After a long time wihtout any post here is a simple How to install vmware server on debian etch.

We start by installing the necessary packages:
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get install libx11-6 libx11-dev libxtst6 libxext6 libxt6 libice6 libsm6 libxrender1 xinetd
apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` build-essential sysvinit-utils psmisc gcc binutils-doc make manpages-dev autoconf automake1.9 libtool flex bison gdb libc6-dev-amd64 lib64gcc1 gcc-2.95-doc

Now we download and install VMware Server:
cd /usr/src
wget http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmserver/VMware-server-1.0.4-56528.tar.gz
tar -zxvf VMware-server-1.0.4-56528.tar.gz
cd vmware-server-distrib/
./vmware-install.pl
Simply press enter for all the questions and maybe change the path where you will store your virtual machines to something easy to find ( I put all my virtual machines in /var/VMachines)
You will need to register for your free serial number at the following url: http://register.vmware.com/content/registration.html

That’s all ! VMware server is installed.
If you intend to connect to this machine remotely using the vmware server console then you need to edit the file /etc/vmware/pam.d/vmware-authd. Simply replace the content of your file by this:
#%PAM-1.0
auth sufficient pam_unix.so shadow nullok
auth required pam_unix_auth.so shadow nullok
account sufficient pam_unix2.so
account required pam_unix_acct.so

Now restart vmware and install it at boot time:
update-rc.d vmware defaults 20
/etc/init.d/vmware restart

You can download a debian etch minimal install ready to be used:
cd /var/VMachines
wget http://mirror.o-line.net/vmware/debian-4.0r1-netinst.7z
apt-get install p7zip
p7zip -d debian-4.0r1-netinst.7z

Easy isn’t it ?