CentOS - Sep 2006 - vmware, rhel4(or us) problems w/virtual usb ports

I ran across this and glad I did...saved my .10 worth of sanity I got
left:

It came from:
http://kb.vmware.com/KanisaPlatform/Publishing/612/774_f.SAL_Public.html

Guest Cannot See USB Device on RHEL4-x64 Host


This problem was identified on VMware Server, but may affect other
VMware products.


When you connect a USB device to a host running the RHEL4-x64 operating
system, then try to access the USB from the VMware guest, the following
error message appears:
 The Existing driver (usbhid) could not be successfully disconnected.
(operation not permitted) Unload the driver manually then try again
<OK>.


In this situation, you cannot unload the driver manually from the host,
because it does not exist as a module?it is compiled directly into the
RHEL4-x64 kernel. Normally, this situation is not a problem for VMware
software, but the kernel does not support the required ioctl (control
device) function to allow VMware to disconnect the device from the
usbhid driver.


As a workaround, you can recompile the host's kernel with usbhid as a
module, then manage its removal with rmmod. However, because the usbhid
driver is necessary to allow the host and guest operating systems to
interact with a USB mouse and keyboard, removing the module from the
recompiled kernel may not be appropriate for your system. You may need
to use an upgraded kernel or a different operating system instead.

thx

John Rose

On Fri, 2006-09-22 at 00:39 -0500, rado wrote:
> I ran across this and glad I did...saved my .10 worth of sanity I got
> left:
> 
> It came from:
> http://kb.vmware.com/KanisaPlatform/Publishing/612/774_f.SAL_Public.html
> 
> Guest Cannot See USB Device on RHEL4-x64 Host
> 
> 
> <snip>
> As a workaround, you can recompile the host's kernel with usbhid as a
> module, then manage its removal with rmmod. However, because the usbhid
> driver is necessary to allow the host and guest operating systems to
> interact with a USB mouse and keyboard, removing the module from the
> recompiled kernel may not be appropriate for your system. You may need
> to use an upgraded kernel or a different operating system instead.
John, I've not used VM stuff, so this might be dumb (never stopped me
yet).

Can't the initrd be modified and remade to automatically load the
modules? It's just another device driver, right?
> 
> thx
> 
> John Rose
> <snip sig stuff>
--
Bill