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USB issue on VMWare Workstation with Unlocker and Mountain Lion


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Hi

 

I've got Mountain Lion installed in VMWare 9 using the Unlocker program, on a Core i5 PC with 8GB RAM and so far everything seems fine, except for the USB connection.

 

Although the VM settings have USB2 automatically connecting and there is a virtual USB device showing in System Information for the hub, keyboard and mouse, when I connect a USB hard drive, nothing happens.

 

I've tried ejecting the hard drive from Windows and have had it plugged in when booting ML, but still no USB connection or entry under the VM > Removable devices menu in VMWare.

 

If I'm missing something please let me know! Any pointers much appreciated.

 

Chris

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Hi

 

I've got Mountain Lion installed in VMWare 9 using the Unlocker program, on a Core i5 PC with 8GB RAM and so far everything seems fine, except for the USB connection.

 

Although the VM settings have USB2 automatically connecting and there is a virtual USB device showing in System Information for the hub, keyboard and mouse, when I connect a USB hard drive, nothing happens.

 

I've tried ejecting the hard drive from Windows and have had it plugged in when booting ML, but still no USB connection or entry under the VM > Removable devices menu in VMWare.

 

If I'm missing something please let me know! Any pointers much appreciated.

 

Chris

Chris,

Not sure exactly why you have a problem, so let me walk through what I have found works or does not, firstly I am running the latest version of Workstation 9.0.2, and if I plug a USB hard drive in it connects and after a short while I either see the drive icon appear on the desktop, or I get asked if I would like to use the drive as a Backup Disk for Time Machine. If the USB hard drive shows as connected to the host I click on the icon in the bottom right of the VMware Workstation screen and select Connect (Disconnect from host).

 

OK, so pretty much as you would expect, except my USB drive is NTFS and USB 3.0, but it only works if I attach it to a USB 2.0 port on my laptop, it comes up with a warning saying my USB 3.0 Drive was unable to connect to its ideal host controller if I use the USB 3.0 port, and never connects.

 

USB 2.0 sticks or hard drives, seem to be less fussy and connect whether they are plugged into a USB 2.0 or 3.0 port without issue.

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Thanks for the reply MSoK.

 

I'm using the latest Workstation too and I am plugging in a USB 2 hard drive (in fact I tried with 2 and a USB2 memory stick) into USB2 ports at the back of the PC.

 

The thing is that there is no icon in the bottom right hand corner of Workstation relating to USB, only a keyboard icon. Similarly there is no USB entry under VM > Removable Devices at any time. Nothing appears on the Mac desktop when I plug in.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Chris

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Thanks for the reply MSoK.

 

I'm using the latest Workstation too and I am plugging in a USB 2 hard drive (in fact I tried with 2 and a USB2 memory stick) into USB2 ports at the back of the PC.

 

The thing is that there is no icon in the bottom right hand corner of Workstation relating to USB, only a keyboard icon. Similarly there is no USB entry under VM > Removable Devices at any time. Nothing appears on the Mac desktop when I plug in.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Chris

Chris,

I have loads of icons in the bottom right of my workstation screen when I boot OS X 10.8.3, probably all using the USB interface, you do have a USB Controller Present in your Virtual Machine Settings, and "Automatically connect new USB devices" and "Share Bluetooth devices with the virtual machine" Connections ticked, with USB compatibility: USB 2.0?

 

Be careful with changing USB compatibilty from USB 2.0 to USB 3.0, I lost all mouse and keyboard control when I changed from USB 2.0 to 3.0!

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The icons I have are Hard Disk, CD/DVD, Floppy (greyed out), Network adapter NAT, Sound card, RIM composite device (had my Blackberry synched to the PC earlier but is no longer connected!) and 3 button MS mouse. No further USB icons at all and no external hard drive connection. :(

 

All settings you mentioned are ticked and USB 2, not USB 3.

 

I'm not sure what else I can try......

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I discovered what the problem was. On my Gigabyte Z77X-D3H motherboard, only two of the ten USB ports are USB 2/1.1. Although all the rest are USB2 compatible, I guess the fact that they are USB3 ports prevents connections, even with USB2 devices plugged in.

 

Also, when plugging in a USB3 external drive into one of the ports, there no connection, so I guess ML doesn't support USB3 in VMWare......?

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I discovered what the problem was. On my Gigabyte Z77X-D3H motherboard, only two of the ten USB ports are USB 2/1.1. Although all the rest are USB2 compatible, I guess the fact that they are USB3 ports prevents connections, even with USB2 devices plugged in.

 

Also, when plugging in a USB3 external drive into one of the ports, there no connection, so I guess ML doesn't support USB3 in VMWare......?

Chris,

I am glad you have made some progress, we were beginning to scratch our heads a little. My USB 3.0 external hard drive is seen by my OS X VM if plugged in to a USB 2.0 port, but not if it is plugged in to a USB 3.0 port, but my USB 2.0 devices are seen whether they are plugged in to a USB 2.0 or 3.0 port. This may be to do with the host hardware and the implementation of USB 2.0 compatibility on the USB 3.0 interface, since my hardware is HP I would expect maximum compatibility.

 

Since the latest Apple hardware has USB 3.0, then OS X must have support USB 3.0, and USB 3.0 is supported in VMware via the virtual xHCI driver, just not in an OS X guest in the current versions of VMware, thanks to Donk for the update.

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Mac OS X guest does not support USB 3.0 in current versions of VMware. I have the same problems and cannot find a solution. Maybe the new Tech Previews fix it but I haven't had time to try them out.

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Experimented a little and if USB3 is enabled in the VM USB controller, I lose USB2 mouse input completely even though a USB2 memory stick is shown as connected. If using an mains-powered hard drive it still doesn't show in a USB 3 port.

 

Have reverted to the USB2 controller and will just have to attach a hard drive to one of the USB2/1.1 ports and run it at a lower speed.

 

Hopefully the USB 3 will be resolved in the future.

 

Thanks for your help anyway :)

 

Chris

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  • 1 year later...

Just adding my experience here; on my ASRock Fatal1ty H97 Killer motherboard, I had to enable the USB Compatibility Patch under BIOS settings in order for VMWare Player to see my flash drive at all (didn't see it in either the USB 2.0 or 3.0 ports).

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