USB redirection not working

[gstrouth]

We have some USB flash drives that redirect fine from a Windows client but that same flash drive doesn't redirect from a Mac. Anyone have any ideas what the issue might be? They are Alcor devices.

[TonyHuynh201110]

Can you give us more information?

What version of the View agent and View client are you using?  Can you clarify what the exact USB devices are?

Thanks

[gstrouth]

We are on all the latest, the agent is 5.2 and the Mac client is 2.0. They are just USB flash drives, when they install they say Alcor for the type.

[TonyHuynh201110]

Hi,

Can you provide details on the exact Mac hardware and firmware?  Also, do other USB devices redirect ok?

Some logs would be useful when a failure occurs.

Thanks

[gstrouth]

Not really specific to certain hardware, we have the issue on MacBook Pro's from the past 4 years. Other devices redirect ok, this is the only device that we've ran across so far. I just thought it was interesting that it worked fine on windows but not mac but I guess the USB stack could be different. I'll try to get some logs.

[yuleyl]

Hi,

Could you please provide more info about your USB devices used for redirection on Mac client? So that we can purchase some of them for reproducing the issue.

And what's the problem for redirection on Mac client? USB device's name isn't listed in USB menu? Or USB device failed to redirect to remote desktop? Is there any error message pop up?

Thanks,

Brian Yu

[gstrouth]

I've attached a couple of screenshots so you can see. As you can see it shows up in the list to select but fails to install on windows. They show up as Alcor Micro Mass Storage, I can get you in contact with our vendor if you want?

[yuleyl]

Thanks for your providing info and screenshots.

I also found similar issue on Fusion http://communities.vmware.com/thread/187469?start=0&tstart=0 , so I think the reason may be caused by the USB device has multiple interfaces (Storage, Keyboard/Mouse/HID) and Keyboard/Mouse/HID are blocked by default for View Client. Please try below workaround, I'm not sure whether this workaround works for you since I don't have this device on my hand.

Steps of workaround:

1. Open Terminal.app

2. Execute command as root "sudo defaults write com.vmware.viewusb AllowKeyboardMouse 1"

3. Execute command as root "sudo defaults write com.vmware.viewusb AllowHID 1"

4. Execute command as root "sudo defaults write com.vmware.viewusb DisableRemoteConfig 1"

5. Quit View Client and relaunch it

6. Login to server and connect to desktop

7. Enable "Automatically connect when inserted" in USB menu

7. Plug in the device

Thanks,

Brian Yu

[gstrouth]

Didn't work, those steps produced the same results.

[yuleyl]

Thanks for your info, I think we have to get a device that you are using to check this issue.

[yuleyl]

Fusion also has the same issue: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/187469?start=0&tstart=0

Searched in Amazon.com and eBay.com and didn't find any Alcor USB Flash Disk related devices.

[TonyHuynh201110]

The issue has been identified and will be resolved in an upcoming release, 3.1.