Use Device Connect or Disconnect

You can connect and disconnect removable devices such as floppy drives, DVD/CD-ROM drives, ISO images, USB devices, sound adapters, and network adapters.
If you plan to script commands to connect or disconnect a virtual device, and for the exit codes are, see Exit Codes for the VMware Tools Configuration Utility.
  • Some devices cannot be shared between the host and guest operating systems or between two guest operating systems. For example, only one virtual machine or the host can access the physical CD-ROM drive at any one time.
  • The controls for connecting and disconnecting devices might not be available, depending on whether your system administrator has enabled them.
You can run the configuration utility to connect and disconnect virtual devices. For security reasons, this ability is disabled by default. To connect or disconnect devices, you must first change the settings in the configuration file.
  1. Configure the virtual machine to allow devices to connect or disconnect.
    1. Edit the configuration (
      .vmx
      ) file of the virtual machine with a text editor.
    2. If the following properties are not listed in the file, add them and set them to FALSE.
      isolation.device.connectable.disable = "FALSE" isolation.device.edit.disable = "FALSE"
    3. Save and close the file.
  2. Open a command prompt or terminal in the guest operating system.
  3. Change to the VMware Tools installation directory.
    Operating System
    Default Path
    Windows
    C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools
    Linux and Solaris
    /usr/sbin
    FreeBSD
    /usr/local/sbin
    Mac OS X
    /Library/Application Support/VMware Tools
  4. Type
    utility-name
    device list
    to list available devices.
    For
    utility-name
    , use the guest-specific application name.
    Operating System
    Utility Name
    Windows
    VMwareToolboxCmd.exe
    Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD
    vmware-toolbox-cmd
    Mac OS X
    vmware-tools-cli
  5. Type the command to determine whether a device is connected.
    utility-name
    device status
    device-name
    For
    device-name
    , use one of the names displayed when you used the
    list
    subcommand.
  6. Type the command to connect or disconnect the device.
    utility-name
    device
    device-name
    subcommand
    Option
    Action
    device-name
    Use one of the names displayed when you used the
    list
    subcommand.
    subcommand
    Use
    enable
    or
    disable
    .
The device is connected or disconnected, as you specified.