USB support for Solaris 10 VM with Workstation 6, but works in Fusion?

[gauranga]

Although the option exists and I can present a USB controller in the VM host for the Solaris 10 host, it doesn't work.

This same VM host does support USB using Fusion on my Mac, beautifully.

What's the deal with Workstation 6 missing USB support for VM's? This is only one of many features I've noticed in Mac OS X Fusion that is much more polished and functional then in Workstation 6 for XP.

Any support appreciated, thanks in advance!!

[Neben]

First of all, let's clear up the meaning of "host". "host" means the OS running on the real hardware, where VMware is installed as an application. An OS running in a VM is called a "guest". In your case, WS6 seems to be running on a Windows XP host and you're trying to use VM with Solaris 10 as the guest OS. With Fusion, Mac OSX is the host OS.

How doesn't it work? Can you see the available USB devices in the UI menu? Have you tried other guest OSes than Solaris 10 with WS 6?

[gauranga]

Thank you for your reply post, I really appreciate the feed back.

I apologized about my incorrect use of virtual terminology, I understand the importance of speaking clearly. You're correct the VM hosts I work on are Windows XP (WS6) and Mac OS X (Fusion), my guest VM is Solaris 10. And it's the only guest OS I current run, for development and research.

The guest VM is an identical copy imported to both hosts. The VM guest work perfectly on the Fusion host. On the WS6 host I have three issues with the guest VM that do not appear in Fusion.

1. The USB does not work.

2. The guest OS takes 3-5 minutes to power off (pending hugh writes to disk).

3. Even though I've disabled audio on both the host and guest, the host give a very "VERY" loud beep when alerts on the guest the command line. - (scares everyone in my office since I'm in a cube surrounded by others, quietly working)

The USB support is what I'm concerned about. The other two issues are annoying, but not development stoppers.

Thank you very much for your help!

[gauranga]

PS.

The USB device show up on the host IU with no issues, but no USB devices every appear on the guest IU as Solaris 10 usb mounts in /dev via rmformat (mount) or vold (volrmmount). The WS6 gui (usb) icon on the system tray never "glows" blue - if that helps?

I hope this answers all your question. Thanks again!

[gauranga]

PPS.

correction, the USB icon in the WS6 system tray does not appear at all, even thought I've USB enable and configured in the guest VM settings.

[Neben]

I apologized about my incorrect use of virtual

terminology, I understand the importance of speaking

clearly. You're correct the VM hosts I work on are

Windows XP (WS6) and Mac OS X (Fusion), my guest VM

is Solaris 10. And it's the only guest OS I current

run, for development and research.

Thanks and no need to apologize!

3. Even though I've disabled audio on both the host

and guest, the host give a very "VERY" loud beep when

alerts on the guest the command line. - (scares

everyone in my office since I'm in a cube surrounded

by others, quietly working)

Well, this is the "motherboard speaker" beep, from back when systems didn't have audio devices. To stop this, please add the following line to the VM's vmx config file.

mks.noBeep = "TRUE"

I've got a couple more questions about the USB and power off issue.

Which product, Fusion or WS6, did you use to create the VM originally?

There is a UI difference between Fusion and WS6 when dealing with USB. With WS6, the USB icon doesn't appear until after you've connect a USB device to the VM. After you connect the USB device, via the VM->Removable Device->USB Device Menu or autoconnect on focus, you should see the USB icon in the WS6 tray and there should be a check mark by the USB device in the USB Device Menu. On Windows, we have to load a "VMware USB Driver" to gain access to the USB device, so there may be a delay and/or driver dialog the first time you connect the device. Have you tried connecting a USB device via the menu?

[RDPetruska]

The line mks.noBeep = "TRUE" must be added to the system's config.ini file, NOT in the individual guest's vmx file.

[KBTweak]

I've been following this string as it's related to my WinXP WS6 Host of Solaris 10 as well and was hoping you guys would continue....

To pick up where you left off, yes, I have tried plugging in the usb drive while the solaris VM is in focus. And my grep can find no USB device, and the VM removable devices catagory remains empty.

Any additional suggestions? Could the VM build be bad? I don't believe it was built in v6 but I have run the "upgrade" and "tools install" both.

[chrisli]

I suggest you to try out the new WS65 beta.

The Fusion does release after WS6. So it might be some bugs fixed in the

newer code base. If that is true, WS65 is likely to help you as well.

Do you see any thing interesting relate to USB from the vmware log file?

[KBTweak]

Having trouble finding the 6.5 upgrade download... know where I can get it?

and yeah lol, my logs say:

Jul 18 12:37:13.906: vmx| DICT usb.present = FALSE

Jul 18 12:37:17.765: mks| VMXAIOMGR: Disallowing USB connect. 4672866 us since last reopen

Jul 18 12:37:17.796: vmx| DnD rpc already set to 1

Jul 18 12:37:17.796: vmx| DnD CopyPasteRegisterRpc already set to 1

Jul 18 12:37:17.796: vmx| VMXAIOMGR: Disallowing USB connect. 4698588 us since last reopen

Jul 18 12:37:17.796: vcpu-0| APIC: version = 0x14, max LVT = 5

Jul 18 12:37:17.796: vcpu-0| APIC: LDR = 0x1000000, DFR = 0xffffffff

Jul 18 12:37:17.812: vcpu-0| guestCpuFeatures = 0x500001f0

Jul 18 12:37:17.812: vcpu-0| Init modules.

I thought I'd try building out the solaris 10 again fresh on 6.5 I saw the sample screenshots that include some usb support questions during install... think that would help?

Thanks much

Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:07:12 -0700

From: communities-emailer@vmware.com

To: kimboucher@hotmail.com

Subject: New message: "USB support for Solaris 10 VM with Workstation 6, but works in Fusion?"

,

A new message was posted in the thread "USB support for Solaris 10 VM with Workstation 6, but works in Fusion?":

http://communities.vmware.com/message/997489

Author : chrisli

Profile : http://communities.vmware.com/people/chrisli

Message:

[chrisli]

Jul 18 12:37:13.906: vmx| DICT usb.present = FALSE

That means you did not add USB controller to this VM. Forget about

difference of 6.0 and Fusion. You need to add the USB controller first.

The 6.5 Beta download, as you can google it:

http://www.vmware.com/communities/content/beta/ws65/welcome.html