USB Passthrough and VMware Workstation

ncdivebum

Is there anyone here familiar with passing USB devices from Solus to a VM running on VMware Workstation 16? Under Ubuntu, I had several USB devices that were passed to a windows VM. Under Solus, I am not able to pass these to the VM...VMware does not even see them. I am thinking there is something different in how Solus handles USB under virtual environments, but am not sure where to start looking.

WetGeek

ncdivebum I am thinking there is something different in how Solus handles USB under virtual environments

I've had similar issues with VMs created by VirtualBox, rather than VMware. In rare cases it would have been convenient to use a host's USB port with a VM running on that host (like, once or twice), so it's never been a major problem for me. But I've simply not been able to make it work, even after a careful reading of that section in the manual. Not even USB 1.0.

I just assumed that I haven't figured it out yet, but some day I would. Now that you mention the issue on VMware, a solution to your problem might turn out to be a solution to mine as well.

SuperJC710e

ncdivebum When I was using my laptop running Solus with VMware workstation, I was using that feature. (I switched to another system, which wasn't supported by Solus at the time, had to find something else. Haven't had time to get back and try it again...) See my post and the discussion here https://discuss.getsol.us/d/591-installing-vmware-workstation-on-solus

I think you would need to add the systemd unit files, especially the usb-arbitrator one from here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/VMware#systemd_services

Oh, and here's some items that might help (also linked in the discussion above):

https://gitlab.com/-/snippets/1895453
https://gitlab.com/-/snippets/2056640

kyrios

WetGeek But I've simply not been able to make it work, even after a careful reading of that section in the manual. Not even USB 1.0.

Don't know what you missed but it works perfectly fine if you follow these instructions then set your VM to USB 3.0. Of course the host should also support USB 3.0 but this is pretty obvious.

https://getsol.us/articles/software/virtualbox/en/#extra-configuration

WetGeek

kyrios it works perfectly fine if you follow these instructions then set your VM to USB 3.0

Thanks! It's the first time I've seen those instructions. When I wrote that I've read "that section in the manual," I was referring to the VirtualBox help document, which is extensive. I didn't realize we had another one that was specific to Solus.

One question -- the article seems to imply that VirtualBox must be installed from the Software Center. I could do that, if necessary, but I normally install it using eopkg in a terminal. Is there any difference I should know about?

WetGeek

kyrios

I'm trying to implement everythinng from that document now, but having problems from the start. First of all, is it really necessary to install from the Software Center? Doesn't installing from a terminal do the same thing?

And uninstalling VirtualBox according to the document doesn't work at all.

Maybe that's because there is no /opt folder, and thus no such shell script? I'm assuming that uninstalling from the terminal will work instead, so I'll go ahead with that now.

My next steps are going to require rebooting the system, so I need to post what I've written so far. I may need to add more later.

WetGeek

After following all of those directions to the letter (where possible), I'm apparently back where I started. I even installed everything from the Software Center, and rebooted afterward, although the SC didn't suggest that I do that.

Looking at the settings for my Budgie VM, there's no change from before.

Only USB 1.0 shows up, and there's no obviious way to add 2.0 or 3.0. The host machine is a recent DELL Latitude, which has USB 3.0 ports, and even a type C port.

And although there's a Logitech USB HD web cam on the host, trying to access it via cheese fails.

These are the reasons I wrote that I've never been able to make USB access work in a VM. Fortunately, that hasn't stopped me from any other part of my VM adventures, so it's just been an inconvenience, not an actual showstopper.

EDIT: I'm going to try one more experiment that I just thought of. I'm going to create a NEW Budgie VM, now that the current kernel should include the guest additions. Maybe that's the final step that I'm missing?

WetGeek

I didn't mention it before, but I also tried to install the Linux guest additions from the virtual CD drive of the guest, but that just generated a lot of errors.

And when creating a NEW Budgie VM, still only the USB 1.0 option is available. According to the VirtualBox help document, USB 2.0 and 3.0 choices should also be listed, at this point, but they're not.

I'm not going to finish creatinng this new VM, because it's clear to me that it would be no different than the existing one in this respect, and I don''t need another Budgie VM for my purposes. Obviously, there's something else that's needed to make guest access to the host's USB controller work in Solus, but whatever that may be isn't clear.

kyrios

WetGeek The help center is meant to be understandable by any user, especially the ones having no technical background that's why I use Software Center instead of eopkg (or rather repository to be accurate).

Don't you know that the Software Center is just the graphical user interface (GUI) of eopkg which is a command line interface (CLI) for managing packages ? Both do the same !

I did point you specifically to the section of the doc that talks about USB, so I don't know why you scrolled somewhere else on the page. The uninstall section is only for the users who have downloaded and installed the software from the virtualbox.org site because having both version (from the site and from the repository) installed at the same time do conflict. Here you are trying to uninstall something you haven't installed so of course it doesn't work !!!

The problem you have is that you did not install the Extension packs which offers additional features like USB 2 & 3.

Note: it looks like the virtualbox.org site is experiencing problems at the moment I am writing this, so you may have to try again later.

WetGeek

kyrios Don't you know that the Software Center is just the graphical user interface (GUI) of eopkg which is a command line interface (CLI) for managing packages ? Both do the same !

Of course. I've known that for years. But after so many failures trying to make this work, I didn't want to deviate from any directions you provided. Just in case.

kyrios I did point you specifically to the section of the doc that talks about USB, so I don't know why you scrolled somewhere else on the page. The uninstall section is only for the users who have downloaded and installed the software from the virtualbox.org site because having both version (from the site and from the repository) installed at the same time do conflict. Here you are trying to uninstall something you haven't installed so of course it doesn't work !!!

