Install drivers/sw to Boot Camp partition or through VMware?

[exmixer]

Running Fusion 3.1.3 with XP Pro installed via Boot Camp. Works great, however, I'd like to install a new WiFi adapter driver and some other sw. Boot to Boot Camp and install, or install while running Fusion? MacBook Pro running 10.6.8.

Tia...

[tracywang · Accepted solution]

I believe both way are ok. Since your will install a WiFi adapter driver to your boot camp, I suggest you go to Boot Camp natively and install it to see if it works fine, because in Fusion, you are using virtual network adapter.

In theory, all the SW installed in Boot camp natively will work in Boot camp VM. And vice versa.

[WoodyZ]

In theory, all the SW installed in Boot camp natively will work in Boot camp VM. And vice versa.

Yes however in practice this is not always true.

While I originally (when VMware Fusion first supported running the Boot Camp partition as a Virtual Machine) ran by Boot Camp partition as a Virtual Machine I quickly stopped the practice because originally VMware's implementation was highly flawed and was not fixed until one of the VMware Fusion 3.x releases.  Even thought the original issues have been corrected I still keep Boot Camp for native use only although when I did use if I made the decision to only install anything while booted natively.  I did this mainly as a control factor since the primary purpose, for me, with Boot Camp was to run it natively.  Now does it really make a difference, in most cases I'd say no however in cases when the software being installed uses hardware hash algorithms with its product activation method I would probably choose to install it natively if that's how I primarily intended to use it.  The other exception would be when installing something that require a certain amount of RAM as the native boot obviously will have the full amount of installed RAM available that would not be available when run as a Virtual Machine.  Otherwise, generally speaking, it shouldn't make any difference.

[tracywang]

Hi Woody,

Thanks for your detailed reply, I totally agree with you. The theory is the final goal, but before we accomplish it, we will face all the difficulty in the practice.

Best regards,

Tracy

[exmixer]

Thank you Tracy. My inclination was to install natively to the Boot Camp partition, which is what I did. There was an additional factor not mentioned in my original question, which is that I have 2 'floating' WiFi adapters (Macs and PCs here), both by Amped (UA150C and UA600EX) that work well, Mac and 'real' PCs, but the installer installs a shared utility. I've discovered that I can't have both drivers installed on any box, Mac, XP or W7, as the 'other' one needs to be uninstalled, not just disabled <shrug> No issue, all works as expected in Fusion after the native install, the only minor (very minor) catch was that after the install, restart to OS X and launching Fusion I needed to unplug, then replug the USB cable for the current adapter.

Works a treat, thanks again for your help.

Regards...

[WoodyZ]

There was an additional factor not mentioned in my original question, which is that I have 2 'floating' WiFi adapters (Macs and PCs here), both by Amped (UA150C and UA600EX) that work well, Mac and 'real' PCs, but the installer installs a shared utility. I've discovered that I can't have both drivers installed on any box, Mac, XP or W7, and the 'other' one needs to be uninstalled, not just disabled <shrug>

I took a quick look at the software for the UA600EX under Mac OS X 10.6 for and it is loads the "RTL8192SUs.kext" kernel extension and you should be able to unload the kext with the kextunload command without having to uninstall the software on the Mac in order to use it under Windows in the Virtual Machine.  Another option would be if you intend to use it in the Windows Virtual Machine do not plug it in until the Virtual Machine has booted to the Windows Desktop and set it so it always connects to the Virtual Machine when it's running then it shouldn't be grabbed by OS X thus eliminating the need to uninstall the software or unload the kext.  The same should apply for the UA15C.

[exmixer]

WoodyZ wrote:

I took a quick look at the software for the UA600EX under Mac OS X 10.6 for and it is loads the "RTL8192SUs.kext" kernel extension and you should be able to unload the kext with the kextunload command without having to uninstall the software on the Mac in order to use it under Windows in the Virtual Machine.

Thanks for the kextunload tip WoodyZ, but I think I may have muddied the waters in my reply to Tracy. The uninstall issue *seems* to be related to the utility that's installed with the drivers for both Amped adapters, VMware has nothing to do with that, same deal Mac only or on a PC. I did get the dialog asking which machine to use the adapater with, didn't make that decision permanent, but it worked as expected for my testing when I chose Windows. BTW, I don't find any of this a fault with the Amped products, though they may not have considered multiple device installs on one box. VMware handled the new addition gracefully, good deal there.

The installers, Mac or Win, appear to overwrite the existing utility (if previously installed) when installing the different drivers and that seems to cause confusion on both platforms. Not sure whether the utility is specific to the driver installed (they perform the same functions for survey, connect etc.) but something goes south with both drivers installed. On Windows (XP only) one key may be that the UA600EX has an undocd AP feature, kinda cool if that's of use. Pretty slick more or less 'silent' built-in ICS wizard too. As noted, on Win, just disabling in Device Manager and physically unplugging the device doesn't help. A refreshing change from some Mac sw packages is that Amped includes an uninstaller script for Mac and similar for Win, so no issue. In this case, I just wanted to see if both adapters worked with VMware, they do, all good <g>

Hopefully that explanation didn't further obscure what wasn't a VMware issue. The real question, asked and answered, install natively to Boot Camp or via the VM, all good there 🙂

Regards...