Hi there,
A user with a MacBook 10.6.6 wants to extend his virtual XP desktop across two external monitors. The current setup is a plugable UGA-2k-A connected to a Gateway monitor via DVA, and a DVI dongle off of the MacBook going to a Dell monitor.
We installed the displaylink drivers on the XP machine and were able to display the desktop image on both external monitors; however, we were unable to put the cursor or drag anything to the other monitor. I tried swapping ports, cables (VGA and DVI), running two Dell monitors, and changing the XP’s display settings. No luck.
Today I installed the drivers for the Mac and it displays its desktop on all monitors as expected. The virtual XP machine had no change after installing the Mac drivers.
Is there a way to extend the virtual XP desktop to another monitor?
Thanks!
Thanks for posting!
The trouble is often with the special drivers installed in the virtual machine (e.g. VMware tools) which take control of things like the mouse in the VM, so that the mouse will move smoothly between the VM window (XP) and the host OS (Mac).
That same feature then causes you to be unable to move the mouse between monitors in the VM. But often it’s configurable.
Quick question: what virtual machine software is being used on the Mac (VMware)? And what version?
Thanks again!
Bernie
Hi Bernie,
He is running VMware Fusion 2.0.4.
-Richard
Unfortunately I don’t have VMware Fusion in front of me right now, but one option for the user to look for is an option for USB input devices (e.g. mouse) to be assigned fully to the VM (in the same way that the USB graphics adapter is), and then give the VM exclusive ownership of the mouse.
The upside is then the mouse will be able to move between the multiple displays owned by the VM as you’d expect.
The downside is you need a mouse to dedicate for using inside the VM.
There may be an easier solution - I’d recommend contacting VMware’s support in parallel to see if they have any ideas. If you do find anything, please post here as I’m sure there would be others interested.
And let us know if we can help answer any question specific to the USB graphics part itself.
Thanks!
Bernie
I’ll see if VMware has any suggestions. Thanks!