Arch Linux

wildfowl

Banned

Registered: 2014-10-16

Posts: 82

Probing Hardware through VM

I have a Windows supported device (cw/ Windows drivers) but no driver for Linux. I wish to add Linux support but need some information about the device. I was interested in loading the device through a Windows VM running on Linux just to get an idea of the memory registers being used and supported operations etc.

I would like to probe the device via a VM. Does anyone have any experience with this?

Tambalamba

Member

Registered: 2015-03-13

Posts: 45

Re: Probing Hardware through VM

Well, you didn't tell us much in your post, but I'll try to help.

Did you add your username to the vboxusers group? (Don't forget to reboot or log out and log in.)

Did you install the Windows drivers in your Windows guest in VM? (I guess you're using Virtualbox.)

Do you connect your Windows supported device via USB port?

If your answer to all these questions is yes, then you might find a solution in this thread.

When you right click on the USB icon, choose your device. This is how I installed my ancient printer.

wildfowl

Banned

Registered: 2014-10-16

Posts: 82

Re: Probing Hardware through VM

Yes I'm using Virtualbox and the VM works correctly otherwise.

The particular device is an embedded I2C platform component. So it doesn't work off a USB bus.

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,659

Re: Probing Hardware through VM

The problem is that the VM is just that -- A virtual machine.  The "Hardware" it sees is a figment of the host's imagination.  Inside the VM, do a lsusb.  You will find that the hardware it thinks it has will not any any way (except coincidentally) have any relation to the hardware on the host.  There will be a network adapter, a display, some disk controllers -- All as real as things in the movie "The Matrix".  They are an illusion.   That is the point.  The guest is not supposed to know that it is inside a sandboxed environment without access to the host's real hardware.

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