{"id":1551,"date":"2024-01-23T01:01:04","date_gmt":"2024-01-23T01:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fluentreports.com\/blog\/?p=1551"},"modified":"2024-01-23T01:02:28","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T01:02:28","slug":"vmware-usb-emulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fluentreports.com\/blog\/?p=1551","title":{"rendered":"VMWare USB Emulation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One thing I really wish VMWare did was allow me to create an emulated USB key.\u2002<br><br>Well recently I found out you can!\u2003<br><br>It is using some fairly undocumented VMX settings.\u2003Unfortunately I haven't figured out how to make it boot from the USB key yet (But I haven't really spent a lot of time on that part as I found a simple workaround).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Manual VMX Configuration Changes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Open your Emulator VMX image and make sure the following keys are set...<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>ehci.present = \"TRUE\"<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This enabled the EHCI system in VMWare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then you need to add the following keys, the '#' can be any number you are not already using from 0 to 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>ehci:#.present = \"TRUE\"<br>ehci:#.readonly = \"FALSE\"<br>ehci:#.deviceType = \"disk\"<br>ehci:#.fileName = \"pathToFile.vmdk\"<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a small side note just for documentation purposes you can also configure a CDRom using the following values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>ehci:#.present = \"TRUE\"<br>ehci:#.deviceType = \"cdrom\"<br>ehci:#.fileName = \"pathToFile.iso\"<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And then startup your VM, and this VMDK file will now be treated as a USB Key device.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Booting<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unfortunately as I mentioned above I haven't seen a way to make it boot from a USB device however, the workaround I use was to download a simple CDROM image from <a href=\"https:\/\/plop.at\">https:\/\/plop.at<\/a> called Plop Boot manager 5.\u2002It is tiny (557kb) CDRom image that I attach to the machine to allow it to boot, it then gives me the choice to boot from the USB key.\u2003You can get the file on the downloads page, here: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.plop.at\/en\/bootmanager\/download.html\">https:\/\/www.plop.at\/en\/bootmanager\/download.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Experiments<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are a couple of experiments in the future I'd like to try:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Can I install any of the Plop boot managers to the USB key?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Can I make the CDRom r\/w by using the readonly flag and using a VMDK image of the iso to allow booting and modification of a removable device?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If anyone tries the above before I do and wants to comment, love to hear feedback!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One thing I really wish VMWare did was allow me to create an emulated USB key.\u2002 Well recently I found out you can!\u2003 It is using some fairly undocumented VMX settings.\u2003Unfortunately I haven't figured out how to make it boot from the USB key yet (But I haven't really spent a lot of time on&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/fluentreports.com\/blog\/?p=1551\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">VMWare USB Emulation<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[128],"class_list":["post-1551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tips","tag-vmware","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fluentreports.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fluentreports.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fluentreports.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fluentreports.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fluentreports.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1551"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fluentreports.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1555,"href":"https:\/\/fluentreports.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551\/revisions\/1555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fluentreports.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fluentreports.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fluentreports.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}