USB3-E1000 passthrough to VMware Workstation CentOS7 guest

Hi, I’m running VMware Workstation 15.0.4 on Windows 10+1809. I want to pass through the USB3-1000 to a VM. The USB3-1000 appears to pass through VMware fine to a CentOS7 guest (i.e. Removable Devices shows it connected), but I don’t see the device connected in lsusb, dmesg, etc.

I tried downloading the drivers and installing per the instructions here: https://pario.no/2014/05/21/using-the-usb31000sptb-ax88179-on-centos-6-5/, but am running into issues with the make command (bear in mind I’m not a linux guru).

CentOS kernel: 3.10.0-957.12.1.el7.x86_64

Any advice here is much appreciated.

Hello,

Thanks for reaching out to us! I do apologize for any trouble you’ve had with our adapter, and I am here to help! I do want to respectfully clarify, that setting up a pass through to a VM setup goes beyond what we can accurately troubleshoot for setup. With that said, we should check to make sure that the adapter can operate properly under connection directly to the host.

I would suggest to connect the adapter directly to your Windows without the VMware running, and standard automatic connection settings to make sure it is working. I hope this helps! Please let me know what happens. I look forward to hearing back from you soon!

Thank you,

Kevin
Plugable Support

Thanks for the quick reply, Kevin. The adaptor does work on the Windows machine, no problem. I writing this over that connection in fact.

Understood about the pass through. Can you provide me support on how to get it running on a bare metal CentOS 7 install then? Drivers needed, how to make and install modules, etc.?

Thanks,
Adam

Hello,

Sure thing! Thanks for getting back to me as well. Awesome, glad to see the adapter is working under normal conditions. I’d like to ask a coworker who has left for the day about this. While I am quite familiar with Ubuntu and Debian based, I haven’t used CentOS, and he does currently.

I can’t guarantee the outcome, but I’d like to see if we can at least point you in the right direction. If its OK, I will fill him in on the situation, and we should have a response before the end of the day tomorrow. Can you tell us anything else about your setup that might be helpful? Feel free to respond directly to the email with Ticket#272557 with system info/further details.

Thank you,

Kevin
Plugable Support

Well, kernel info is above, and I’ve installed all the developer tools I need to compile modules. Not sure if there is anything else relevant. Looking forward to hearing back from your coworker. Thanks!

–Adam

Hello Adam,

Thanks for the reply! In talking with my colleague we’d like to try and establish the following:

  • Can other USB3 devices pass-through properly, and be recognized/utilized?
  • Perhaps you can try a USB3 thumbdrive, or other device
  • The driver for the adapter is baked into the kernel
  • But there may be limitations on what on the VMWare and what can passthrough.

If you would, please try to confirm that other USB3 devices can properly pass through and let us know what happens!

Thank you,

Kevin
Product Owner
support@plugable.com

Gents, I’m a f**king idiot. I just needed to make sure the VM USB Controller was set to USB 3.0 rather than 2.0 in the VM settings. I was tipped off to this by the dmesg output:

[ 583.728644] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 10 using ehci-pci
[ 583.954579] usb 1-1: device descriptor read/64, error 18
[ 584.281882] usb 1-1: device descriptor read/64, error 18
[ 584.603813] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 11 using ehci-pci
[ 584.833313] usb 1-1: device descriptor read/64, error 18
[ 585.164261] usb 1-1: device descriptor read/64, error 18
[ 585.265003] usb usb1-port1: attempt power cycle
[ 585.788537] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 12 using ehci-pci
[ 585.802445] usb 1-1: Invalid ep0 maxpacket: 9
[ 586.024623] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 13 using ehci-pci
[ 586.040283] usb 1-1: Invalid ep0 maxpacket: 9
[ 586.041619] usb usb1-port1: unable to enumerate USB device

When it mentioned “power cycle”, I remembered that by default VMware VM controllers are set to USB 2.0.

Sorry to have wasted your time. Hopefully this thread will save someone else the headache.
Thanks so much. Awesome support!
–Adam

Hello Adam,

Thanks for the reply! No need to apologize, and time was definitely not “wasted”. These things happen. We are glad to see that not only does the adapter work under normal circumstances, but it also works for your VMware setup! This will definitely be helpful for others.

Keep us in the loop if anything comes up, and we’ll be here to help! We hope you have a great weekend!

Thank you,

Kevin, and the Plugable Team
support@plugable.com

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