Compatible PCI USB Card?

oguruma

Member
Mar 26, 2020
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I want to put Windows 10 in a VM for some printer-specific software (that only runs on Windows).

I have 5 printers, so I need to find a KVM compatible PCI USB Card.

Can anybody recommend me a compatible USB card?
 
Hi,

most should work, especially if they have some Linux support in general.

Alternatively you could use an USB hub and pass through the ports/whole controller with Proxmox VEs USB passthrough.
 
Hi,

most should work, especially if they have some Linux support in general.

Alternatively you could use an USB hub and pass through the ports/whole controller with Proxmox VEs USB passthrough.

Thanks for the input.

I've considered the USB hub route. What I really want is something as stable as possible.

What do you think would give the least number of annoying flaky issues?

My fallback is just a small 1U atom-based server, but for space in the rack and power consumption reasons, I would rather just use a VM for this.
 
I did some PCI pass through and used USB pass through for devices which had only windows support - I even upgraded the firmware of my workstations (uses PVE) monitor over a Windows VM with USB passthrough (while continuing to use said monitor), so in my experience, both can work quite stable.

I mean, naturally you can have bad luck with your setup, and have cursed firmware and or hardware, but more simple passthrough should be doable by most HW nowadays.

In your situation I'd try the USB passthrough route first, you probably don't need to buy extra HW for that as a USB hub is more often available than a PCI USB expander card, you should get a feeling about how flaky it is quickly and if it real has issues you can still get you a PCI card then.
 
In your situation I'd try the USB passthrough route first, you probably don't need to buy extra HW for that as a USB hub is more often available than a PCI USB expander card, you should get a feeling about how flaky it is quickly and if it real has issues you can still get you a PCI card then.

Good advice.

Another one is not to buy the cheapest adapters on ebay/amazon/whatever. We experimented also a lot and the more costly ones are much more stable in the long run. 30+ Euros for an adapter that is not a rip-off of a cheap one (compare the product images) is a good choice.
 
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