Windows 10: Debian Stretch VM on latest Windows Host with VM - USB3 broken

Hi folks

Windows Host -- latest Insider rel w10 pro a-64.

I like DEBIAN also for servers -- latest LTS ( Debian "Stretch") avoids 99% of problems with SAMBA / Windows connections etc but there is a problem with VMWARE workstation 14.1 when you try and attach a USB3 external HDD drive (formatted XFS -- a Linux file system).

Normally no problem you just attach the drive via the VMware VM menu - windows doesn't do anything with the Linux drive -- just recognizes the hardware.

However drive (and USB) not recognized at all by the VM - in removable devices USB3 HDD not seen at all -- can't say if this is a Windows or VM problem. In fact no USB devices seem to be recognized at at all by the VM either USB2 or 3.

Get around fix-- in the VMware config attach the USB3 drive as a RAW (physical drive) and then simply mount it once your VM is powered on. You have to do this though before power on --select use whole drive and ignore the "invalid partition" message -- there's no windows partitions on EXT4 / XFS file systems. !!!

Tried the same VM on another computer running latest non insider release of windows but same release of VMware workstation -- perfect --no probs whatsoever.


Cheers
jimbo

:)

 

Can you allow the host to use the VM network connection?

If you use a VM...

this is possible although not immediately obviously useful. My situation was one where the vm os was able to change settings on a wireless network adapter which allowed me to pick up the signal at a useable strength. The host could not do this. So I was in the weird situation where the vm os - backtrack - had internet but the host - osx 10.6 - did not. Annoying.

Easily corrected as follows:
1. connect the vm to the network, in my case this was wireless so wlan0
2. set up the vm so that is has a local network with the host, make sure the host can ping the vm. In my case this meant enabling eth0 in the vm
3. set up ip forward and iptables masquerade rules on the vm.
4. change the default route of the host to be the vm local ip
5. enjoy the vm network via the host


now I imagine some readers will want more detail on ip forward and masquerade with iptables but there are a lot of tutorials out there for this stuff. It depends on the vm os but if you are using linux then

ip forward with:
$ echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

iptables rules something like this
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s $PRIVATE -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE

{clearly $PRIVATE is your private subnet, set the rules up to run at ifup}

*Smile

 

Activation and Re-activation of Windows 10 Pro VM (VirtualBox, OSX Host) not working

I've moved a working and activated Windows 10 Pro VM (VirtualBox) from a Windows 10 Host to an OSX Host. The re-activation of the is not Working (Error Code 0xC004C003). I also moved a Windows 7 Pro VM that reactivate without problems. I tried everything
mentioned in the process to activate. Nothing works or even outputs some useful hint or support contact.

• used another (afaik unused) product key. not working! Same Error Code.
• created a new VM and installed a fresh Windows 10 pro. The new machine can not be activated!

Thus this seems to be a problem within the crappy M$ activation system.

Any useful hint how to activate this M$ crap would be highly appreciated.

 

Running your Browser in a VM?

• Install VMware Player or Virtualbox, VMware being faster in my experience
  
• Create a VM with sufficent RAM HD and all CPU cores
  
• Install Ubuntu/Linux Mint/Debian or some lightweight distro with Xcfe or LXDE
• Install VMware/Virtualbox tools
  
• Almost any distro comes with Firefox
• Install Ublock Origin/Noscript/Ghostery
• Disable cookies with a whitelist/use private browsing.

In my experience, running a browser through a VM can slow down scrolling smoothness, video playback and increase ping delay