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21 Replies Last post: Nov 5, 2007 5:28 PM by Doghouse Reilly
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VM Mouse Driver Crippled?

Nov 3, 2007 2:15 PM

Click to view Doghouse Reilly's profile Novice Doghouse Reilly 11 posts since
Nov 3, 2007
I'm otherwise happy with Fusion but, like every other virtualization solution ever created, it doesn't seem to recognize that mice now have more than two buttons. Is there any way, within Fusion, to enable the back/forward buttons on an MSFT mouse? Or even of making the "Snap To Default Dialog Choice" option work?

I'm assuming that using MSFT's own IntelliMouse software is out, because the driver expects to talk to the OS, not the VM.

Am I wrong? If not, and the Fusion driver is, in fact, so limited, what's the answer? I can't imagine that an object so literally essential to operating a computer (or VM) gets so little respect. All I want is the same functionality in one environment as the other--or as the original, non-VM version. Is that so hard?

Maccies have a useful phrase that also make a pretty fair target for any developer to shoot for:

It Just Works.
Reply Re: VM Mouse Driver Crippled? Nov 3, 2007 2:49 PM
Click to view etung's profile Guru etung 11,030 posts since
Oct 15, 2006
VMware
A key point of virtualization is that the guest does not get to see the actual hardware. If you examine the mouse that the guest sees, it's a 2 button + scrollwheel PS/2 device, not your actual mouse, so your extra mouse buttons have nowhere to map to. You can connect the mouse directly to the guest, but it's a bit clunky - read A Power User's Guide to VMware Fusion and be sure you understand the drawbacks of doing this.
Reply Re: VM Mouse Driver Crippled? Nov 3, 2007 3:24 PM
in response to: etung
Click to view Doghouse Reilly's profile Novice Doghouse Reilly 11 posts since
Nov 3, 2007
With all due respect, that's a non-responsive and somewhat patronizing answer. I have a layman's knowledge of VMs and how they work. But, hey, I'll play along, idiot that I am.

If you're saying the guest OS sees, by means of a driver, a notional PS/2 mouse with two buttons and one wheel, why not change the presumed virtual hardware to a notional FOUR-button mouse and wheel?

You know, like every blessed mouse made since 1995!

That way, the mapping is one-to-one for, you know, the 99-percent of us with mice that AREN'T, you know, old PS/2 mice.

IT'S ONLY SOFTWARE.

That's what makes the miracle of Fusion and every other VM product possible.

It is, however, mildly-patronizing-in-the-guise-of-being-helpful blather that really gets up a customer's nose. It smacks of having one's legitimate--It Just Works--expectations "managed."

Try meeting them, instead. Or hell, why not? Try exceeding them.
Reply Re: VM Mouse Driver Crippled? Nov 3, 2007 8:26 PM
in response to: Doghouse Reilly
Click to view etung's profile Guru etung 11,030 posts since
Oct 15, 2006
VMware
Your request for more buttons is noted.

I'm confused about what sort of response would have satisfied you - I explained the current state of things, which you seem to have taken as a massive personal attack. You are correct, it would be entirely possible to emulate a mouse with more buttons. I don't know the exact challenges in doing so, but I do imagine it's more than just changing a "2" to a "4" somewhere.
Reply Re: VM Mouse Driver Crippled? Nov 3, 2007 8:37 PM
in response to: etung
Click to view Rzn8tor's profile Hot Shot Rzn8tor 231 posts since
Jun 10, 2007
I've requested support for four buttons in the past, but I'll reiterate here. The OP was requesting a change in functionality, not a description of the current design.

Like everything else I suspect this feature is a matter of priority. Is there anyone else who cares about the extra buttons?
Reply Re: VM Mouse Driver Crippled? Nov 3, 2007 8:47 PM
in response to: Rzn8tor
Click to view etung's profile Guru etung 11,030 posts since
Oct 15, 2006
VMware
The OP asked if there was a way to use more buttons and whether the emulated mouse driver is limited in this fashion; I answered that is it not currently possible and explained the current limitations.
Reply Re: VM Mouse Driver Crippled? Nov 3, 2007 9:27 PM
in response to: etung
Click to view Doghouse Reilly's profile Novice Doghouse Reilly 11 posts since
Nov 3, 2007
Bravo, Rzn8tor! Exactly. I'm asking for simple functionality. The kind any user sees, each and every moment of a computing day.

