vmware usb problem - devices detected but not useable?

[vmos3]

Hello, I'm using kubuntu 9.04 with vmware-server and windows xp as guest OS. I'm having a bit of an odd usb problem, I've googled this and I've googled it hard and I'm stumped.
It took me a bit of faffing about to get this far, but now my guest OS detects my webcam and my card reader. I can go into explorer and there they are but, if I click on the webcam, it initialises and I get a black screen. Similarly if I click on the card reader (showing as removable drive E:) it says "please insert disk into drive E)

It's a bit peculiar, the card reader works fine in the linux OS.

any ideas?

could the fact that I'm using 64bit kubuntu and 32bit windows have anything to do with it?

[dibl]

I run a 32-bit Win XP VM on my 64-bit Kubuntu box -- no problem there. It does sound odd -- almost like your Win XP is USB-1 or doesn't have a USB driver working, or something. Here's my .vmx file, for whatever it's worth -- you can see a couple of lines for USB in it:


#!/usr/bin/vmware
.encoding = "UTF-8"
config.version = "8"
virtualHW.version = "4"
scsi0.present = "TRUE"
memsize = "1024"
MemAllowAutoScaleDown = "FALSE"
ide0:0.present = "TRUE"
ide0:0.fileName = "WinXPpro.vmdk"
ide0:0.writeThrough = "TRUE"
ide1:0.present = "TRUE"
ide1:0.fileName = "/dev/scd0"
ide1:0.deviceType = "atapi-cdrom"
floppy0.startConnected = "FALSE"
floppy0.fileName = "/dev/fd0"
ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
usb.present = "TRUE"
sound.present = "TRUE"
sound.virtualDev = "es1371"
sound.filename = "-1"
sound.autodetect = "TRUE"
displayName = "WinXPpro"
guestOS = "winxppro"
nvram = "WinXPpro.nvram"

floppy0.present = "FALSE"
isolation.tools.hgfs.disable = "TRUE"
snapshot.disabled = "TRUE"
tools.remindInstall = "FALSE"

annotation = "Template Image - Version: 30.01.07"

extendedConfigFile = "WinXPpro.vmxf"
virtualHW.productCompatibility = "hosted"
tools.upgrade.policy = "manual"

ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
uuid.location = "56 4d 87 32 9f 14 c8 21-4a bb 2f 04 db 22 7f 0d"
uuid.bios = "56 4d 87 32 9f 14 c8 21-4a bb 2f 04 db 22 7f 0d"
ide0:0.redo = ""
ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:22:7f:0d"
ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"

checkpoint.vmState = ""

usb.autoConnect.device0 = ""

ide1:0.autodetect = "FALSE"

usb.autoConnect.device1 = ""

tools.syncTime = "FALSE"
vmotion.checkpointFBSize = "16777216"

ethernet0.connectionType = "bridged"

[vmos3]

well now it does tend to pop up with "this device would be better in a usb 2 port" and I do have usb 2 ports. I read somewhere that you can fix it by adding these lines to the config

scsi0.present = "TRUE"
scsi0.pciSlotNumber = "18"
ehci.present = "TRUE"
ehci.pciSlotNumber = "19"

but that doesn't make sense to me and those lines only stopped it from booting. And also, it was only a few weeks ago I was still using a mobo with usb 1 ports, I got the same error and the same card reader and camera worked fine.

I tried tweaking my config to match yours (the usb parts anyway) but it didn't make any difference. Here's what I got

