After installing Ubuntu, update everything
sudo apt-get -y update
sudo apt-get -y upgrade

Install build tools
sudo apt-get -y install linux-headers-server build-essential

Mount VM Tools virtual CD.

Mount the virtual CD in Ubuntu
sudo mkdir -p /media/cdrom
sudo mount /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom

Change to the directory and copy the files
cd /media/cdrom
sudo cp VM*.tar.gz /tmp

unTar the archive
cd /tmp
sudo tar xzvf VM*.tar.gz
cd vmware-tools-distrib

Run the install script
sudo ./vmware-install.pl -d

Unmount CD and reboot
sudo umount /media/cdrom
sudo reboot