Vmware server comes with a little utility to mount the VMware virtual file systems called vmware-mount.pl. This utility works pretty well but mounts all NTFS partitions as Read Only!

Outlined below is a process to mount .vmdk files Read/Write.

Requirements

vmware-loop
nbd module
ntfs-3g

Vmware-loop is provided by the free vmware server. Instructions for installing can be found HERE.The nbd (Network Block Device) module should be provided already by Ubuntu.

Install Ntfs-3g in Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install ntfs-config

This will complete the installation

Configure VMware Disk

First One is to load the nbd module

sudo modprobe nbd

Next we use vmware-loop, the “Virtual Hard Disk to Network Block Device mapper”. This is done using vmware-loop /path/to/VirtualDisk Partition# Device. For example

sudo vmware-loop /home/MrFSL/VirtualDisk.vmdk 1 /dev/nbd0

Finally we open a new terminal and mount in the usual way

sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/nbd0 /mnt/

Common Problem with Solution

Problem

If you are having permission issues you might want to adjust permissions on the mount point or device

Solution

sudo chmod 777 /mnt
sudo chmod 777 /dev/nbd0

When you are done unmount with a simple

sudo umount /dev/nbd0