I am using VMware Fusion 7.1.2. USB connectivity has been very unreliable since upgrading to El Capitan 10.11. Basically USB devices will not connect to Mac or VMware when plugged in unless I follow a very specific set of steps to workaround the issue. Has anyone experienced this? Will upgrading to Fusion 8 resolve this? Thanks.
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Vmware Fusion USB issues with El Capitan
- Thread starter GoYankees
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Which guest are you using?
I am using VMware Fusion 8 on El Cap for Win7 and USB works fine. Seems to work better in USB 2.0 Compatibility Mode as Win 7 does not have native USB 3.0 support.
I don't remember any specific problems with VMware 7 El Cap but I'd have to go back and look at it.
I have multiple guests including Win7 and Linux and they all have the problem. I also use USB 2.0 Compatibility Mode for the same reason. My primary purpose is to determine the need for a Fusion upgrade. I normally upgrade every other release. However VMware just laid off the Fusion team recently so Fusion 9 might e a dicey upgrade.
I did not know VMware Fusion team is gone. Thanks a lot Dell.
I'll try out Fusion 7 again on El Cap and let you know if I notice any problems I am not having with Fusion 8
Thanks. Appreciated.
http://arstechnica.com/information-...rkstation-team-culled-in-company-restructure/
Sad, the Workstation product literally kickstarted their whole empire.
Fusion 8 is currently on sale, and you can always try a demo version to see if it solves your problems with USB. Just be sure to copy your VMs so that you can easily go back to 7 if you decide not to upgrade.
I installed Fusion 8.1 and the USB behavior is definitely improved. The attached USB devices are still not automatically reattaching after sleep or reboot but at least manually connecting them now works reliably. I'll probably go with the upgrade but will test Parallels as well while making this effort. Thanks for all the input.
Actually, I am seeing intermittent USB issues with Fusion 8.1.0 but it only seems to be with devices that are themselves USB 3.0 capable. Even though I am using USB compat 2.0 in Fusion I often get an error window from Fusion 8.1.0 that says:
The device "UNTITLED (PNY USB 3.0 FD)" was unable to connect to its ideal host controller.
Then Win 7 pops an error about the device not being recognized.
Occasionally it does work however and the PNY connects to Fusion and mounts in Win 7 with no problem.
Older USB 2.0 Flash Mem sticks seem to connect to Fusion no problem.
Like chrfr said, try the demo but my guess is it won't solve your problem.
The device "UNTITLED (PNY USB 3.0 FD)" was unable to connect to its ideal host controller.
Then Win 7 pops an error about the device not being recognized.
Occasionally it does work however and the PNY connects to Fusion and mounts in Win 7 with no problem.
Older USB 2.0 Flash Mem sticks seem to connect to Fusion no problem.
Like chrfr said, try the demo but my guess is it won't solve your problem.
I just tested a couple of USB 3.0 devices and got the "host controller" error but Windows did recognize the drive. Still it appears that VMware hasn't got all the USB bugs out yet on El Cap. The same guest had no issues on Fusion 5 and Mavericks or Fusion 7 and Yosemite.
How is it going with USB on Parallels?
I am having a tough time with the internal SD card reader on a new MacBook. KB articles for both Parallels and VM Fusion say this is not supported as the card reader now on the PCI bus but I am able to trick it into working through USB 3.0. I am thinking this might be easier with Win 10.
Parallels 11 works about as well as Fusion 8 as far as USB 2 is concerned minus VMWare's "supported host" warnings for USB 3 devices. Both claim to support USB 3 on Windows 7 with a 3rd party download which I did not try. The newest Mac I have is a 2012 Mini and that internal SD reader worked.
It doesn't appear that VMWare is in any hurry to fix your internal SD reader issue. They say share the folder and I think Parallels has the same answer.
https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/m...nguage=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1035825
Was is this USB 3.0 trick you used? Might be useful for someone else.
Actually the trick I was using for VMware 7 to attach the Internal Card Reader to the VM is way to complicated and unreliable to try and put together step by steps.
It seems as though the Internal Card Reader on my 2014 rMBP works by simply connecting it in USB and Bluetooth. You can not assign a plug in action however, so the first time you insert an SD card it mounts on the OS X side right away. Also you have to first insert an SD card before it will show up in Fusion 8's USB and Bluetooth settings.
