passthru USB with ISO to boot VM

[uyozTic]

i want to use the Tails live CD as a vm. i thought maybe i could create a VM and have the Tails ISO boot from a USB drive versus the typical CD->ISO. Tails won't install to disk so i want to load it as a live instance and use it that way.

my vm datastores are on a separate NAS unit. but i don't see an option to link a USB drive this way like i can with the CD option. when creating the VM i did add a USB controller.

if i need to passthru a USB to this VM, how do i identify the correct USB to passthru?  the ESXi machine boots from a USB stick so i don't want to passthru the wrong USB and scramble the ESXi boot stick so to speak.

in the advanced settings to mark for passthru there's like 5 USB host controllers on the ESXi machine. i ssh'd into ESXi and executed 'lsusb' to see which one the ESXi stick is on but that didn't actually tell me which one.

how do find out which USB controller not to mark as passthru in this scenario?

[continuum]

>Tails won't install to disk so i want to load it as a live instance and use it that way.

Why not create a 1.5 gb vmdk, copy the iso into it and then boot the Iso from harddisk - it will still act live a liveinstance but all the USB-problems are gone ?

[uyozTic]

1. Re: passthru USB with ISO to boot VM

continuum Dec 21, 2015 5:34 PM (in response to uyozTic)

>Tails won't install to disk so i want to load it as a live instance and use it that way.

>>Why not create a 1.5 gb vmdk, copy the iso into it and then boot the Iso from harddisk - it will still act live a liveinstance but all the USB-problems are gone ?

never even thought of that nor realize i could just copy an ISO to that created vmdk folder.  yeah, that would resolve the USP issue.

i'll give it a try today, report back. thank

[continuum]

You have to install grub bootloader manually to disk - I think I saw that in the instructions for the SD-card approach.
If you have problems let me know - already downloaded latest Tails.iso

[uyozTic]

3. Re: passthru USB with ISO to boot VM

continuum Dec 22, 2015 11:08 AM (in response to uyozTic)

>You have to install grub bootloader manually to disk - I think I saw that in the instructions for the SD-card approach.
>If you have problems let me know - already downloaded latest Tails.iso

i think you're right about that.i just got the 1.8.1 ver myself.

thanks for the help