To enable USB devices on a Kubuntu host to be used by guest operating systems in VMWare server 1, you need to two things.
- Make sure Linux hasn't loaded a module for the device
Compare the output of 'lsmod' before and after connecting the USB device (for the first time after a reboot), or watch '/var/log/messages' for clues.
If a module is being loaded, you can remember to 'rmmod moduleName' before starting or if you will never use the device under Linux, create a new file called /etc/modprode.d/blacklist-somethingUniqueAndObvious.conf with the contents 'blacklist moduleName'. - Make sure a special file system VMWare needs to use to find USB devices is running
Run 'mount -t usbfs /dev/bus/usb /proc/bus/usb' now and either put that in /etc/rc.local or add a line to /etc/fstab:
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs auto 0 0
(don't ask about VMWare server 2 beta 1. It installs, says it's running, doesn't log any failures but isn't actually listening on any ports. Stupid thing)
Sections
My NavMan sat. nav. has module name 'ipaq', and my Sony Ericsson P990 mobile was 'cdc_acm'.
Tom