Fully working FingerWorks software in a virtual machine

[Max]

Actually, I'd just like to say a thank you to (you) Torben, for keeping this community alive. I may only pop in every now and again but I am always thankful that it is here and for your efforts.

[TorbenGB]

Thank you Max! I'm a facilitator - what I do best is help others be great, so it's a pleasure to see this site being helpful to users.

I only have an uncomfortable suspicion that there aren't very many actual users left, and that's a pity. Not because of this site, but because it's a product without equal that a fruit company decided to axe. So all site activity is encouraging!

[David.P]

Also here, the link to an old Java version that I just installed in a "XP mode" Windows virtual machine on Win7 64bit, in order to be able to run the Fingerworks Utilities:
http://www.oldapps.com/java.php?old_java=10

However, there's still the problem that the Fingerworks hardware is not recognized inside the virtual XP machine. I mean, the Fingerworks hardware of course is working as mouse and keyboard in the virtual XP, but not recognized by the Fingerworks utilities.





Had this problem been solved somewhere? I can't seem to find a solution on the forum.

[TorbenGB]

However, there's still the problem that the Fingerworks hardware is not recognized inside the virtual XP machine.

Well, I seem to remember that I had this working once, using WinXP on a Sun VirtualBox with Win7 as host system -- but I don't have any facts about this anymore!

But the crux of the matter was that theVM host software has a way to map USB devices to the client, and I recall that the FW device has one device ID when it's in normal operation but a different ID when it's in DFU mode -- so the trick was to map both ID's to the WM client!

That of course meant that I had to connect a different physical kbd&mouse to the host system in order to be able to control the host at all. I used some plain wireless kbd/mouse combo set for that.

[David.P]

Thanks Torben!

The iGesture Pad unfortunately does not even show up in the XP device manager:



The "Virtual PC Integration Device" is something else since it does not disappear when the Fingerworks hardware is unplugged.

Again -- the iGesture Pad does work in the virtual XP system, but this could be provided via the host system of course.

[TorbenGB]

When it doesn't show up in the client OS, it's probably because it's only known to the host OS and the host just tells the client that there's a standard mouse&keyboard attached - and you have those.

Are you using a VM tool that is standard in Win7? I would not expect that to have the mapping functionality of USB device ID's. It's probably good for a lot of "simpler" stuff but perhaps you've found a reason to use a third-party VM tool like Sun VirtualBox <-- that one is free to use, but make sure you download the correct variant, because there's a version with detailed USB support, and a version without it.

Download: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
Info: https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch03.html#idp54668304

[David.P]

Thanks -- after trying several flavors of VirtualBox and VMLite (which all did not work for some reason; I am under the impression that they are outdated and/or more or less abandoned?), I finally got everything to work with VMWare Player. There, it is actually possible to connect like anything that is plugged into a USB port of the host system, also to the guest OS exclusively (provided under host system -> VMWare Player -> [name of guest OS] -> Settings -> USB Controller -> Show all USB input devices is ticked).






HtH,
Cheers
David.P

[David.P]

Hi Forum,

in the meantime I managed to get a nice Windows XP up and running as a virtual machine on Windows 10, see screenshot below.



I used a German Windows XP ISO that can be downloaded here:
• https://archive.org/download/WindowsXPP ... ack3German
• Hash: 55ad061ba1054da5ec800924b03337674e5a1262

Here is an English version that should work as well:
• https://archive.org/download/en_windows ... 428_202010
• Hash: f424a52153e6e5ed4c0d44235cf545d5

(I believe that you have to use a 32bit Version of Windows XP -- after I tried to install the Fingerworks software on a 64Bit Windows XP and got an incompatibility message)

Also, you'll need a valid serial number for Windows XP Professional.

With the free VMware Player this ISO can be installed in a few minutes on Windows 10.

After installing Java version 1.4.2 (which I believe was included with the original Fingerworks software, but also can be downloaded here, in the virtual machine, I could use the Fingerworks Multi-Touch Utilities without problems. My iGesture Pad is recognized and can be fully serviced and programmed, after it is connected to the virtual machine like shown below:



This way it should be possible to continue operating the Fingerworks hardware hopefully for many more years!

David
--

More Windows XP downloads, just in case:
https://archive.org/details/windows-xp- ... d-vm-disks
https://archive.org/search.php?query=su ... ofessional

[TorbenGB]

Fantastic work, David! Thank you for documenting it so clearly - now we can all build a workstation for the devices!

[David.P]

Thank you Torben, and great to hear from you again! Thank you also for keeping this amazing forum up and running.

Let's keep those Fingerworks devices alive and productive!