Connecting a second mouse or keyboard directly to a Fusion virtual machine

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

This article provides steps to connect a second mouse and/or keyboard directly to a virtual machine.

If the mouse or keyboard is not working in the virtual machine, see Fixing a mouse or keyboard that is not working or is slow to respond in a Fusion virtual machine.

Environment

VMware Fusion Pro 8.x
VMware Fusion 10.x
VMware Fusion 4.x
VMware Fusion 8.x
VMware Fusion 2.x
VMware Fusion 5.x
VMware Fusion 3.x
VMware Fusion Pro 10.x
VMware Fusion 7.x
VMware Fusion 6.x

Resolution

Mice and keyboards belong to a special class of USB devices known as Human Interface Devices, or HID. Fusion does not allow these to be connected to the virtual machine by default, due to the risk of removing all human interface from the Mac. It is possible to instruct Fusion to make it possible to connect these devices by modifying the virtual machine settings.

Caution: It is required to have access to a second keyboard and/or mouse for these steps. Do not follow these steps if only one mouse and/or keyboard is available, as using the device(s) with the Mac while Fusion running is disallowed.

To connect an external keyboard and/or mouse directly to the virtual machine:

1. Shut down the virtual machine that needs the mouse/keyboard.
2. Plug the second mouse/keyboard into the Mac.
3. Edit the virtual machine's .vmx file using a text editor to include these lines. For more information about editing the .vmx file, see Editing the .vmx file for your VMware Fusion virtual machine.
   
   usb.generic.allowHID = "TRUE"
usb.generic.allowLastHID = "TRUE"
   
   Note: The usb.generic.allowLastHID = "TRUE" entry is optional. It allows the last remaining HID device to be taken from the host and attached to the virtual machine. This prevents the keyboard and mouse from being returned back to the host without unplugging it.
    
4. Power on the virtual machine.
5. Go to Virtual Machine > USB & Bluetooth (Fusion 4.x and later) / USB (Fusion 3.x and earlier) and select Connect <mouse or keyboard>.