VMware Player USB problem

[JDThompson]

I am a health care worker, using the Epocrates medical software on my Palm based PDA. I use linux as my primary operating system. Until recently, I have been running Win2k in VMware to synchronize my PDA with Epocrates via a USB-1.1 connection. My trusty old computer finally died, and has been replaced by a shiny new one, also running linux (64-bit Fedora8). My old machine had 32-bit copy of VMware Workstation (4.something; neglected to upgrade because everything worked fine) installed, but on the new machine I installed the 64-bit linux VMwarePlayer-2.0.2-59824 software. My old Win2k virtual machine came up fine in the new Player, and when I try to synchronize with the PDA, it reports that the PDA is recognized on the USB-2 port, but the connection times out without completing the sync.

I don't know if the problem is with VMware-player, or the change from USB-1.1 to USB2 on the hardware, or something else entirely.

Any ideas on how to fix this? Or should I try to find my old 32-bit Workstation 4.whatever installation media and try that?

Thanks...

[asatoran]

There was an issue with USB2 devices with Server1. Your virtual machine, being used in Player1 (so using the same virtual hardware as Server1) might have this issue, although the knowledgebase article doesn't mention Player.

Per the KB, you can try putting your Palm on a USB1 hub. Or perhaps you can update your virtual hardware to Workstation6/Player2 since they support USB2. You can't find someone with Workstation6, you can either install it temporarily in trial mode, or run your virtual machine thgough Converter to save it with the newer virtual hardware.

[JDThompson]

The device itself is a USB1 device (Sony Clie PEG-SJ22) and had been operating properly with Workstation v4. It only stopped when I had to replace the old host machine. I had a backup of the old virtual machine created under WS4, and it comes up fine in Player-2.0.2 (64-bit). The VM recognizes the Clie during the USB handshake, but the HotSync times out without transferring anything.

Your suggestion to try a USB1 hub sounds promising, although it doesn't appear that I have a USB1 hub anymore. The old machine had USB1 on the motherboard, and if I could have resurrected it I probably wouldn't have gotten a new machine.

I did try my Garmin VistaCX GPS device in the Player-2.0.2 session, and was able to connect and access the memory card on the device. However, the Garmin "Webupdater" utility was unable to find the device to query its firmware; nor was the Windows Removable Device Manager able to unmount it for disconnection. This is a USB2 device, IIRC.

[asatoran]

Well, if it is still an issue with the virtual USB2/USB1 thing, like I said, you could try updating the virtual machine to the newer vitual hardware. Download Workstation. It'll run for 30days without a serial number. In that time, you only need click one menu selection to update your virtual machine. That should eliminate that possibility very quickly. (Of course, do this with a copy of your VM...just in case. )

But otherwise, I'm not really sure why just that device would have problems.

[JDThompson]

wrote:

+you could try updating the virtual machine to the newer vitual

hardware. Download Workstation. It'll run for 30days without a serial

number. In that time, you only need click one menu selection to update

your virtual machine.+

Ok. I downloaded WS-6 and got an evaluation license. But when I try the "Upgrade or change version" option, it tells me "This virtual machine's hardware version cannot be changed because it has a legacy snapshot." Nor can I create a new snapshot from within WS-6; the menu option is disabled.

Is there a means of getting rid of the old snapshot so I can upgrade the virtual hardware?

Thanks...

[JDThompson]

Ok. Having found an old rpm of Workstation 4.52, I decided to uninstall Workstation-6 and Player-2.0.2 and see if I can get Workstation-4.52 to work for me. The rpm installed without complaint, but when I run vmware-config.pl to build the modules, it complains:

What is the location of the directory of C header files that match your running

kernel? /usr/src/kernels/2.6.23.1-42.fc8-x86_64/include

The directory of kernel headers (version @@VMWARE@@ UTS_RELEASE) does not match your running kernel (version 2.6.23.1-42.fc8). Even if the module were to compile successfully, it would not load into the running kernel.

