Passthrough USB Keyboard and Mouse to VM Using ESXi V7

2020-06-26

I finally caved and setup a proper computer for the younger kids. Apparently the draw av Roblox and Minecraft Mods was too strong in addition to Steam titles.

I did however set it up as a VM on a an ESXi host, with a dedicated GPU in passthrough. What really got me stomped was passing the keyboard and mouse since my computer only had one USB controller, and I’m booting the ESXi using a USB stick.

There is a way to passthrough the HID devices without taking the entire PCI device as detailed here

First find the device-ids!

lsusb -v | grep -E '(^Bus|HID)'

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0e0f:8002 VMware, Inc. Root Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0e0f:8002 VMware, Inc. Root Hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0e0f:8001 VMware, Inc. Root Hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0781:5583 SanDisk Corp. Ultra Fit
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0424:2660 Standard Microsystems Corp. Hub
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 05ac:911c Apple, Inc. Hub in A1082 [Cinema HD Display 23"]
Bus 002 Device 006: ID 05ac:921c Apple, Inc. A1082 [Cinema HD Display 23"]
        HID Device Descriptor:
          bcdHID               1.11
Bus 002 Device 007: ID 1532:0204 Razer USA, Ltd
        HID Device Descriptor:
          bcdHID               1.11
        HID Device Descriptor:
          bcdHID               1.11
        HID Device Descriptor:
          bcdHID               1.11

These are the ones I’m after:

Razer Keyboard
1532:0204 Razer USA

Lenovo Mouse
17ef:608d

You will need to add two parameter types to the VMX file in addition to passing special parameters as ESXi startup paramters.

Add the follwing to your VMX file (or via GUI VM Advanced Settings).

usb.generic.allowHID = "TRUE"
usb.quirks.device0 = "0x1532:0x0204 allow"
usb.quirks.device1 = "0x17ef:0x608d allow"

The next step is to have the ESXi to not hide the devices.
Add the follwing to your ESXi /etc/vmware/config file.

usb.quirks.device0 = "0x1532:0x0204 allow"
usb.quirks.device1 = "0x17ef:0x608d allow"

And lastly add an exception for the keyboard device during ESXi boot. Either as an option or directly to the boot config file (in my case on my USB stick).
Add this to the /bootbank/boot.cfg file.

kernelopt=autoPartition=FALSE CONFIG./USB/quirks=0x1532:0x0204::0xffff:UQ_KBD_IGNORE

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