VMWare is an esential part of my migration to Ubuntu, but it's not perfect out of the box.
For example, USB support is not enabled by default for your virtual machines.
There's an easy fix.
Either precede the following commands with sudo, or open a root terminal.
Type the following commands:
gedit (or vi) /etc/fstab.
Add this line:
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs auto 0 0
Now, gedit /etc/init.d/mountdevsubfs.sh
Uncomment these lines:
mkdir -p /dev/bus/usb/.usbfs
domount usbfs "" /dev/bus/usb/.usbfs
-obusmode=0700,devmode=0600,listmode=0644
ln -s .usbfs/devices /dev/bus/usb/devices
mount --rbind /dev/bus/usb /proc/bus/usb
Reboot.
If you don't have a USB controller on your virtual machine, add it.
Once it's booted up and running, enable whatever USB device you would like your VM to see by selecting it via removable devices.
Voila! USB devices visible to your VM!
