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jpreed
Contributor
Contributor

Workstation 6 + Linux + iPhone

Hey all,

I wasn't planning on getting an iPhone, but some peer pressure ensued and now I have one.

I've been trying to activate it for a couple days now using a Linux guest and XP SP2, but have had no success. The basic problem is that when I plug the device in, Windows chimes with its little "USB device connected" sound, but iTunes doesn't list the device in its device list. (I am therefore willing to chalk this up to a software problem inside the guest, but...)

I started with an XP SP 2 VM running under Workstation 5; had the same problems there (and in fact, got a warning about "slower than expected speeds," so I'm assuming that was the lack of USB 2.0 support in 5.x), so I installed WS 6, upgraded the virtual hardware, and tried again.

This time, when I first plug in the iPhone, Windows says "New Hardware Found: iPhone," and installs drivers. Again, I can plug/unplug the phone, and Windows beeps, but iTunes sees nothing.

Some relevant log files:

from vmware.log

Jul 01 15:58:15.176: vmx| USB: Found device [name:Apple\ iPhone vid:05ac pid:129

0 path:4/3 speed:high family:vendor,hid,imaging]

Jul 01 15:58:15.176: vmx| VMXVmdbLoadUsbDevices: New set of 1 USB devices

Other times I connected the phone, I've gotten this:

Jul 01 03:31:54.350: vmx| USB: Autoconnecting e004000405ac1290

Jul 01 03:31:54.351: vmx| USB: Found device [name:Apple\ iPhone vid:05ac pid:129

0 path:4/3 speed:high family:vendor,hid,imaging]

Jul 01 03:31:54.351: vmx| VMXVmdbLoadUsbDevices: New set of 1 USB devices

Jul 01 03:31:54.873: vmx| SOCKET 177 client closed connection

Jul 01 03:31:55.873: vmx| EHCI: setup data packet over run 8 0

Jul 01 03:31:55.884: vmx| EhciNewBulk: tdlengths = 18924, pipesize = 16392

Jul 01 03:31:55.886: vmx| EhciNewBulk: tdlengths = 18924, pipesize = 16392

Jul 01 03:31:55.888: vmx| EhciNewBulk: tdlengths = 18924, pipesize = 16392

Jul 01 03:31:55.889: vmx| EhciNewBulk: tdlengths = 18924, pipesize = 16392

Jul 01 03:31:55.891: vmx| EhciNewBulk: tdlengths = 18924, pipesize = 16392

Jul 01 03:31:55.892: vmx| EhciNewBulk: tdlengths = 18924, pipesize = 16392

...

Jul 01 03:31:59.346: vmx| EhciNewBulk: tdlengths = 18924, pipesize = 16392

Jul 01 03:31:59.348: vmx| EhciNewBulk: tdlengths = 18924, pipesize = 16392

Jul 01 03:31:59.349: vmx| EhciNewBulk: tdlengths = 18924, pipesize = 16392

Jul 01 03:31:59.351: vmx|

Jul 01 03:31:59.351: vmx| <<< Log Throttled >>

from dmesg:

usb 4-4: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 6

usb 4-4: configuration #1 chosen from 3 choices

usb 4-4: USB disconnect, address 6

A couple of questions:

When I did the upgrade from WS 5 -> 6, the VM saw the changes and wanted to reboot due to "new hardware." I'm wondering if because this copy of XP was installed on a VM that had no USB 2 support if something inside the VM is grabbing it as a USB 1 device and preventing iTunes from seeing it (or something similar).

Which is to ask: would re-installing Windows cleanly under Workstation 6 help this problem?

I'd really like to get this working under VMware, so I don't have to have a computer lying around \*just* for my phone. 😕

TIA,

preed

Message was edited by:

RDPetruska

Removed emoticon from subject line

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179 Replies
KevinG
Immortal
Immortal

Workstation 6.0.1 adds full support for the 32-bit and 64-bit Ubuntu Linux 7.04 as host and guest operating systems.

This is documented in the release notes.

Sorry for being misinformed.

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nate_sammons
Contributor
Contributor

Somebody a couple pages back already tried Ubuntu with 6.0.2, and it didn't work. Now, they did try Ububtu 7.10 I think and not 7.04. Wooo! Any idea when this might start working for some more current versions of the host OS? If I have to install an outdated version of the host, what's the point?

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cdunham
Contributor
Contributor

Yes, we hear you. Most of the VMware employees that post here, including myself, are individual contributors that don't make the release decisions. I've done as much as I can to make sure your voices are heard.

