USB devices with VMWare Server 2.0 on Ubuntu

David — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 05:17:18 +0000

One of the nice features of VMWare Server 2.0 is that it supports the forwarding of USB devices to virtual machines. Unfortunately when it comes to Linux the VMWare team have leveraged an old method (/proc/bus/usb) for scanning the USB bus which newer distributions, such as Ubuntu Server 8.04 no longer support.

To resolve this problem the "old" method for scanning for USB devices must be enabled in the underlying operating system. In the case of Ubuntu Server 8.04 this is a case of editing the file /etc/init.d/mountdevsubfs.sh and uncommenting the following section:

#
# Magic to make /proc/bus/usb work
#
mkdir -p /dev/bus/usb/.usbfs
domount usbfs "" /dev/bus/usb/.usbfs -obusmode=0700,devmode=0600,listmode=0644
ln -s .usbfs/devices /dev/bus/usb/devices
mount --rbind /dev/bus/usb /proc/bus/usb

Reboot the server and /proc/bus/usb should be functional once more.

Activating a USB device within a virtual machine

Once the underlying USB subsystem is configured the USB device needs to be associated with a virtual machine. For this to occur the virtual machine must have the USB Controller added to its virtual hardware configuration. If the controller is not already part of the virtual machine's configuration shutdown the VM, add the device and restart.

The VMWare web console with USB device selection (click to enlarge)

Assuming there are USB devices attached to the server, once the virtual machine boots a small USB icon will appear within the VMWare web management console. Click on the icon and select the relevant USB device to attach it to the running virtual machine.

All going well the USB device will appear within the virtual machine as an accessible device. VMWare Server remembers this selection, so the next time the virtual machine (or server itself) is restarted the USB device will automatically be attached to the running VM.

FlashLinux 0.3.2 Review

David — Wed, 08 Dec 2004 21:26:56 +0000

After stumbling on the FlashLinux website a few nights ago I had been itching to give this USB based distribution a try due to its inherit potential for becoming a truly portable desktop environment. I have been using Live CDs for a while now mainly for system recovery. Whilst useful I have three issues with the CD distributions. Firstly you cannot save preferences/files (unless you use a USB key), secondly they are generally slow because CD-Roms are not fast and thirdly a CD-Rom is just too big to fit in your pocket.

USB key distributions interest me because I am reasonably mobile. I have a couple of offices plus clients dotted around the city. Also I have a lengthy trip planned in the future and the idea of taking a few USB key based desktops away with me really appeals.

Working Desktop (click to enlarge)

Installation

FlashLinux is a 140 megabyte download and can be found on a number of software mirrors. The website has a very concise yet comprehensive list of commands to install the distribution on your USB key. Fedora Core runs a modified ext2 filesytem that is incompatible with the FlashLinux installation process. At home I run Fedora so after downloaded I rebooted into Knoppix to run the install.

The installation steps are straightforward and offer plenty of room for customization. The manual process basically formats the key to ext2, copies over files and then sets up Grub as the keys boot-loader. Owners of 512meg or higher capacity USB keys could take some time here to create a second FAT32 partition on their key to ensure they can move data between all the different platforms out there.

I rebooted the system and set the BIOS to boot of a USB/HDD device. After dropping out of the BIOS the Grub bootloader on the USB key jumped into action, displaying three boot options for network, ppp or VMWare support. I went with the network option and the computer began booting off the USB key.

Hardware detection went well but unfortunately Xorg did not load successfully. This problem was not unexpected because my graphics card is very new and not officially supported yet. Fortunately the generic NVidia driver works with the graphics board but in order for me to get things going a manual edit of the xorg.conf file was required.

Initial Screen

After loading you are presented with a very tidy X login screen. The default setup has the root account configured with no password. In the past Ive managed to do accidental damage with the root account so I logged on as root, set a password and created a user for myself to play with.

After logging on as myself I began the process of exploring what is available. The Gnome 2.8 desktop is very clean and overall things are very fast. Application wise there is Firefox 1.0 for web browsing, Evolution 2 for email, AbiWord for writing and Gnumeric for spreadsheets. The AbiWord/Gnumeric combination is an interesting move but given the heavy weight nature of OpenOffice its not surprising that these two applications have been used. In my Debian Potato days I used to use AbiWord and Gnumeric and actually prefer then over OpenOffice in many ways. Compatibility with Microsoft documents is not as strong but overall the applications are very capable and efficient at doing what they were designed to do. FlashLinux has a very limited palete of second tier applications. I think is very good when compared to the hundreds of stocking fillers that accompany other distributions. There is Gaim (IM), a Terminal Services client, IRC and an image viewer which should cover most of your application needs.

Evolution Email Client

I played with Firefox and Evolution and everything just worked. My problematic onboard network card was detected by the system and configured via DHCP. After some playing with the standard desktop I had a look and feel any Mac user could feel comfortable with. I did some emailing in Evolution and browsing with Firefox. Everything worked really well and it was really impossible to tell that everything was running off a 2inch USB key.

AbiWord, Terminal Services and Print Manager (click to enlarge)

Rebooting

At this point I was a little unsure if all my preferences would be kept on a reboot. I bit the bullet and performed a complete system shutdown and restart. It was really a nice surprise to log back on to FlashLinux and find all my preferences had been stored on the key just like any disk based operating system.

Conclusion

I am really impressed with FlashLinuxs easy setup, clean configuration and tidy desktop tools. I would recommend it to anyone with a spare 256meg USB key and a little tech savvy to download and try. Its failure to detect my video card and the manual install process really places it out of reach from normal users right now but I am sure in a couple of releases all these problems could be solved. The real problem I see needing to be overcome is in the security of local networks. I would love to take this into a customers office and use it but I do not see many of the archaic security managers on these sites being very forthcoming in allowing its use.

A Very Tidy USB-based Linux Distro

David — Tue, 07 Dec 2004 10:09:12 +0000

A few of us were talking recently about USB based Linux distributions.
Up until now I had only really seen 'lite' text distros or very cut down Knoppix hacks.
This distribution is aimed for 256meg USB key owners and provides such cool things as Gnome 2.8, Firefox and OpenOffice.

FlashLinux USB Distribution Homepage

For old school 128meg key owners like myself it's almost worth going and buying a new key just for the freedom it would provide.

stressfree - usb