Doc Chacha
Dabbler
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2016
- Messages
- 28
Hello !
I've been looking for a way to somehow "forward" a USB dongle plugged in my FreeNAS Box to a VM created from the WebUI.
Having read lots of posts here and there, I was starting to think it would be impossible. (for various reasons, software not available on FreeBSD, mandtory kernel recompiling, overpriced solutions...)
But I found a working solution, that you can test easily for free, and that is not so expensive. It is the VirtualHere project. https://virtualhere.com/home
In a few words: it consists of a server software, a client software, both of them are free to download, need no installation at all, and have no dependancies.
They will basically forward the USB device over the IP network. Once you launch the server, the USB devices on the server are shared. Then you launch a client app and shared devices are auto detected.
The limitation of the trial version is that you cannot launch everything as daemon services (even if there's a workaround if you want to test it in deep using interactive console mode : https://virtualhere.com/node/590)
Anyway, if you choose to buy the full version, it's under USD 50 for one server box. (It runs on Linux-flavored systems, Windows systems, MacOs... in graphical or console mode)
At this time, I'm using it to run a Z-Wave controller software inside a Debian VM on my FreeNAS. A Z-Wave USB Dongle is plugged in my old Netgear ReadyNas, on which I installed the server software.
I then get access to the dongle from my VM using the client app. The dongle is detected without any problem by the Z-Wave controller software.
I hope it will help some of you.
(Disclaimer: I have non personnal acquaintance with VirtualHere and earn no benefit from this post)
I've been looking for a way to somehow "forward" a USB dongle plugged in my FreeNAS Box to a VM created from the WebUI.
Having read lots of posts here and there, I was starting to think it would be impossible. (for various reasons, software not available on FreeBSD, mandtory kernel recompiling, overpriced solutions...)
But I found a working solution, that you can test easily for free, and that is not so expensive. It is the VirtualHere project. https://virtualhere.com/home
In a few words: it consists of a server software, a client software, both of them are free to download, need no installation at all, and have no dependancies.
They will basically forward the USB device over the IP network. Once you launch the server, the USB devices on the server are shared. Then you launch a client app and shared devices are auto detected.
The limitation of the trial version is that you cannot launch everything as daemon services (even if there's a workaround if you want to test it in deep using interactive console mode : https://virtualhere.com/node/590)
Anyway, if you choose to buy the full version, it's under USD 50 for one server box. (It runs on Linux-flavored systems, Windows systems, MacOs... in graphical or console mode)
At this time, I'm using it to run a Z-Wave controller software inside a Debian VM on my FreeNAS. A Z-Wave USB Dongle is plugged in my old Netgear ReadyNas, on which I installed the server software.
I then get access to the dongle from my VM using the client app. The dongle is detected without any problem by the Z-Wave controller software.
I hope it will help some of you.
(Disclaimer: I have non personnal acquaintance with VirtualHere and earn no benefit from this post)