Fix “Unable to find the binary installation directory (answer BINDIR)” When Reinstalling VMware Tools

If a previous VMware Tools installation on a Linux guest was botched, the installer may refuse to uninstall it and abort the new install.

The Error

A previous installation of VMware Tools has been detected.
The previous installation was made by the tar installer (version 4).

Keeping the tar4 installer database format.

You have a version of VMware Tools installed. Continuing this install will
first uninstall the currently installed version. Do you wish to continue?
(yes/no) [yes]

Answering yes produces:

Error: Unable to find the binary installation directory (answer BINDIR)
in the installer database file "/etc/vmware-tools/locations".
Uninstall failed. Please correct the failure and re run the install.

Execution aborted.

The Fix

Remove the corrupted installer database file, then run the VMware Tools installer again:

rm /etc/vmware-tools/locations
./vmware-install.pl

If the reinstall then complains about existing kernel modules, see fixing the clobber error when reinstalling VMware Tools.