September 2012
Table Of Contents
- Installing and Configuring VMware Tools
- Contents
- About Installing and Configuring VMware Tools
- Components of VMware Tools
- Installing and Upgrading VMware Tools
- Installing VMware Tools
- Upgrading VMware Tools
- Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a Windows Virtual Machine
- Automate the Installation of VMware Tools in a Windows Virtual Machine
- Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a Linux Virtual Machine
- Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a Solaris Virtual Machine
- Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a FreeBSD Virtual Machine
- Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a NetWare Virtual Machine
- Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a Mac OS X Virtual Machine
- Repairing, Changing, and Uninstalling VMware Tools Components
- Using the VMware Tools Configuration Utility
- Using Other Methods to Configure VMware Tools
- Security Considerations for Configuring VMware Tools
- Index
Connect or Disconnect a Virtual Device
You can connect and disconnect removable devices such as floppy drives, DVD/CD-ROM drives, ISO images,
USB devices, sound adapters, and network adapters.
IMPORTANT Note the following restrictions for connecting devices:
n
Some devices cannot be shared between the host and guest operating systems or between two guest
operating systems. For example, only one virtual machine or the host can access the floppy drive at any
one time.
n
The controls for connecting and disconnecting devices might not be available, depending on whether your
system administrator has enabled them.
For security reasons, this feature is disabled by default. The first part of this procedure describes how to enable
the feature in the virtual machine configuration file. After you enable the feature, you can run the configuration
utility to connect and disconnect virtual devices.
Prerequisites
If you plan to script the commands used in this procedure and need to know what the exit codes are, see “Exit
Codes,” on page 42.
Procedure
1 Configure the virtual machine to allow connecting and disconnecting devices.
a Open the configuration (.vmx) file of the virtual machine with a text editor.
b If the following properties are not listed in the file, add them and set them to FALSE.
isolation.device.connectable.disable = "FALSE"
isolation.device.edit.disable = "FALSE"
c Save and close the file.
2 Open a command prompt or terminal in the guest operating system.
3 Change to the VMware Tools installation directory.
Operating System Default Path
Windows
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools
Linux and Solaris
/usr/sbin
FreeBSD
/usr/local/sbin
Mac OS X
/Library/Application Support/VMware Tools
4 Enter the command to list available devices:
utility-name
device list.
For utility-name use the guest-specific program name.
Operating System Utility Name
Windows
VMwareToolboxCmd.exe
Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD
vmware-toolbox-cmd
Mac OS X
vmware-tools-cli
5 (Optional) Enter the command to determine whether a device is connected.
utility-name
device status
device-name
For device-name, use one of the names displayed when you used the list subcommand.
Installing and Configuring VMware Tools
34 VMware, Inc.