Install GCC (GNU Compiler Collection) (which also installs binutils and make)

# apt-get update && apt-get upgrade
# apt-get install build-essential

Install Kernel Source

# apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

After this you will be all set to install the VMWare tools.

I tested it only with the Debian 8, but I think it must be working with other Debian-based operation systems (Ubuntu, Mint, other).

dpkg -l | grep binutils

$ dpkg -l | grep binutils
ii  binutils                                     2.25-5+deb8u1                        amd64        GNU assembler, linker and binary utilities

apt-cache policy binutils

$ apt-cache policy binutils
binutils:
  Installed: 2.25-5+deb8u1
  Candidate: 2.25-5+deb8u1
  Version table:
 *** 2.25-5+deb8u1 0
        500 http://ftp.ru.debian.org/debian/ jessie-proposed-updates/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2.25-5 0
        500 http://ftp.ru.debian.org/debian/ jessie/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://httpredir.debian.org/debian/ jessie/main amd64 Packages

apt-cache show binutils (stripped)

$ apt-cache show binutils
Package: binutils
Version: 2.25-5+deb8u1
Installed-Size: 20566
Maintainer: Matthias Klose <doko@debian.org>
Architecture: amd64
Replaces: binutils-gold (<< 2.20.51.20100415), binutils-mingw-w64-i686 (<< 2.23.52.20130612-1+3), binutils-mingw-w64-x86-64 (<< 2.23.52.20130612-1+3)
Provides: binutils-gold, elf-binutils
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.14), zlib1g (>= 1:1.2.0)
Suggests: binutils-doc (>= 2.25-5+deb8u1)
..............................

ld --version

$ ld --version
GNU ld (GNU Binutils for Debian) 2.25

ar --version

$ ar --version
GNU ar (GNU Binutils for Debian) 2.25