Since upgrading to Kubuntu 11.10 which has a more recent Linux kernel, I can apparently forget about getting USB devices recognized in Vmware player (running 4.0.1 with Windows XP guest).
The problem is that these kernels after 2.6.33-xxx (I run 3.0.0) no longer support CONFIG_USB_DEVICES, meaning that no /proc/bus/usb folder exists.
Moreover, this folder cannot be created or activated with /etc/fstab entries such as usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs auto 0 0, because kernel support for usbfs is no longer there. At the Kubuntu forum, they tell me that usbfs is DEPRECATED and should NO LONGER be used! Instead, hal udev is to be used.
SO....what is VMware going to do?! Obviously this affects a huge number of Linux host users and will only increase as people upgrade their Linuxes.
Are there workarounds? Help is appreciated, because I would have to permanently say goodbye to VMware if this is not possible, and that would be much work and also very sad since I appreciate it a lot.
FYI:
From my VMX file:
...
usb.generic.autoconnect = "TRUE"
usb.generic.allowHID = "TRUE"
serial0.startConnected = "FALSE"
usb:0.present = "TRUE"
usb:0.deviceType = "hid"
usb:0.port = "0"
usb:0.parent = "-1"
...
From vmware.log:
....
2012-01-04T15:37:25.520+01:00| vmx| I120: USB: Initializing 'Virtual Hub' backend
2012-01-04T15:37:25.520+01:00| vmx| I120: USB: Initializing 'Generic' backend
2012-01-04T15:37:25.520+01:00| vmx| I120: USB: Unable to open "/proc/bus/usb/devices" (No such file or directory).
2012-01-04T15:37:25.520+01:00| vmx| I120: USBGL: Error connecting to arbitrator socket: No such file or directory (2)
2012-01-04T15:37:25.520+01:00| vmx| W110: USBGA: UsbgHostSetAutoConnect: arbitrator not open
2012-01-04T15:37:25.520+01:00| vmx| I120: USB: Initializing 'Virtual HID' backend
2012-01-04T15:37:25.521+01:00| vmx| I120: USB: Initializing 'Remote Device' backend
2012-01-04T15:37:25.521+01:00| vmx| I120: RemoteUSBVMX: Retrieved hostId [01 02 09 07 03 01 04 01-08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01]
2012-01-04T15:37:25.521+01:00| vmx| I120: RemoteUSBVMX: Protocol version min:15 current:16
2012-01-04T15:37:25.521+01:00| vmx| I120: RemoteUSBVMX: no delay setting is TRUE.
2012-01-04T15:37:25.521+01:00| vmx| I120: USB: Initializing 'Virtual Mass Storage' backend
2012-01-04T15:37:25.521+01:00| vmx| I120: USB: Initializing 'Virtual CCID' backend
2012-01-04T15:37:25.522+01:00| vmx| I120: USB-CCID: dlopened default libpcsclite.so.1.
2012-01-04T15:37:30.429+01:00| vmx| I120: USB-CCID: Could not establish context: SCARD_E_NO_SERVICE(0x8010001d).
2012-01-04T15:37:30.429+01:00| vmx| W110: Could not initialize emulated USB smart card subsystem.
2012-01-04T15:37:30.429+01:00| vmx| I120: USB: Unable to initialize 'Virtual CCID' backend
2012-01-04T15:37:30.429+01:00| vmx| I120: USB: Initializing 'Virtual Bluetooth' backend
...