - they are released automatically.

Troubleshooting

Parallels Tools installer can be blocked by SELinux. To solve this problem:

Start a terminal and determine your version of kernel by entering
uname -r

2.6.18-8.el5

2.6.18-8.el5 is the version of your kernel.
Open the /boot/grub/grub.conf file or /boot/grub/menu.lst (depends on the version of your Linux operating system) and find the entry that corresponds to your version of kernel.
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (2.6.18-8.el5)

root (hd0,0)

kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-8.el5 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet

initrd /initrd-2.6.18-8.el5.img
Type the following text at the end of the entry:
selinux=0

and the whole entry will be:

kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-8.el5 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet selinux=0
Save the file and restart the virtual machine.

After the restart, mount the Parallels Tools disc image and try to install Parallels Tools.

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