Thanks, Neben. We appreciate you making the case.

Just so we are clear on VMWare's position, it sounds like the decision makers know about the problem, have a fix for it available, but don't see it as a big enough deal to release it in the near future. Is that accurate?

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bryanfe
Contributor
Contributor

It's January 11th, and VMWare and my iPhone still won't work together. I'll re-attempt it every day, and post my results here (also every day). I wonder if I'm the only one with this problem -- if not, perhaps everyone else monitoring this thread could also re-test the iPhone and VMWare, every day, and also post their results here, every day, until it fixes itself?

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Merkleman_11235
Contributor
Contributor

It's January 11th, and VMWare and my iPhone still won't work together. I'll re-attempt it every day, and post my results here (also every day). I wonder if I'm the only one with this problem -- if not, perhaps everyone else monitoring this thread could also re-test the iPhone and VMWare, every day, and also post their results here, every day, until it fixes itself?

I agree, still waiting, it's the 16th now. Has this thread simply died? Has everyone got it working except me?

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wireless
Contributor
Contributor

I gave up long time ago and to be honnest i like the linux native apps better like gtkpod and amarok which works perfectly. except ofcourse if you need to upgrade/restore.. than you do need itunes .

a solution for syncing contacts and such is allready out platform independent .

anyway i still keep truck here. amusing to see how long it will take them to release a fix... pathetic

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sloan1919
Contributor
Contributor

First off KevinG, wasn't aware my version of Vmware that I purchased was only supposed to work with some obscure version of Ubuntu. Secondly, I clearly don't think you even understand the problem that we are refering or you are having a difficulty understanding the release notes. The fact that you said that it works on Ubuntu as guest and host operating systems lets me know you have no idea of what your talking about or you haven't taken the time to read and understand the problem that we are having. This problem is not resolved and from the looks of it Vmware has NO intention of resolving it anytime soon.

Sloan

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bryanfe
Contributor
Contributor

I have been faithfully retesting my iPhone with VMWare for Linux every day and it still doesn't work.

VMWare's official explanation is still -- "We have a fix and it is going through internal testing and we're not ready to release it".

iPhone sales are still going through the roof, and VMWare, laughably, is holding an iPhone giveaway promotion if you go to the VMWare website and update your profile.

It was funny for a while but now it's just old and annoying. VMWare, what the heck is going on with you people?

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philly_guy
Contributor
Contributor

the last update on this fix was that it is still "in engineering" which is businesspeak for "its still sitting on the developer's desk and they haven't got around to completion yet probably"

Either that or the problem lies in the Linux kernel or a module and if you have ever submitted a kernel patch before, you will understand why that takes so long (plus all your users then have to go to kernel.org and patch their systems or wait even more for their distro to be updated)

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dweazle
Contributor
Contributor

I came across this thread when googline for: vmware "ipod touch". Apparently I'm not the only one who has this problem with iPods in vmware Smiley Happy

I'm using vmware player 2.0.2 with a XP SP2 32bit guest on an Ubuntu 7.10 x86_64 host and when I hook up my iPod touch I get this error:

iTunes could not connect to the iPhone '''' because an unknown error occurred

I jailbreaked the thing an I can put stuff on it with gtkpod through Wifi, but syncing is slow and inconvenient.

btw I also have an iPod nano (1st gen) which I can sync just fine.

I don't really know who to blame here.

On the one hand Apple for putting serious effort in making sure everyone uses their iTunes platform with their devices by keeping the software stack closed and unavailable to free software hackers and other 'competition'.

On the other VMware for not providing timely fixes for these issues which are obviously not that uncommon. I doubt this is a very hard problem to debug, unless the iPod touch and iPhone use some non-standard form of USB.

I got my iPod touch as a present, so I can't really return it or sell it.. Kind of a luxury problem here Smiley Happy

I hope a fix will be provided soon!

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incom2
Contributor
Contributor

Hi all,

This is my first post and I'm not sure to place in this thread, but I think is the most appropipate. Then, if anyone thinks there is a better place to post it, please let me know.

First of all I'm using Windows XP not Linux, and a cloned XP under VMWare Workstation 6 in order to sync my iPhone with the contained iTunes (reason: the doomed syncronization of iPhone with one computer/library/iTunes). I must say when I started to virtualize the computer I didn't know the hell was about to start to me, and never heard about there is no virtualization product capable of sync correctly an iPhone out of there.

