Anyone works with Virtual Machine?

Hey guys.
When writing code and burning it into microcontrollers, I use Virtual Machine since its more comfortable in many aspects than using the host.

I just have a problem that really disturbs me in the everyday.

I burn code into a MCU (microcontroller) using a USB cable (the USB cable is connected to an evaluation board which is connected to the MCU).
The problem is that sometimes the host takes over the USB, and doesnt let the VM to gain control of it.

Even when inside the VM (virtual machine) I go to 'removable devices' -> 'USB devices' and select there the USB device, The host doesnt let the VM to gain control of this USB device.

It drives me crazy and all I do is waiting for this freak control to let the VM use the USB too.

How can you have the host release the USB and let the VM taking over it?

Thank you very much.

It depends on the virtual machine, but on VMWare there is a toolbar with a that lists all the USB devices connected to the PC (as seen by the host). You would click on the USB device to enable/disable whether or not the VM would be able to "see" and access that USB device.

Hey,
as I said:
"Even when inside the VM (virtual machine) I go to 'removable devices' -> 'USB devices' and select there the USB device, The host doesnt let the VM to gain control of this USB device."

You really need to tell us the name and version of the software to get a reasonable answer. Is the VM running under linux or some version of windows ?

I use sun's VirtualBox under vista because I have a few USB tools that run on XP but not vista. VirtualBox gets better with each release. Initialy it has some problems with USB but not with the last version or two.

3v0

Thanks for the help.
Here are the details:
VMWARE workstation.
Version: 6.0.5 build-109488.

Have you read the help files from VMWare on how to let the guest OS use a particular USB device?