And Etung. I didn't take your response as a massive personal attack. I took it as non-responsive and mildly patronizing. Simple.

That said, I am vehement about the little things that make owning a product frustrating, instead of delightful.

I understand that redoing the Murine functionality may take more than changing a "2" to a "4" in an LOC. But we're talking about some of the slickest programmers in the known universe. Making VMs and emulators ain't beanbag, after all.

And of course it comes down to priorities. I'd only hope that somebody at VMWare (maybe you?) understands that fixing unglamorous-but-visible crap like virtual mouse drivers can matter more than the neatest bit-flipping trick, deep under the hood. It is, after all, what the customer sees.

To do otherwise lends the daily impression, odd as it sounds to somebody who knows things from the inside, that VMWare might not be competent on the BIG stuff.

It's like wearing a five-thousand dollar tuxedo with the fly open.
Reply Re: VM Mouse Driver Crippled? Nov 4, 2007 1:56 AM
in response to: Doghouse Reilly
Click to view rrdharan's profile Expert rrdharan 455 posts since
Dec 16, 2004
VMware
I believe this is fixed in Fusion 1.1. If you don't want to upgrade to the RC, you can add this option to your VM's config file (the .VMX file inside the VM bundle) and you should get what you want:

mouse.vusb.enable = "TRUE"

This option will enable a virtual USB mouse which our backend emulation will use preferentially over the virtual PS/2 mouse. The virtual USB mouse should pass through up to 6 buttons.

A note of caution: the above option is not officially supported in Fusion 1.0, but it should work fine for what you want.
Reply Re: VM Mouse Driver Crippled? Nov 4, 2007 1:56 AM
in response to: rrdharan
Click to view Doghouse Reilly's profile Novice Doghouse Reilly 11 posts since
Nov 3, 2007
Tried it once and failed. Device manager still reports one HID compliant mouse on tree and VMWare's PS/2 mouse. Disabling the HID item kills the mouse, BTW. Any clues? Is the (mouse.vusb.enable = "TRUE") entry position-dependent?

Thanks for chiming in.
Reply Re: VM Mouse Driver Crippled? Nov 4, 2007 3:11 AM
in response to: Doghouse Reilly
Click to view Doghouse Reilly's profile Novice Doghouse Reilly 11 posts since
Nov 3, 2007
Well, still no joy. Even tried enabling "make USB HID visible" using VMX Extras. All that did was utterly freeze my mouse on guest AND host when I clicked the Microsoft Intellimouse USB icon at the bottom of the Fusion window. Obviously that ain't it.

No matter what I do, Fusion ALWAYS loads the VMWare PS/2 mouse.

Oh and I AM running 1.1rc1. Using Vista 32 as the guest, BTW, on a Mac Pro.

So what now? Any other tricks?

Again thanks, and again, nothing personal. I just hope things like this--all the fit and finish stuff--get fixed well, and fixed soon. Raw horsepower's necessary, but not sufficient. Just ask a Pontiac GTO driver, and the thousand others who were put off by the cheezy interior. ;-)
Reply Re: VM Mouse Driver Crippled? Nov 4, 2007 3:16 AM
in response to: Doghouse Reilly
Click to view Doghouse Reilly's profile Novice Doghouse Reilly 11 posts since
Nov 3, 2007
Here's my VMX file:

