Virtualization of Windows XP or 7 in Linux Ubuntu using native Windows drivers?

Question

I am having a problem with getting one of my USB-to-serial devices running on Linux Ubuntu. There is simply no driver for it. It only works in Windows. When I boot to Win 7, it works fine because the driver is available, but when I try to boot into Windows using VMWare on Linux Ubuntu, the Windows installation doesn't see the hardware and, therefore, even though I have the drivers, I can't get the USB-to-serial work on it. Is there a way to run Windows inside Linux such that the Windows installation has direct access to the hardware of the PC rather than via the hosting OS?

Thank you! pkout

Answer 1

The QEMU virtualization system allows you to pass USB devices through to the guest operating system. With the KVM module loaded, I'd wager performance is similar to VMWare performance.

When starting qemu, pass -usb -usbdevice host:<vender>:<product> on the command line. After the guest is booted, type usb_add host:<vender>:<product> into the QEMU monitor.

Of course, you'll have to decide if it is worth changing virtualization technologies just to use a USB<->Serial converter or if it is just easier to buy a different, supported, converter.