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/
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.
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.
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@gmail.com 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. _______________________________________________ virt mailing list virt@lists.fedoraproject.org https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/virt
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