  1. Edited with VMX Extras 0.2007.07.04

config.version = "8"
deploymentPlatform = "windows"
displayName = "Windows Vista"
ehci.pciSlotNumber = "34"
ehci.present = "TRUE"
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
ethernet0.connectionType = "nat"
ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:5f:d9:31"
ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"
ethernet0.pciSlotNumber = "32"
ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"
ethernet0.wakeOnPcktRcv = "FALSE"
extendedConfigFile = "Windows Vista.vmxf"
floppy0.clientDevice = "FALSE"
floppy0.fileName = ""
floppy0.fileType = "file"
floppy0.present = "FALSE"
floppy0.startConnected = "FALSE"
guestOS = "winvista"
ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"
ide1:0.fileName = "cdrom0"
ide1:0.present = "TRUE"
isolation.tools.hgfs.disable = "TRUE"
MemAllowAutoScaleDown = "FALSE"
memsize = "2192"
mouse.vusb.enable = "TRUE"
nvram = "Windows Vista.nvram"
pciBridge0.pciSlotNumber = "17"
pciBridge0.present = "TRUE"
powerType.powerOff = "soft"
powerType.powerOn = "soft"
powerType.reset = "soft"
powerType.suspend = "soft"
RemoteDisplay.vnc.port = "0"
scsi0.pciSlotNumber = "16"
scsi0.present = "TRUE"
scsi0.virtualDev = "lsilogic"
scsi0:0.fileName = "Windows Vista.vmdk"
scsi0:0.present = "TRUE"
scsi0:0.redo = ""
sharedFolder.maxNum = "1"
sharedFolder.option = "onetimeEnabled"
sharedFolder0.enabled = "FALSE"
sharedFolder0.expiration = "never"
sharedFolder0.guestName = "marshall On My Mac"
sharedFolder0.hostPath = "/Users/marshall"
sharedFolder0.present = "TRUE"
sharedFolder0.readAccess = "TRUE"
sound.autodetect = "TRUE"
sound.fileName = "-1"
sound.pciSlotNumber = "33"
sound.present = "TRUE"
tools.syncTime = "FALSE"
tools.upgrade.policy = "upgradeAtPowerCycle"
usb.present = "TRUE"
uuid.bios = "56 4d 09 04 0e 0f a4 3f-97 e4 68 71 b7 5f d9 31"
uuid.location = "56 4d 09 04 0e 0f a4 3f-97 e4 68 71 b7 5f d9 31"
virtualHW.productCompatibility = "hosted"
virtualHW.version = "6"
Reply Re: VM Mouse Driver Crippled? Nov 4, 2007 5:16 AM
in response to: Doghouse Reilly
Click to view etung's profile Guru etung 11,030 posts since
Oct 15, 2006
VMware
The vmx file is not sorted; position doesn't matter. Since you're seeing the HID compliant mouse, I think the config file option worked (this item didn't appear in my tree before I added the setting).
Reply Re: VM Mouse Driver Crippled? Nov 4, 2007 10:55 AM
in response to: rrdharan
Click to view Rzn8tor's profile Hot Shot Rzn8tor 231 posts since
Jun 10, 2007
rrdharan wrote:
I believe this is fixed in Fusion 1.1.

I'm running 1.1 and it still doesn't appear to work. What do I need to do to activate this feature?
Reply Re: VM Mouse Driver Crippled? Nov 4, 2007 11:01 AM
in response to: Rzn8tor
Click to view Doghouse Reilly's profile Novice Doghouse Reilly 11 posts since
Nov 3, 2007
Make that two of us. The PS/2 mouse is still being used, not the newly-appeared HID Compliant Microsoft 2006-dated-driver device. What's more, every effort to remove the PS/2 mouse using Device Manager fails. The Cat Came Back.

So it appears that merely making a USB mouse appear in the Device Tree isn't enough. What next, guys?
Reply Re: VM Mouse Driver Crippled? Nov 4, 2007 11:44 AM
in response to: Doghouse Reilly
Click to view Doghouse Reilly's profile Novice Doghouse Reilly 11 posts since
Nov 3, 2007
BTW, it appears BOTh mice HID-USB and PS/2 are using the same driver. Could that be why I'm seeing no functional difference? And why is the PS/2 device ineradicable? The "Disable Device" option is grayed-out in Device Manager. File protection gone awry?
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