VMware Infrastructure Client on Ubuntu … Getting Closer

I’ve been trying to get the VMware Infrastructure Client to run on my Ubuntu laptop via Wine.  I’ve been making progress and getting closer, but it’s still not working.  After playing around with native vs. builtin DLL’s and a couple of other configuration items, I can successfully install and launch the VIC.  I have no issue getting the familiar VIC login prompt. But after entering the IP address of my Virtual Center server, user name and password, I get the error “The client could not validate the server’s SSL certificate,” as you can see here:

I can get farther by putting an http:// in front of the IP address, forcing the VIC to bypass SSL, and it appears the client is attempting to connect to my Virtual Center server.  However, ultimately the application crashes with the following trail of console messages.

fixme:shell:URL_ParseUrl failed to parse L”"
fixme:shell:URL_ParseUrl failed to parse L”VirtualInfrastructure.25u2″
fixme:shell:URL_ParseUrl failed to parse L”System.Windows.Forms”
fixme:shell:URL_ParseUrl failed to parse L”System”
fixme:shell:URL_ParseUrl failed to parse L”VpxClientCommon.25u2″
fixme:shell:URL_ParseUrl failed to parse L”VMware.CustomControls.25u2″
fixme:shell:URL_ParseUrl failed to parse L”System.Drawing”
fixme:shell:URL_ParseUrl failed to parse L”VimSoapService.25u2″
fixme:exec:SHELL_execute flags ignored: 0×00000500
fixme:ole:Context_QueryInterface interface not implemented {000001da-0000-0000-c000-000000000046}
fixme:advapi:RegisterEventSourceW ((null),L”.NET Runtime”): stub
fixme:advapi:ReportEventW (0xcafe4242,0×0001,0×0000,0×000003ff,(nil),0×0001,0×00000000,0×7d94d124,(nil)): stub
err:eventlog:ReportEventW L”.NET Runtime version 2.0.50727.42 – Fatal Execution Engine Error (7A05E2B3) (80131506)”
fixme:advapi:DeregisterEventSource (0xcafe4242) stub
fixme:advapi:CheckTokenMembership (0×27c 0×1cef20 0×7d94c778) stub!
fixme:shell:URL_ParseUrl failed to parse L”System.Web.Services”
fixme:shell:URL_ParseUrl failed to parse L”TransportInterfaces.25u2″
fixme:shell:URL_ParseUrl failed to parse L”System.Xml”
fixme:imm:ImmDisableIME (-1): stub
fixme:thread:NtQueryInformationThread Cannot get kerneltime or usertime of other threads
fixme:thread:NtQueryInformationThread info class 9 not supported yet
(repeated 10 times)
fixme:advapi:RegisterEventSourceW ((null),L”.NET Runtime 2.0 Error Reporting”): stub
fixme:advapi:ReportEventW (0xcafe4242,0×0001,0×0000,0×000003e8,(nil),0×0008,0×000000f6,0×3009a1b4,0×7e1b55e0): stub
err:eventlog:ReportEventW L”vpxclient.exe”err:eventlog:ReportEventW L”2.5.0.64227″
err:eventlog:ReportEventW L”48db0525″
err:eventlog:ReportEventW L”mscorwks.dll”
err:eventlog:ReportEventW L”2.0.50727.42″
err:eventlog:ReportEventW L”4333e7ec”
err:eventlog:ReportEventW L”0″
err:eventlog:ReportEventW L”000b333f”
fixme:advapi:DeregisterEventSource (0xcafe4242) stub
fixme:thread:NtQueryInformationThread info class 9 not supported yet
(repeated 10 times)

As you can see here:

I’ve also tried this with a ThinApp’d version of the VIC and basically get the same results.  I realize I’m probably beating my head against a wall, looking for a solution that probably just doesn’t exist.  But in the off chance someone has figured this out, I want to see if anyone has progressed farther than I.  Here’s my setup …

Version of  OS: Ubuntu 8.10 (kernel 2.6.27-9)
Version of Wine: wine-1.1.10

Anyone have any ideas?