Installing VMware tools in a Linux VM take a few more steps than on a Windows VM.
- right click the VM and choose install/update VMware tools. This will connect the cdrom with the VMware tools ISO file (if files are not already available, they will be downloaded) but you still need to mount the cdrom manually: sudo mount /dev/scd0 /media/cdrom (if folder don't exist, create it first)
- copy the tar file to /tmp folder and untar it: tar -xvf VMware-tools-vXX.tar.gz
- ls to the untar'ed folder and run vmware-install.pl: sudo ./vmware-install.pl
- verify that VMware tools are running: sudo ps -auxwww 'pipe-symbol' grep vm (look for /usr/bin/vmtoolsd and you will also find the balloon driver vmmemctl). You can also check if the vmtools startup script has been put into the startup folder /etc/rc0.d/