Access Esxi VM from Player

Hello,

I have spent hours trying to figure out my problem, I am about to give up and try something else but thought I would throw this out there.

Host is windows 7

I have Esxi installed on a VMplayer

I have LinuxMint installed on esxi via vSphere

I am trying to access linux mint directly. I have tried the vmplayer switch "Vmplayer -h <ip> -u<user> -p <password> [datastore1] linuxmint/linuxmint.vmx"

The IP referes to the IP of the esxi. I believe both the data store name and linuxmint path are correct.

However when vmplay comes up I get "expect footprint not found". If I change the path to something I know is incorrect I get the same error. I have tried all variations I can think of.

What am I doing wrong, Is there a better way to simply access this VM? I should note that the ESXi VM is bridged showing me a sequental number to the host system IE host is 192.168.1.1 the esxiVM is 192.168.1.2.

Eventually this will ultimatly be deployed in my home server (Dell PE 2950), but not if I can figure out how to access a paticalur VM with ease.

Thanks

Jet A