I have been locking the SD card on the first insert so that no OS X specific files get written, and so that the card is not in the middle of a write operation when the VM attempts an unmount. Then check the checkbox in USB and Bluetooth settings for the VOLNAME (Apple Internal Card Reader). After the SD card mounts in Win 7, I then eject from Win 7 as normal, unlock the card and reinsert and it then mounts direct in Win 7.
I have done some basic read/write to the SD card in Win 7 and all seems ok. But the fact that Paralells and VMware says buy an external card reader instead makes me not trust it.
Anyway, for me the upgrade to VMware 8 is definitely worth doing. I have been using the v 8 demo for testing and it is definitely better that Fusion 7 on El Cap with respect to USB.
The strange thing about the internal card reader on Macs is that some of them are USB devices, and some are PCIe devices (as is the case with the 2012 Mini.) This means that different models of Mac will have different results with using the card reader.
Yes, on the newer Macs they say the internal card reader is a PCIe device. However when you insert a SD card, System Information shows it as a USB device in System Information.
In Fusion 8 I was still seeing occasional USB flakiness where a USB smartcard reader failed to connect. The workaround was to eject the USB host controller in Win 7 and then reattach the reader. This apparently caused Fusion to reset its own USB software and once visible to Win 7, it automatically brought the Win 7 USB controller back. Quite weird actually.
Now Parallels does not have any of these issues to date. However unbeknownst to me, they no longer offer a competitive upgrade which makes the decision a lot easier.
Now Parallels does not have any of these issues to date. However unbeknownst to me, they no longer offer a competitive upgrade which makes the decision a lot easier.
Wait so you moving to Parallels or no?
I have had no probs with a Lexar USB reader in Fusion 8 so far
The card only shows as a USB device on the Macs that have the USB based internal card reader. To get the PCIe based cards read by virtual machines, the VMWare recommended method is just to share the card as a folder to the virtual machine. There's no way to see the reader directly in Fusion on a Mac that has the PCIe based reader.
The rMBP like yours have a USB based reader, which as you say, can be connected as a USB device in Fusion.
Oh, I thought 2014 and up MacBook Pros used the PCIe connection, but I was just guessing. So must be the 2015 and up models use the PCIe connection method?
I'm not sure which computers use which type of card reader. It varies, for reasons probably only Apple knows.
Staying with Fusion. Both products are fine for my requirements but it would cost 2x to switch plus lack of familiarity hurts too.
I tried a 2015 rMBP in store today and same thing. The card reader did not show up on the USB bus until SD card was inserted.
So with these machines, VMs can have direct access to the card reader, it just does not seem to be supported by the a VM software vendors
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Same **** here.
Trying to prepare (fdisk, ext4 format...) and flash archlinux on an SD card for use with a raspberry pi 2.
No apparent other way to do so than use a liveCD.
Installed ubuntugnome 16.04 in vmware, installed vmware tools, all working fine appart from this damn internal sd card reader which won't mount in the VM.
Both types of errors which occur (in the console app) :
02/06/16 18:56:54,000 kernel[0]: 065103.372360 Card Reader@14700000: AppleUSBDevice::ResetDevice: <software attempt to RESET>
02/06/16 19:02:22,000 kernel[0]: USB device 05AC840614700000 - Apple, Card Reader - not found during wake up
tried to plugin/plugout/unmount the volume from the disk utility.
so i'm pretty much f*cked if i don't find another computer and run linux from it.
Trying to prepare (fdisk, ext4 format...) and flash archlinux on an SD card for use with a raspberry pi 2.
No apparent other way to do so than use a liveCD.
Installed ubuntugnome 16.04 in vmware, installed vmware tools, all working fine appart from this damn internal sd card reader which won't mount in the VM.
Both types of errors which occur (in the console app) :
02/06/16 18:56:54,000 kernel[0]: 065103.372360 Card Reader@14700000: AppleUSBDevice::ResetDevice: <software attempt to RESET>
02/06/16 19:02:22,000 kernel[0]: USB device 05AC840614700000 - Apple, Card Reader - not found during wake up
tried to plugin/plugout/unmount the volume from the disk utility.
so i'm pretty much f*cked if i don't find another computer and run linux from it.