Configuring a USB Controller
In order to use USB devices, a virtual machine must have a USB controller configured. The USB controller in VMware Workstation Player supports the following USB device types:
- USB 1.1 UHCI (Universal Host Controller Interface) – supported for all virtual machine hardware versions.
- USB 2.0 EHCI (Enhanced Host Controller Interface) – supported if the virtual machine hardware is compatible with Workstation 6 and later virtual machines.
- USB 3.0 xHCI (Extensible Host Controller Interface) – available for Linux guests running a kernel version 2.6.35 or later and for Windows 8 guests or later. The virtual machine hardware must be compatible with Workstation 8 or later virtual machines. All USB device types are supported, including USB 1.1, 2.0, and 3.0 devices.
In order to use USB devices inside a virtual machine, the host operating system must support USB. You do not need to install device drivers for USB devices in the host operating system to use those devices in the virtual machine.
USB human interface devices (such as the keyboard and mouse) do not appear in the Removable Devices menu and are not available to connect to the virtual machine by default. To connect such devices to the virtual machine, you need to enable the Show all USB input devices option, as explained in the this lesson.
