De Notas de versão do VMware Fusion 3.1 (para o openSUSE, mas podem ser aplicadas ao seu caso) :
Install GCC in order to install VMware Tools and to share folders in openSUSE 11.3.
VMware Fusion 3.1 does not include prebuilt kernel modules for openSUSE 11.3. If you want to use openSUSE 11.3, you must install the gcc compiler prior to installation of VMware Tools, so that the kernel modules can be compiled during Tools installation. Without the compiler installed, trying to enable shared folders produces the alert, "Unable to update run-time folder sharing status: Unknown error".
Você instalou o VMware Tools e o gcc?