Arch Linux

hybrid

Member

Registered: 2007-02-05

Posts: 261

Can a virtual machine access devices?

Hi, is it possible, to grant either qemu or virtualbox direct access to devices/a device on the host system?
In other words: I would like to have another Linux distribution running in either qemu or virtualbox and have that guest system have access to certain devices of my physical, real computer.
Is that possible? (and if so, how)
thx

ps: I didn't know where to put it, what about a virtualization/emulation forum?

tom5760

Member

From: Philadelphia, PA, USA

Registered: 2006-02-05

Posts: 283

Website

Re: Can a virtual machine access devices?

I know VirtualBox lets you share folders between the host/guest OS.  Other than that, I don't think you can share other devices.  What devices in particular do you mean?

Lone_Wolf

Forum Moderator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 11,958

Re: Can a virtual machine access devices?

The following are often possible, although it depends on the VM implementation.

Networkcards
Drive related devices : usb-drives, optical drives, hdd drives
USB devices : camera, wireless adapter, bluetooth etc.

The commercial VMware Workstation appears to have the most extensive support on this level.
(USB2 in version 6 , usb1.1 in the previous 5 version).

---

Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

(A works at time B)  && (time C > time B ) ≠  (A works at time C)

hybrid

Member

Registered: 2007-02-05

Posts: 261

Re: Can a virtual machine access devices?

I was kind of hoping for a chance to tell the emulator not to emulate a device but instead use the device under /dev from my host machine.
Mostly I would like to have raw access on my dvd drive and I would like to try a usb-wlan and a usb dvb-stick out on my guest OSs.

Lone_Wolf

Forum Moderator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 11,958

Re: Can a virtual machine access devices?

The Open source edition of virtualbox doesn't have usb support yet, but you could try with the virtualbox-bin package in unsupported aur.

Qemu : can access raw drives and has (experimental) usb suppport, check the user documentation http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/qemu-doc.html

VMware workstation  : can do all three.

NOTE : you can't use those devices in host and guest simultaneoulsy, sometimes you have decouple them from host manually.

I suggest you start with qemu, and if that can't do it get the 30 day evaluation version of vmware workstation.
There's a package in unsupported aur for vmware WS.

Sidenote :
VMware Server is free and also in aur, but it has a different focus than workstation. As for device support they should be the same.
For testing/desktop related tasks workstation is more flexible.

---

Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

(A works at time B)  && (time C > time B ) ≠  (A works at time C)

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: Can a virtual machine access devices?

I've used USB in vmware-server and im sure it has raw hdd support too.