#!/usr/bin/vmware
.encoding = "UTF-8"
config.version = "8"
virtualHW.version = "7"
floppy0.present = "FALSE"
mks.enable3d = "TRUE"
pciBridge0.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge4.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge4.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
pciBridge4.functions = "8"
pciBridge5.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge5.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
pciBridge5.functions = "8"
pciBridge6.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge6.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
pciBridge6.functions = "8"
pciBridge7.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge7.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
pciBridge7.functions = "8"
vmci0.present = "TRUE"
nvram = "vmxp1.nvram"
virtualHW.productCompatibility = "hosted"
ft.secondary0.enabled = "TRUE"
tools.upgrade.policy = "useGlobal"
powerType.powerOff = "soft"
powerType.powerOn = "hard"
powerType.suspend = "hard"
powerType.reset = "soft"

displayName = "vmxp1"
extendedConfigFile = "vmxp1.vmxf"

memsize = "1000"
ide0:0.present = "TRUE"
ide0:0.fileName = "vmxp1.vmdk"
ide0:0.writeThrough = "TRUE"
ide1:0.present = "TRUE"
ide1:0.fileName = "/dev/scd0"
ide1:0.deviceType = "atapi-cdrom"
ide1:0.allowGuestConnectionControl = "FALSE"
ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
ethernet0.allowGuestConnectionControl = "FALSE"
ethernet0.features = "1"
ethernet0.wakeOnPcktRcv = "FALSE"
ethernet0.networkName = "Bridged"
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
ehci.present = "TRUE"
guestOS = "winxppro"
uuid.location = "56 4d 56 75 26 1e 1c 27-7d c0 f8 b9 07 a2 9d e2"
uuid.bios = "56 4d 56 75 26 1e 1c 27-7d c0 f8 b9 07 a2 9d e2"
vc.uuid = "52 f3 2b a5 88 6f 89 50-c8 95 22 64 ec 0d 6e b5"

ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:a2:9d:e2"
ide0:0.redo = ""
vmotion.checkpointFBSize = "16777216"
pciBridge0.pciSlotNumber = "17"
pciBridge4.pciSlotNumber = "21"
pciBridge5.pciSlotNumber = "22"
pciBridge6.pciSlotNumber = "23"
pciBridge7.pciSlotNumber = "24"

ethernet0.pciSlotNumber = "33"
ehci.pciSlotNumber = "34"
vmci0.pciSlotNumber = "35"

ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"
vmci0.id = "128097762"
tools.remindInstall = "FALSE"


ide1:0.startConnected = "TRUE"
tools.syncTime = "TRUE"

sound.present = "TRUE"
#sound.virtualDev = "es1371"
sound.allowGuestConnectionControl = "FALSE"
sound.fileName = "-1"
sound.autodetect = "TRUE"

sound.pciSlotNumber = "36"

checkpoint.vmState = ""
svga.maxwidth=2048
svga.maxheight=768

#usb.autoConnect.device0 = "path:1/1/0 autoclean:1"
#usb.autoConnect.device1 = "path:1/1/1 autoclean:1"

usb.autoConnect.device0 = ""
usb.autoConnect.device1 = ""
usb.present = "TRUE"
usb:1.deviceType = "hub"
usb:0.deviceType = "mouse"
usb:0.present = "TRUE"
usb:1.present = "TRUE"
usb.pciSlotNumber = "32"

scsi0.present = "TRUE"
scsi0.pciSlotNumber = "18"
#ehci.present = "TRUE"
#ehci.pciSlotNumber = "19"

[dibl]

Wow, I see some huge differences between our .vmx files -- all your PCI slot stuff is totally missing from mine. I have no clue what a lot of those cryptic lines refer to -- I made my Win XP VM following the guidance here:

http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2005/10/26/vmware-player-windows-xp.html

which is not real recent, but apparently still works. I'm not at all an expert -- as soon as I got a working Win XP VM, I was happy and quit messing with it. I've kept it more or less unchanged for 3 years now. But I was amused to find that I was able to also make a Win 7 RC VM out of it, with virtually nothing but the name changed.

Sorry I can't offer anything further on your USB question. :P

[vmos3]

I thought I had it there, I remembered I had a windows 7 VM that I'd buried. I dug it up again and tried it. Not joy though.
it's actually a bit worse as I can't even find out what it's done with my camera.

think I might try throwing on a linux vm just to see if I can narrow it down a bit