Setting Up Ubuntu As Virtual Machine

[Bob Cochran]

Good Morning,

I have not used virtualization in Fedora recently. I would like to set 
up a Ubuntu virtual machine on Fedora 14 x86_64. If I do this, it will 
become very important for the Ubuntu machine to have access to USB 
devices connected to the host. Often this will be done over a USB/serial 
cable. Is this doable?

Here is the reason. I am just starting to learn how to work with Gumstix 
hardware[1]. To build Angstrom OS images for that, I have been using 
Fedora 14 as a build host, but I am thinking it might be better for me 
to create a Ubuntu virtual machine and move all my Gumstix and 
Openembedded work onto the Ubuntu system. Gumstix itself seems to 
recommend doing all development work on Ubuntu.

Thanks,

Bob Cochran

References

[1] The Gumstix platform of computer-on-module devices: 
http://www.gumstix.com/

[Sven Lankes]

On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 10:32:05AM -0500, Bob Cochran wrote:

>  I have not used virtualization in Fedora recently. I would like to
> set 
>  up a Ubuntu virtual machine on Fedora 14 x86_64. If I do this, it will 
>  become very important for the Ubuntu machine to have access to USB 
>  devices connected to the host. Often this will be done over a USB/serial 
>  cable. Is this doable? 
Yes.

(But only USB 1.1 - no USB 2.0). 

For USB-Serial you could probably also pass through the serial
port ttyUSBx instead of the whole usb device and let the host
handle the usb part.

-- 
sven === jabber/xmpp: sven(a)lankes.net

[Tom Horsley]

On Thu, 30 Dec 2010 10:32:05 -0500
Bob Cochran wrote:

>  If I do this, it will 
>  become very important for the Ubuntu machine to have access to USB 
>  devices connected to the host. 
Practically speaking, the answer is no. Virtually nothing actually
functions correctly (unless major strides have been made since the
last time I tried it). A usb thumb drive, maybe, a printer - no way.

The commercial version of virtualbox is the only system I have
ever heard of that does usb well, but I've never tried it myself.

[Paul Lambert]

The first thing to do is determine why you using a USB device.   Once this is done the
answer will direct you to the most appropriate solution.

Fedora Virtual Manager is designed for a host virtual "server" class machine
used for cloud computing.  In this market USB devices are not used since multiple virtual
guests would have each other's USB devices.  Typically, the only USB devices used for
sever class virtual machines are USB software license dongles.  In this scenario the
proper use these license dongles.  Is to purchase a USB to IP hardware box and the
corresponding software for the virtual server.  Many of these protocol converters can
convert as many as five USB devices and assign access per virtual machine. 

If this is not describe your scenario then you require a "workstation" class
host.  The best solutions for this environment is VMware and Virtual Box.  I have been
running VWware Player 3.x.x for quite awhile and all host devices work great including
sound, USB 2.0, CD burning/ripping, large res

Sent from my iPod

On Dec 30, 2010, at 6:07 PM, Tom Horsley <horsley1953(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:

>  On Thu, 30 Dec 2010 10:32:05 -0500
>  Bob Cochran wrote:
>  
> > If I do this, it will 
> > become very important for the Ubuntu machine to have access to USB 
> > devices connected to the host.
>  
>  Practically speaking, the answer is no. Virtually nothing actually
>  functions correctly (unless major strides have been made since the
>  last time I tried it). A usb thumb drive, maybe, a printer - no way.
>  
>  The commercial version of virtualbox is the only system I have
>  ever heard of that does usb well, but I've never tried it myself.
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