If you install Linux in a virtual Machine on ESXi 4.0 you should install the VMwareTools. This is not a task that you can do as easy as on windows. You’ll have to copy the install files to your machine and install them manually.

There is a List of tasks you’ll have to do to install the VMwareTools.

First you’ll have to prepare your installation of Linux for the installation by executing this command.
aptitude install autoconf automake binutils cpp gcc linux-headers-$(uname -r) make psmisc
After this is finished you should push the installation in the console.

this will copy the installation files so you can mount them in the next step to your virtual cd drive. This is done by using the following command.
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt
then you’ll have to copy the files from the cd to your virtual disk. And by extracting them.
cp /mnt/VMwareTools-4.0.0-208167.tar.gz /root
cd /root
tar xvf VMwareTools-4.0.0-208167.tar.gz
To start the installation do the following
cd vmware-tools-distrib/
./vmware-install.pl
Then follow the instructions on the screen to install the Tools.