Should be simple, but if often fails and that’s the cause of a faulty gcc being used in the installation. So, a quick-n-dirty fix on how to install VMware Tools on Debian 6.
# cat /etc/issue
Debian GNU/Linux 6.0 \n \l
Only do this if you’re running Debian 6, of course.
# apt-get install gcc make
# apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
You need a specific version of gcc (4.1 or 4.3) to complete this. Next, mount your VMware Tools installation source via Right click on the VM > Guest > Install/Upgrade VMware Tools. Mount the installation media in your VM and run the installer.
# mkdir /mnt/cdrom
# mount /dev/cdrom1 /mnt/cdrom/
# cd /usr/local/src/
# cp /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools-8.3.12-493255.tar.gz ./
# umount /mnt/cdrom
# cd vmware-tools-distrib/
# ./vmware-install.pl
Afterwards, answer yes to all questions prompted, and your install should be ready to go.