Magic Qemu USB 3.0 with Windows Guest Recipe

Posted by on September 4, 2014 Leave a comment (1) Go to comments

I now have a working USB 3.0 drive on my Windows 7 guest using QEMU 2.1. Here is what I think is the working “Recipe” for this on Ubuntu 14.04:

Get the newest (at the time of this writing) Seabios: from http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/s/seabios/seabios_1.7.5-1_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i seabios_1.7.5-1_all.deb
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jacob/virtualisation
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

I then got my Windows 7 driver from http://plugable.com/drivers/renesas. I chose the driver for the older card listed on that page: “Plugable PCI-e cards purchased before 10/16/2012 are µPD720200 based and require the 2.1.39.0 driver package.” The direct link for the download is https://s3.amazonaws.com/plugable/bin/2014-03-Plugable-Renesas-USB-3.0-200-2.1.39.0.zip

After installing the driver, everything worked!

Other notes:

I am not using passthrough (although I will probably test this later to see if there is any performance difference).
I am using Virt-Manager from the ppa above (THANK YOU Jacob Zimmermann!)
I have the usb controller set to usb 3.0 in the VM configuration.

There was much rejoicing — but I will spare the world any and all images of my happy dance… NO ONE wants to see that..!

Linux Notes, QEMU/KVM, Uncategorized, Work (Computers, Newtorks)
  1. brad September 5, 2014 at 8:27 pm

    This still seems a bit unstable. I am kind of leaning towards blaming the guest (Windows) side of things for this. I also not fully convinced that I am getting USB 3.0 speeds out of this.

    I have had the VM just “Turn Off” meaning no error messages or warning. The remote viewer closes and Virt-Manager shows it as off. I’ve had this while browsing the web and while it was sitting idle.

    I have also had to reinstall the drivers for the USB controller after this happens — sometimes multiple times before they decide to work again. That is what make me think that it might be a Windows issue.

    As far as speed goes, I get a warning (in Windows) that my device would function faster if I connected it to a USB 3 controller. Since all my physical ports are USB 3, and the only controllers showing up in Windows are USB 3, I’m not sure what to make of this. I haven’t had time to actually benchmark anything….

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