[Hackrf-dev] HackRF in a Virtualized Environment (Windows7>VmWare>Pentoo\Kali\Ubuntu)

[Paul Jones]

I tried getting my HackRF working with vmware workstation 10 but I couldn’t get the usb pass-through working. I think because it doesn’t have a “proper” device driver that vmware recognises it doesn’t show up in the list. I’ve had the same issue with other devices before. I would love to know how to solve it.

Cheers,
Paul

From: HackRF-dev [mailto:hackrf-dev-bounces at greatscottgadgets.com] On Behalf Of Sohil Shah
Sent: Thursday, 4 September 2014 7:36 PM
To: hackrf-dev at greatscottgadgets.com
Subject: [Hackrf-dev] HackRF in a Virtualized Environment (Windows7>VmWare>Pentoo\Kali\Ubuntu)

Background:
I received my HackRF this Tuesday and tried running it under Pentoo, Kali and Windows. It did not work on either. I installed the latest Zadiag drivers on Windows and got the latest version of SDR#. As far as Kali and Pentoo go I followed the guide online except that I was running it from within a VM using VmWare. I have not dared to update my firmware. I will wait till Zero releases the Pentoo build with all the necessary tools and Mike posts his lesson on firmware flashing.
My question today is has anyone tried using the HackRF in a Virtualized environment [Windows7>VmWare_WorkStation10>Pentoo/Kali/Ubuntu]
I am aware of there being limits over USB in a virtualized environment, but for a lot of reasons I would like to use the HackRF on my Windows box using VmWare Workstation 10 as the  virtualized environment on either Kali/Ubuntu or Pentoo (Zero’s latest build when its released).

I can understand that there may be a lot of people who will say, use it on bare metal and that is fine, but I really want to see if it is possible to use the HackRF in a virtualized environment. I have used the RTLSDR in a virtualized environment for over a year now and it seems to be doing just fine with a lot of applications. I am not sure what the limitations of using the HackRF in a virtualized environment are. I do not intend to use it at its maximum sample rate as I am sure a lot of applications don’t require that high a samp_rate, E.G everything running on the RTLSDR is running at under 3.2MSPS.

My crude understanding is that more the MSPS more the I/O demand or bandwidth required on the USB bus and the driver that shuttles the samples between Windows through VMware to the Virtual Machine. I don’t know what the max_limit for such a setup is in terms of MSPS but I’d like to know if someone has been able to do a calculation of the amount of lost USB packets when going from 0MSPS to 22MSPS in a virtualized environment or if someone is willing to give me an idea as to how one would go about doing that as I am not sure if there is any existing way to calculate that. My goal is to figure out an ideal MSPS at which the HackRF is ideally useable in a Virtaul Machine running on Windows7 inside VmWare Workstation 10. As far as hardware goes I have the Lenovo ThinkPad T430 (Intel Chipset) which based on what I have read is one of the good performers on the hardware side, hence any losses or limitations would really be a software/virtualization issue as opposed to a hardware issue.

If someone still can’t wrap their head around the fact that why I would want to use Virtualization let me explain.
1)    1)  I only have one computer (laptop).
2)     2) I really need to have windows installed on it and can’t have dual boot on it with any Linux flavor.
3)     3) This limits me to using a live CD/USB
4)     4) I would like to watch Mike’s videos and refer to online guides while doing the exercises in GRC.
5)    5)  All Live CD’s may not have all the required tools, codecs etc. to watch video files and or video content online. (I know this is a lame argument but there are certain limitations and not everything will run straight out of the box on all platforms, plus it adds noise on the link in the next point)
6)    6)  Coming to the most important point. I want to simulate an environment where I have one host (think drone or remote computer) to which the HackRF is physically connected and another host that is actually commanding and getting responses from the first host. All Signal processing etc. is happening on the drone/remote machine. Only basic periodic updates (command and control) are being transmitted between the two hosts. To simulate this I need to use virtualization on my laptop.

If you had the patience to get so far in my post, I thank you. I would really appreciate if someone can shed some light on running the HackRF in a virtualized environment, maybe Mike can do a follow up to the Mysteries Video to see what kind of anomalies we see while using the HackRF in a virtual environment as opposed to running on bare metal. I am sure others may also have specific needs to run the HackRF in a virtualized environment. If not for anything else just to be able to say it’s not impossible is the simple motivation for my quest.

Thank you for your time.

--

Sohil Shah.

Nothing is Impossible, Never Undermine the Potential of the Human Spirit = My Life's Motto!!
Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish - Steve Jobs
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