Linux-hotplug-devel digest, Vol 1 #208 - 4 msgs

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Sorry for the delay, but I hope this helps -

VMWare simply passes all USB data from the peripheral to the client VM (WinME), and passes all USB data from the client VM back to the peripheral. In order to do this, it needs to bind to the USB device on the host OS (Linux). If there is already a kernel module / driver bound to the device, VMWare is unable to access it.

What you want to do is keep the host OS (Linux) from automatically loading the module for the device, so VMWare is able to access it.

To do this, you need to add the usb driver for the device to /etc/hotplug/blacklist. Here are the lines I'd recommend for your situation:

# --- begin lines to add to /etc/hotplug/blacklist # Disable autoloading the USB printer module so VMWare

# can access the USB printer
printer
# --- end lines to add to /etc/hotplug/blacklist

After this, you should run 'modprobe -r printer' as root to unload the module, in case it's already loaded. Now, when Linux detects the printer, it will not load the 'printer' module automatically. VMWare should not have problems accessing the printer USB device any more.

Please note that this will completely disable Linux from autoloading the USB printer module. This means that all attached USB printers will stop working in Linux. I am not aware of a means to keep the module from binding to one printer and not another.

Good luck!

PS - If, once you do this, you still have problems installing the printer software under the client OS (WinME), and VMWare shows that the VM is connected to the USB device, the problem is more than likely a problem with some combination of VMWare, WinME, and/or the printer software, not Linux.

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