Workstation 11 and connection to the built-in smart card reader

[DrWhoIs]

hi,

since upgrading to workstation 11 i'm no longer able to use the built-in smart card reader of my dell m6700

it presents itself as broadcom 5880

in workstation 10 this worked flawlessly (at least it did till 10.2 which was the version i was running)

if i now connect to it, it doesn't get recognised (yellow exclamation mark in device manager)

there is also a shared broadcom device to which i can connect to but that one gives the impression to work but it doesn't finally (this was also present in workstation 10 and didn't work in 10 either)

i've also tried the various usb quircks settings without luck...
so anyone who has similar experience? solution? workaround?

tia!

Marc

[fubvmware]

Hi Marc,

Thanks for reporting the issue! We didn't make specific change to the support of smart card reader other then some bug fixing, it should keep working especially if it works with Workstation 10.0.2. Are you comfortable to share some support data with us so our dev can look into the issue? If yes, you can go to Help menu -> Support -> Collect Support data, and select the VM you are using. You can private message to me so we can see how to send the data over.

Thanks,

Bo

[jimmyg20794]

Almost the same issue here...  USB Card Reader: CardMan 3121 (Not built into keyboard).

SW Version: Workstation 11

Host: CentOS 5

Guest: Windows 7 Professional

VMX HID Setting:

usb.generic.allowHID = "TRUE"

Was previously working in Workstation 10.4

Thanks for the help.

[KAR120C]

I am having the same issue with the internal Broadcom 5880 card reader not working on two different Dell Latitudes E6330 and E6430.  It works with v10.0.3, but not with v11.  It not matter whether or not I upgrade the VMware tools.  I uninstalled v11 on one of the Latitudes and reinstalled v10.0.3 and the reader started working again.   My host is Windows 8.1 and my guest is Windows 7 x64 Enterprise.

BTW, an external Iomega USB card reader works.

Doug

[gvmperson]

Having a very similar issue with 11.1 (Linux x64 Suse Enterprise 11 sp3) - worked fine on 10.5. Hardware is Dell m4800.

[gvmperson]

And what's strange is that I don't even see it trying to connect to the device in the logs. It's as if it can't see it at all...

Downgraded back to 10.5 and it works fine again. Would really like to get this fixed - is really a show stopper not to have the card reader working.

[Tichac]

Reporting exactly the same issue.

VMware Workstation

11.1.0 build-2496824

Host: HP ZBook15, Ubuntu 14.10

Guest: Windows 7 x64 Enterprise

Works flawlessly in VMware Workstation 10.0.5.

VMware team,

can you please provide the statement if it is a Workstation or host OS related issue?

Thanks a lot,

Milan

[gvmperson]

It is a workstation problem not a host OS problem.

The smartcard works fine under Workstation 10 but fails under Workstation 11. In particular I uninstalled Workstation 11, reinstalled Workstation 10 and now have back the smartcard functionality. So there's definitely a regression in 11.

[waltp]

We have the same issue.  The built in Broadcom smart card readers in our Dell M series laptops worked flawlessly in the Linux and Windows VM's under VMware Workstation 10.3.  As soon as we upgraded to Workstation 11.0, the readers were no longer recognized by the VM's, even though PCSD on the Linux host OS continues to see the readers and smart cards with no problem.  We've since downgraded to Workstation 10.3 as a workaround.

[vizar853]

This is a known issue answered in the following KB: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=200035...

In two words:

a. In linux terminal issue lsusb command to see what the vendor and product id of your smart card reader

b. Open your .vmx file in a text editor

c. Add this line, replacing <vid> and <pid> with the values you found earlier:
    usb.quirks.device0 = "0x<vid>:0x<pid> allow"
    Example: For the Apple device found in step 2, this line is:
    usb.quirks.device0 = "0x05ac:0x8240 allow"

d. Save and close the .vmx file.

[DrWhoIs]

been there

done that

does NOT solve a thing

so no it is not answered in the link provided

it worked in 10.x

on the same machine

it doesn't work with 11.x

[gvmperson]

Yes. The problem is that that VMWare doesn't even appear to see the device at all in v11 - not that it isn't choosing the connect it to the virtual machine. In the v10 logs you see lines like:

vmx| I120: USB: Found device [name:Broadcom\ 5880 vid:0a5c pid:5800 path:4/1/8 speed:full family:

while in v11 there is no mention of the Broadcom cardreader device in the logs at all.

So that workaround won't fix it.

[vizar853]

Worked like a charm for me on Ubuntu 15.04 host and VMWare 11 with Entrust Security key (SCRxxxx USB Smart Card reader).

[DrWhoIs]

it's not because it 'worked' in your case that it is the solution for everyone

and clearly in this case it is not

rather silly to think we couldn't find that link...

[hugh26]

Same problem with VMWare Workstation 11.0.   Broadcom smartcard worked fine in 10.0.2 and 10.0.6 on Dell M4700 running OpenSuse 13.2.

VM is 64-bit Windows 7.   On upgrade to VMW 11.0, smartcard no longer appears under "Removable Devices" menu.

I have relaxed linux polkit permissions on the smartcard and experimented with pcscd daemon arguments with

no results. 

Have now uninstalled VMWare 11.0 and am back to running on 10.0.6.    Works fine again.

*Something* is different between Vmware  11.0 and 10.0.6.

[randecarl]

I am running Workstation 11.0.0 build-2305329 in two different environments. One network is set up to use ActivClient software and another is using 90meter. For ActivClient, when i set up my virtual image I installed the software and with little effort, the card reader (in Device Manager) which is a SCR3310 displays Microsoft Usbccid SmartCard Reader (WUDF) and there is no Smart Card device listed. The pass through works and ActiveClient can view my certificates.

However on the other network, I have the 90meter software installed with a HID Omnikey 3121 reader. The Device Manager shows the same driver Microsoft Usbccid SmartCard Reader (WUDF) but the Smart Cards device is showing a 90meter smart card installed. In this network, the 90meter software detects the card. The light will flash on the reader, but after 30 seconds or so I get an "Unauthorized Card!!!" error message. The log shows that 90meter could not find the certificates even though I am using the same card to log into my host.

Any thoughts?