So, I should have realized that following the rest of the directions would make it all fail to work? It just didn't occur to me.

kyrios Here you are trying to uninstall something you haven't installed so of course it doesn't work !!!

So, what is it that's supposed to create that /opt directory that doesn't exist? That's what caused that instruction in the document not to work!!!

I did uninstall from the repository using eopkg, just in case there might be some reason to do that. And afterwards I installed everything from the Software Center, just in case there was some reason to do that. I was trying to dot all the i's and cross all the t's according to the document. Although unnecessary, that shouldn't have caused any harm.

kyrios The problem you have is that you did not install the Extension packs which offers additional features like USB 2 & 3.

Isn't that what installing them from the Software Center does? If not, why not? Apparently there's no way to install them into the guest VM from its virtual CD drive, as that only results in failures. They do install for me in non-Solus VM's by the way, but I've been under the impression that they're not needed for Solus VMs. Apparently it's only the xrandr-related support that's not needed for Solus VMs.

kyrios Note: it looks like the virtualbox.org site is experiencing problems at the moment I am writing this, so you may have to try again later.

It's been like that for the several years that I've been tryinig to make it work. If it were more important to me to get host USB access in my Solus VMs, I would have been working on this long ago.

kyrios

WetGeek sn't that what installing them from the Software Center does? If not, why not? Apparently there's no way to install them into the guest VM from its virtual CD drive, as that only results in failures. They do install for me in non-Solus VM's by the way, but I've been under the impression that they're not needed for Solus VMs. Apparently it's only the xrandr-related support that's not needed for Solus VMs.

If the virtualbox extensions packs were in the repository, don't you think you would be advised to install them from the software center too and you would find a package with a name and/or description virtualbox-exention-packs ?

The doc was made to explain the users that the extension packs are required for USB 2/3 and redirects the user to the virtualbox website that explains how to install them. It was made like this because PUEL license specifically prohibit re-distribution in § 3.2

(2) You may not do any of the following: (a) modify any part of the Product, except to the extent allowed in the documentation accompanying the Product; (b) rent, lease, lend, re-distribute, or encumber the Product; (c) remove or alter any proprietary legends or notices contained in the Product; or (d) decompile, or reverse engineer the Product (except to the extent permitted by applicable law).

Installation is very simple: You download it (here is the direct link for v6.1.34), you double-click on the file, it will open virtualbox (of course it must be installed) and run the installer.

Once the extension packs is installed, it can very easily be updated from within virtualbox (via files -> check for updates).

WetGeek

WetGeek Apparently there's no way to install them into the guest VM from its virtual CD drive, as that only results in failures

I thought of one more thing to try. Instead of trying to run VBoxLinuxAdditions.sh from the VM, I started autorun.sh instead, and let that script figure out what's needed. After providing my password, that actually worked.

It worked to install the Linux additions, that is, but did nothing to change the behavior of the VM. To be sure that a reboot wasn't needed after the installation, I did that as well.

I guess I'll just have to wait until VirtualBox gets around to fixing their problem. I only contributed to this thread because it started with a VMware problem that sounded just like my VBox proboem. I though if we could get to the bottom of the VBox problem, that might also fix the VMware problem.

WetGeek

kyrios Installation is very simple: You download it (here is the direct link for v6.1.34), you double-click on the file, it will open virtualbox (of course it must be installed) and run the installer.

Finally, I believed that we were getting somewhere. I thought I'd just assumed that the extersion packs and the guest additions might have been the same thing, but with this new information I realized where I went wrong. So I accessed them from your link and downloaded them.

When I tried to install them, this is as far as I got. I had approved the EULA that was presented, and entered the password when required in order to run that file. And I tried to enter the root password again when the dialog you see below asked for it again, but the installation started before I could finish doing that. The "wait cursor" you see ran for several minutes, and when I eventually exited from the installation, it ended in an error notice that claimed that elevated privileges were required.

I'm going to try starting Dolphin from the terminal, as root, before accessing that download. Maybe that will work better ...

... Well, Dolphin was just about unusable when started from the terminal as root,
QStandardPaths: runtime directory '/run/user/1000' is not owned by UID 0, but a directory permissions 0700 owned by UID 1000 GID 1000

Apparently root couldn't run Dolphin, because it was owned by me, not root. Go figure. After dozens of that same error, the attempt ended with this one,
qt.svg: <input>:26:9: Could not resolve property: #b-7

That probably explains why Dolphin was so unusable, so I cd'd to the /mnt mounting point for that Downloads folder, and tried to run it from there as root. But bash was unable to run it. So I tried to exec it, on the off chance that that might work. The first result was a failure, the second a success, which I assume was the result of the exec command. Whatever, nothing was installed.

VirtualBox still lists just USB 1.0 as enabled, and after starting the Budgie VM, it was likewise unchanged. I'm left believing that either Solus isn't responding correctly to whatever the VirtualBox.org download is doing, or the directions need a LOT more work. Or maybe both.

I'm now leaving this thread, so I won't bother you anymore about it. The hours and effort I've spent on this have far exceeded my desire to access host USB ports from a VM running on that host. That feature would be nice to have, but it's far from a requirement for me.

ncdivebum

Thought I would post a follow-up to my original post now that I have sorted out the issue.

For some reason, the USB Arbitrator does not auto-start on Solus. All I had to do is pop into a CLI session and start the arbitrator with "vmware-usbarbitrator". I may have passed it with the "-f" switch but don't remember.

Thanks for your help!