USB Devices - Why Does The Guest Show Host Built-in Hardware Instead Of USB Hardware?

[WhiteKnight]

Whenever I click a Windows guest's Savely Remove Hardware system tray icon, it only displays hardware built into my host machine:

But it never really shows any connected USB device!

What am I doing wrong here?

[WoodyZ]

Whenever I click a Windows guest's Savely Remove Hardware system tray icon, it only displays hardware built into my host machine:

That list in your image is of the Guest's Hardware not the Host's Hardware.

[continuum]

Are you sure that the VMware USB is functional ? that is not something you can take for granted with Windows 7 and WS 7.

Can you run as admin in a cmd

net start hcmon

and

net start VMUSBArbService

and report the output ?

_________________________

VMX-parameters- WS FAQ -[ MOAcd|http://sanbarrow.com/moa241.html] - VMDK-Handbook

[WhiteKnight]

Thanks for your replies!

@ WoodyZ:

If so, why is it displayed in the USB list anyway? It's neither USB in the guest nor in the host. And where is the USB that's connected to the guest?

@ Continuum:

Sure, both are well , and they are up and running.

I worked with the USB device (Serial to USB converter) at the guest OS. And I wanted to safely remove the hardware now from the guest OS.

[continuum]

what do you have listed in this registry key ?

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\VMUSBArbService\Enumeration




_________________________

VMX-parameters- WS FAQ -[ MOAcd|http://sanbarrow.com/moa241.html] - VMDK-Handbook

[WoodyZ]

@ WoodyZ: If so, why is it displayed in the USB list anyway? It's neither USB in the guest nor in the host. And where is the USB that's connected to the guest?

Who says that's just a USB List? It's a Safely Remove Hardware feature of the OS and it's a list of removable devices, not that one would necessarily want to remove some of them however and the ones showing in your image are of the Guest's Hardware not the Host's Hardware and if you don't want to accept that then that's on you.

[continuum · Accepted solution]

If so, why is it displayed in the USB list anyway?

see http://sanbarrow.com/workstation-faq.html#p6




_________________________

VMX-parameters- WS FAQ -[ MOAcd|http://sanbarrow.com/moa241.html] - VMDK-Handbook

[WhiteKnight]

@ continuum:

Thanks for the Hyperlink! Unfortunately it doesn't say where to put that line. Before I start fiddling around editing, booting, shutting down.. Do you know where I have to add this line to?

@ WoodyZ:

Of course, you're right... Still I tend to refrain from regarding audio, NIC or PCI controllers as removable hardware. Perhaps VMware should rewrite those drivers to not signal they are removable...

[WoodyZ]

The devices.hotplug = "FALSE" parameter goes in the target VM's .vmx configuration file. You can place it anywhere in that file on its own line, it's just a text file. When you make your edit it best if the VM is shutdown, not suspended and the VMware product closed although the last point may not be necessary in all VMware products.

Yes I agree I don't think of them as removable devices on a physical machine however with virtulazition I can see a case wanting to remove for diagnostic purposes although the default should be not to show them and then have a way of exposing them if need be, Anyway when VMware changed this it caused a lot of problems with Users unknowingly accidentally disconnecting one or more of the devices and then they ended up posting on the forums that something just broke on their VM etc., etc. ...

The devices.hotplug = "FALSE" parameter works nicely (thanks Ulli) and I have now added it to my "Need to add to .vmx file list" along with several other to change several the default behaviors as the normal configuration I want for all my VM's.

[WhiteKnight]

Unfortunately it took a while but now I had a chance to test this setting...

It seems adding this setting to the .VMX file causes the "savely remove hardware" System Tray icon to disappear completely. Well, that's not exactly the solution I'd been waiting for, I'm afraid.

I still want to see the "usual" hot-plugged USB devices in the "savely remove hardware" System Tray. I want only the "uncommon" hardware items to don't show up.

[WoodyZ]

Yes it does remove it from the Notification Area however when a USB Device is plugged in it then appears with that device in the list and can be selected to be removed and I believe that is the normal and expected behavior on a physical machine and hence this setting acts accordingly in the virtual machine.

[WhiteKnight]

D'uh... For my test I had been using my ISDN system which doesn't list as a hot-plugged device in the host either... Sorry for that.

But this is strange: I can now see my mainboard's SATA C: drive listed in the VM. But only on this particular machine... I have now set the .VMX setting to all VMs on my other machine and I don't see the mainboard's SATA C: drive listed there. - strange...