Well, Murphy helped this time (noob luck?): Due a disk space problem, I used an external USB 2.0 hard disk in order to virtualize and run the cloned machine. Painful. Really painful. But a day later, with finally cloned XP, I started it under WMWare, upgraded to version 6 in order to get USB 2.0 compatibility... ok (and many more hours spent... omg).

I started iTunes, focused it, plugged the iPhone in the other USB 2.0 available and: XP detected it, disconnected, then virtual XP detected it, and iTunes (7.6 with manual sync option set) DETECTED IT. I see all te content NOT GRAYED: music and videos. I'm able to delete songs, to upload... all seems to WORK OK (I uploaded two videos -200 Mb each-, a few MP3 songs... ALL OK!).

But not all news are good: when doing this (virtual machine inside USB disk, and iPhone in other port) the entire USB system seems to become unstable. I'm not sure and will work on it, but randomly the USB disk may stops, VMWare says ''unable to write file XXXX.wmk, maybe hardware problem'', and I need to power-off and power-on again the disk.

If this happens, when power-on again the disk I have chance to continue by pressing ''retry'' or ''continue'' on VMWare error message. Other times I must to close VMWare and start it again. And other times simply I must have to reset my entire computer. But I managed to sync my iPhone in a different computer, at least in this painful way.

I don't know why this is working, I'm not an expert. Same cloned PC, running in my internal hard disk, and iTunes never connects the iPhone as I read in this thread: ''iTunes has detected an iPhone but cannot connect it due an XXXX error''. Trying a lot (connectind, disconnecting, changing USB port) and only ONE times detected it, but corrupted the entire library (videos and MP3 become unplayable and I was forced to erase it... using the cloned PC on the USB disk to sync again, and fine!!!!!!).

I wish if this will help or put anyone in a different way to investigate. I'm posting my experience, and assuming that maybe I had success only because I'm the first who tried to do all the work using an slow USB 2.0 disk and not the usual hard disk inside the computer. If you need any other information about the process, please only ask me. Any chance to get this work fine for all of us, will be great (more great would be if VMWare releases a patch to correct this, but well, it seems they're not working so much on it...).

Thanks you,

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bryanfe
Contributor
Contributor

Another week gone by, no word at all from VMWare on this problem. It still isn't fixed -- you still can't sync your iPhone with VMWare.

I wonder if everybody quit over there. Maybe all the original engineers left long ago, and all who's left are the newer junior guys who have no idea how the product really works, and thats why they can't fix it. It happens to mature software companies all the time. Thats when you know it's time to ditch them for a younger and more agile competitor.

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visik7
Contributor
Contributor

the frustration on this thread is high Smiley Happy

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Tonearm
Contributor
Contributor

Still not fixed I supposed. I recommended my Dad, brother, fiance, and fiance's Dad buy VMW stock around 65-70, which they all did, but this has me thinking twice. Maybe it's time to sell. Too bad the price is so low.

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MrSaturn
Contributor
Contributor

Any word on this problem? I'm thinking about getting an iPod Touch but as of right now I wouldn't have any way to put songs on the darn thing. (I'm not willing to jailbreak or dual-boot).

Has anyone gotten Linux Host + WinXP guest to work with the iPhone/iPod Touch?

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sloan1919
Contributor
Contributor

word is it doesn't work.

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rmurken
Contributor
Contributor

Ha! You know, it's the height of irony that this thread is marked "possibly solved." There's no "possibly" and no "solved" about it. More like "positively unsolved."

At any rate, as the owner of an iPod classic, I am hoping that this fix, when/if it is realized, will include my device as well. I couldn't get my 6G classic or 5.5G to work with iTunes in a Windows guest for love or money.

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morphic
Contributor
Contributor

The Linux / VMware / iPhone integration has been painful. I recently replaced VMware Workstation with Server ... similar problems. Here's a link to a post about my experience and how far I got:

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cdunham
Contributor
Contributor

My wife asked me for a laptop for Christmas, so I bought her a MacBook. Now I sync from there, problem solved.

Message was edited by: cdunham to be more family-friendly

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gwilli2
Contributor
Contributor

I am looking forward to seeing a fix for this issue. I have a Touch that I'd sorely like to sync to an XP guest machine (I run Ubuntu 7.10). I have Workstation 5, and I'm planning to upgrade to 6, but it's tempting to go look at other solutions at this point. I should know fairly soon if Parallels Workstation will sync - it looks like Virtualbox has it's problems with this too. I have not tried anything else yet, however.

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