SpacePilot on Linux in General

Questions and answers about 3Dconnexion devices on UNIX and Linux.

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scottp
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SpacePilot on Linux in General

Post by scottp »

I got to try the SpacePilot while I was lt PLM world back in May 2006. They are very nice devices.
Since there aren't many posts here, I was wondering if anyone can comment on the operation in Linux in general?
Does anyone have experience running this under Linux?
Specific interest to me, is that I run my SolidEdge inside of a VMware virtual machine on a Linux host. Has that been tested at all?
Last edited by scottp on Fri Dec 15, 2006 9:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
Ken Denton
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Post by Ken Denton »

Scottp, To my knowledge, 3Dconnexion has not tested with VMware on Linux. Thanks for the feedback. It's appreciated!
Ken Denton
3Dconnexion, Inc. A Logitech Company
riddick
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Re: SpacePilot on Linux in General

Post by riddick »

scottp wrote: Specific interest to me, is that I run my SolidEdge inside of a VMware virtual machine on a Linux host. Has that been tested at all?
I have no experience with the SpacePilot, but a SpaceNavigator can successfully be connected to a Windows guest running in a VMWare Workstation 5.5.1 on a Linux host.
scottp
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Re: SpacePilot on Linux in General

Post by scottp »

Excellent, That's a good sign.
Ken Denton
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Re: SpacePilot on Linux in General

Post by Ken Denton »

riddick wrote: I have no experience with the SpacePilot, but a SpaceNavigator can successfully be connected to a Windows guest running in a VMWare Workstation 5.5.1 on a Linux host.
riddick, Thanks for the post! :D
Ken Denton
3Dconnexion, Inc. A Logitech Company
mfeagley
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Re: SpacePilot for UNIX and Linux

Post by mfeagley »

Has anyone had any luck with any device (serial or USB) other than the Navigator running in a Windows XP Pro virtual machine (VMWare 5.5.2) on a Linux Redhat EL4 host?

I am currently testing a Spaceball 5000 USB. I have it installed and operational on the Linux host, however, I am having no luck getting the 3dconnexion Control Panel (version 3.1.8) to launch in the Windows XP virtual machine. I click on the icon, get an hourglass for a nanosecond, then nothing.

Are we going to have to upgrade all of the "Space" devices to the Navigator USB version to achieve the ability to utilize in the Windows XP Pro virtual machine as well as the Linux host?

Thanks!
"Never underestimate your enemy while he is busy making a mistake!"
riddick
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Re: SpacePilot on Linux in General

Post by riddick »

riddick wrote: I have no experience with the SpacePilot, but a SpaceNavigator can successfully be connected to a Windows guest running in a VMWare Workstation 5.5.1 on a Linux host.
I was asked to give some details about my SpaceNavigator/Linux host/WindowsXP/VMWare experiment:

Let me start by saying that connecting USB devices to a Windows guest can require quite some fiddling with (undocumented) config options. There are many many threads in VMWare's support forum and knowledge base about this topic.


After some of my personal experiments with syncing a Palm via USB to a Windows guest, my latest VMWare config contains the following entries:


usb.present = "TRUE"
usb.autoConnect.device0 = ""

usb.generic.skipsetconfig = "TRUE"
usb.analyzer.enable = "TRUE"

# one can also try the alternative old USB code:
# uhic.newCore="FALSE"


I connect the SpaceNavigator to my linux box, here is the syslog:

kernel: usb 2-1: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
kernel: usbcore: registered new driver hiddev
kernel: input: 3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator as /class/input/input2
kernel: input: USB HID v1.10 Multi-Axis Controller [3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-1
kernel: usbcore: registered new driver usbhid
kernel: drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: v2.6:USB HID core driver
usb.agent[14187]: usbhid: loaded successfully

(BTW, usbhid was already loaded)


I then manually connect the device to my running VMWare session via VMWare's menu:
VM / Removable Devices / USB devices / 3D Connexion SpaceNavigator
After two messages, stating that the device is already claimed by the linux host system's usbhid driver (right) and will now be disconnected from that and reconnected to the VMWare session, the devices successf

Here is VMWare's log with activated USB debugging (see usb.analyzer.enable above):

vmx| USB: Found device [name:3Dconnexion\ SpaceNavigator vid:046d pid:c626 path:2/0]
vmx| VMXVmdbLoadUsbDevices: New set of 1 USB devices
vmx| Msg_Hint: msg.usb.generic.stopDevice (shown)
vmx| USB: Connecting device 0xe0020002046dc626
vmx| USB: Adding autoconnect pattern [path:2/0 autoclean:1] in slot 0
vmx| USB: Found device [name:3Dconnexion\ SpaceNavigator vid:046d pid:c626 path:2/0]
vmx| USB: Autoconnecting device "3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator" matching pattern [path:2/0 autoclean:1]
vmx| USB: Connecting device 0xe0020002046dc626
vmx| Msg_Hint: msg.usb.disconnectHostDriver (shown)
vmx| POLL device deleted
vmx| USB: Found device [name:3Dconnexion\ SpaceNavigator vid:046d pid:c626 port:1 path:2/0]
vmx| USB: Device [name:3Dconnexion\ SpaceNavigator vid:046d pid:c626 port:1 path:2/0] should already be connected
vmx| VMXVmdbLoadUsbDevices: New set of 1 USB devices


Now, I can start the 3D driver in the guest Windows XP, the SpaceNavigator gets activated (starts happily to glow blue) and I can use it in the guest system.


More help could probably be found no VMWare's support web pages.


Greetings.
mfeagley
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2007 2:51 pm
Location: Texas

Re: SpacePilot on Linux in General

Post by mfeagley »

Thanks Riddick! I finally figured out that the virtual machine could not utilize the USB device as long as the host system had the device driver running.
"Never underestimate your enemy while he is busy making a mistake!"
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