Install VMware Server on Ubuntu

Preparation

Get optimized settings into the Grub config (/boot/grub/menu.lst)

# kopt=root=UUID=981a028b-0dcf-4395-92dc-39445f117766 ro elevator=deadline

In order to ensure kernel modules are buildable...

aptitude install build-essential linux-server linux-headers-server
reboot (into "server" kernel

There *IS NOT* a vmware-server package available for hardy

Instead, download the vmware-server tarball from VMware

Add this line to your /etc/apt/sources.list file

deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu gutsy partner

Then run

sudo aptitude install vmware-server

Afterwards you'll (probably) need to run vmware-config.pl and provide the license code.

See this link for some other tweaks that can help performance on the host.