What is the location of the directory of C header files that match your running kernel?

Where is the config script picking up this spurious "version @@VMWARE@@ UTS_RELEASE" that seems to be causing the confision?

[asatoran]

Shutdown the virtual machine instead of suspend. If you just close Player without shuting down the guest, the default action is to suspend the guest. That's probably where the snapshot is coming from.

I'm not a Linux expert so I don't know what the error messages mean. But it might be a moot point if the above works.

[JDThompson]

wrote:

Shutdown the virtual machine instead of suspend.

I did. No joy. The "snapshot" button remains disabled, and the "Update virtual hardware" option gives the same complaint.

[asatoran]

What does the Snapshot Manger show? If any snapshots there, then delete them.

I don't work much with snapshots. So I don't know how to manually remove a snapshot, if at all. Check the Settings for the virtual machine to see if Snapshots are disabled, which is probably why the snapshot button is grayed.

[JDThompson]

Where do I find this "Snapshot Manager?"

If it's an option under "VM...Snapshot," it's greyed-out (disabled) here.

[JDThompson]

As a desperate, last resort I read the User's Manual. There's a short but pertinent paragraph:

Snapshots and Workstation 4 Virtual Machines

Workstation 4 virtual machines do not support multiple snapshots. For full Workstation 6 functionality, you must upgrade. If you want to upgrade but the Workstation 4 virtual machine has snapshots, you must first remove the snapshots. Use your earlier, Workstation 4.x application to remove the snapshot, and then upgrade to Workstation 6. You can then upgrade the virtual machine, as described in "Changing the Version of the Virtual Machine" on page 6

If you choose not to upgrade, you preserve the ability to use the virtual machine in Workstation 4, but no multiplesnapshot functionality is allowed.

But I'm still stuck, since I can't get Workstation-4 to properly build its modules on the new machine.

If I can get WS-4 installed on my wife's Windows machine (and successfully copy the VM files) I may be able to fix this in the proper manner.

[asatoran]

I don't know much about WS4. All I can think of is run the virtual machine through Converter. WS6 has Converter built-in. Choose Import instead of Open from the File menu. Other than that, I'm all out of ideas except to try creating a new VM from scratch. Use the trial version of WS6 to create the new VM with the new virtual hardware (with USB2.) Then try your Palm in that. All you're trying to do is determine if upgrading the virtual hardware will fix your problem so you just need the virtual machine working just enough to sync the Palm. If it works, then at least you know. But if it doesn't work, then you can stop this line of troubleshooting.

[JDThompson]

A quick recap, since it's been a while since this thread has been active. I recently bough a new machine, and am running Fedora8-x64 on it. I had an existing Win2k virtual machine I had been using with VMware4 on Fedroa Core1 on my old machine until it died in early January (hence the new machine). Since I didn't really need Workstation, I opted to install VMwarePlayer(x64) on the new machine to access the old Win2k virtual machine. So far so good, but alas, I cannot get my Windows-based USB devices (Sony Clie, Garmin Vista GPS) to work with the old virtual machine on the new hardware. Although the devices are recognized and identified by VMwarePlayer, the USB handshake times out without transferring any data. All my efforts to rectify this were to no avail, and so it sat for 4 weeks until yesterday.

Yesterday, I decided to install VMwarePlayer-2.0.2 on my wife's Vista (32-bit) machine. This is the same version of VMwarePlayer I have on my Fedora8(x64) machine. I opened VMwarePlayer on Vista, pointed it -- through samba -- to the old Win2k virtual machine on my Fedora machine, and fired it up. After throwing a cautionary dialog about the hardware having changed, the virtual machine booted up fine. Connected my Clie, and tried a Hotsync -- it worked! Tried my Garmin -- it worked! Same virtual machine in each case, same version of VMwarePlayer in each case (albeit different platform). One works; the other doesn't.

What's up with this? A 64-bit vs 32-bit module problem manifesting itself?