Question by : usb in virtual machines?
description: I have a usb graphic tablet for which there’s no Vista/7 drivers and older ones don’t work.
(latest drivers support XP)

hyphothesis: If I run XP in VirtualBox or VMware I can use the tablet there! As simple as that, how wonderful.

problem: So I run either VB or VM and no matter what I do, the XP inside doesn’t “see” the tablet. Nothing like “new hardware found” popup, nothing in hardware manager.

question: What should I do? Is it even possible to “forward” the usb into a virtual machine and use its drivers instead of the host ones?

Best answer:

Answer by PhonicUK
This is an option in VirtualBox. You have to go into the VM configuration and enable USB Host Support.

Also: It is important that when you start your VM that the tablet is *unplugged*, you must not plug it in until the VM is started and ready. You may have to use the USB menu (Bottom right of the VM display, little USB icon, right click it) to pick the device you want to use.

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Question by : Is there a way to share virtual machines Internet connection with Host PC rather than other way round? Details?
I don’t know it may sounds Silly but forgive me..

I want to do some testing and network practicals. So I would like to use a Linux box as my router and gateway even though I have router with me. However, I don’t have an additional old PC to run it as a separate machine.

So, I’m thinking of implementing it on a VM and I like to use Debain as my distro. I know how to implement a Linux gateway. But my burning question is……. WHETHER it is possible to share internet connection from VM to Host rather than from host to VM (which is typical) ?????

In other words, VM establishes a connection to my ISP and hence internet and share it with the HOST PC.
ISP——–> VM acts as DSL modem (pppoe) / gateway ————> share it with Host PC

CAN I ACHIEVE THIS KIND OF SET UP? IF ‘YES’ HOW TO DO IT (in terms of NIC cards in VM and Host, Bridge / NAT configuration between Host and VM ) ??? Any example / tutorial / web link is highly appreciated

# ————————- My PC Configuration ——————— #

Ubuntu Linux Host (maverick)
VMWare Workstation 7.3
Debian VM (Lenny no GUI)

# ————— End Of Configuration ———————— #

THANK YOU IN ADVANCED
DO I need to do any modifications in my routing tables in the Host ??? If ‘Yes’ what are those..???

Best answer:

Answer by Zarn
No. The VM is by definition unable to touch external systems without going through the hosting computer’s hardware, which then needs to be authenticated.

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Question by : How do I network Virtual Machines together?
Hi I have five VMs all running Windows XP on one host. How do I network them together? Can you give me a link that will explain it step by step?

Best answer:

Answer by Fantasy Hockey Fanatic
In short you will need to recreate a virtual switch in the management software and make sure all the virtualized systems network configurations are set to use the virtual switch.

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/virtual_networking_concepts.pdf

Page 4.

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Question by : Network communications between virtual machines?
If I’m running multiple virtual machines (VMware) on one physical server host, and wanted to test an IDS with them. If the VMs are sending/receiving data to and from each other, does it leave the physical host, go out onto the network, or does it stay on the host? If all VMs are using the same physical NIC from the host, what MAC address problems come up on the switch?

Best answer:

Answer by pender2112
When you set the VM instance to a Bridged Network Mode (rather than a NAT) it creates a bogus MAC address when you bind the virtual NIC to the Physical NIC and the DHCP server or switch will assign the VM’s virtual NIC an IP address.

Both VMWare and VirtualBox create a a vitrual loopback NIC on their host OS but this is used for NAT mode in VMs and traffic in Bridged mode should router through the switch. I may be wrong, but you can check this by looking at the number of hops traveled in a ping (look at TTL reduction)

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Question by The Flying Spaghetti Monster: Are there any virtual machines that support host hardware, like graphics and sound?

Best answer:

Answer by Luke
I most virtual machines would be able to support host hardware, but i don’t know about everything else. You could compare them though:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_platform_virtual_machines

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