Since you posted a issue to the open-vm-tools github site , I would assume that you have installed the
two open-vm-
tools packages with
apt-get install open-vm-tools open-vm-tools-desktop
or something equivalent. After installation and rebooting the system there should be two "vmtoolsd" processes
running.
ps -ef | grep tools
root 426 1 0 17:58 ? 00:00:01 /usr/bin/vmtoolsd
root 1445 1 0 17:58 tty2 00:00:01 /usr/bin/vmtoolsd -n vmusr --blockFd 3
Confirm that the DnD/copy and paste plugin is running on the vmusr process.
lsof -p 1445 | grep -i plugins
...
vmtoolsd 1445 root mem REG 8,1 362440 665539 /usr/lib/open-vm-
tools/plugins/vmusr/libdndcp.so
Kali Linux provides a systemd config file to do a VMware vmblock fuse mount which is needed for the VMware Tools
drag-n-drop feature. But the service comes "disabled". This service is only needed on VM running on Fusion or
WorkStation hosts since DnD and copy/paste are not allowed on ESXi.
To enable the service run
systemctl enable run-vmblock\\x2dfuse.mount
Note: The double back-slash characters are needed here.
Confirm that the service is now enabled with:
systemctl status -l run-vmblock\\x2dfuse.mount
Reboot your system to confirm that the service will be permanently started each time that the system is booted.
I have tested on Kali Linux 2018.4 i386 and amd64 releases on WorkStation 15.0.2.
copy/paste of text to and from the Kali guest works
DnD of files/objects from the Windows host to directories in the file manager works
o cannot deposit any file directly on the desktop window; from
host or from elsewhere in the guest
DnD of files/objects from Kali to the Windows host work
One issue that I did encounter was that attempts to drag a GNOME character/picture from Kali to the Windows host
resulted in the vmusr process core dumping. That may be an unknown/unsupported file type, but that should not result
in a crash. I am opening an internal problem report to track that issue.
So please give this a try.