I am running XP SP2 and VMware server ( current version downloaded this month from vmware ). I would like to do a "usb passthough" so I can print directly to my usb printer, download to my Ipod etc. My virtual host is Ubuntu linux or W2k Server.
When I click on "Removeable devices" and then "USB Devices" I get the field that says "empty". I think I have to edit the .vmx file to do the passthrough to enable the passthrough. My computer is a generic 2.9 ghz AMD system and I am sure the USB chips are pretty commonly used.
Also are there any performace tips ? Even when giving a simple ubuntu box 1.2 gigs of ram, the system is slow. The system has 1.5 gigs of ram total and I did install vmware tools.
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scrathcyboy:
I do want to thank you for your assistance and we were able to rule out a few things however the problem still exhists. From the active session, I can not find any of the USB devices from a linux vm or a windows VM. Restarting the VM and hoping for autodetect also does not resolve this issue.
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by: scrathcyboyPosted on 2007-06-16 at 22:52:02ID: 19301580
Perhaps you are missing the PNP detect mode of USB devices. When you hot plug a device, in say the VM session, it will see the device, but that doesn't mean the host will, because it is not the active session. But if you make the host the active session, it will see the hot plug, but not the VM session. It seems to me from general principles of serial USB PNP detect, only the active session will see the hot plug. Therefore I see no way to "pass" a hot detect from one session or host to the other, without refreshing both. Remember it is PNP, and that depends on which window is active to do the PNP detecting, so the same for VM sessions.