Warning: Windows-based firmware updates under vmware on FC6

[parish]

A word of warning...

I usually think of my XP installation running under vmware hosted on FC6 as being the same as a fully native XP installation. For the most part it is, except for this little problem.

I tried to do a firmware update of my Creative MuVo N200 mp3 player from this XP and it crash the XP session and rebooted into safe mode. After this, the player wouldn't power on and wasn't recognized as a usb device anymore. I did eventually figure out how to recover and update the firmware from a native XP system, but it was quite an adventure to do so.

So..., if you're going to do a windows-base firmware update of any sort, I'd highly recommend doing so from a native windows system, not a vmware-hosted one. At least that's how I'll be doing it from now on.

Daniel

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[parish]

Out of curiosity about whether this was a one-time glitch, not to mention being a glutton for punishment, I tried to flash the player firmware from the vmware-hosted XP system again and it crashed out in exactly the same way as before.

I guess this is reason #2 I need to keep a windows system around; taxes is #1!

Daniel

[tkoco]

Originally Posted by parish

Out of curiosity about whether this was a one-time glitch, not to mention being a glutton for punishment, I tried to flash the player firmware from the vmware-hosted XP system again and it crashed out in exactly the same way as before.

I guess this is reason #2 I need to keep a windows system around; taxes is #1!

Daniel

Thanks for the tip. Emulation can only go so far. I wonder if a xen domain version of XP would have the same problem.

[parish]

This problem turned out to also affect printing to my usb photo printer but, as I eventually figured out, is simple enough to work around. It's caused by the inability of vmware workstation to handle usb 2.0 devices. Usb keys mount okay (as usb 1 devices), and I can write to them, but things like firmware updates and printing to usb 2 devices reproducibly causes the crash I initially posted about. The workaround is as simple as disabling usb 2.0 in linux (rmmod ehci_hcd) while using them and re-enabling it afterwords (modprobe ehci_hcd). (The actual module name is dependent on your specific hardware)

Not elegant, but it works, and will do until proper usb 2 support is built in to vmware workstation.

Daniel