“Unknown job” errors when installing vmware tools in Ubuntu

Recently I’ve tried to install new vmware tools in Ubuntu 14.04.1 after upgrading VMware Workstation to version 10, and the build process crashed with errors like Unknown job: vmware-tools or Unknown job: vmware-tools-thinprint

After some debugging, I’ve found out that the problem was due to the fact that I was running the build process using sudo -s -E command, which gave me administrator rights, but kept some environment variables that messed initscripts-related commands (service, status and other from upstart package), on which build process relies. The solution is to build vmware-tools under clean environment for root user. To do that, gain superuser rights with sudo su - command, and then build vmware-tools as usual.

The tip above applies to general “unknown job” problem with starting/restarting services, not only to the vmware-tools build process.

One thought on ““Unknown job” errors when installing vmware tools in Ubuntu”

  1. I kept running into this problem nearly everytime I tried upgrading the VMware tools and it disappeared after some time miraculously. Most likely because I did the “su -” some time. Now I know why, thanks a lot for this.

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