Hi Yannick, On Tue, Jun 04, 2024 at 10:20:26AM +0200, Yannick PLASSIARD wrote: > >For a few weeks now, I have to use a Mac to do my job. I have two braille >devices: >- a Focus 5 USB device >- A VarioUltra 40 USB-HID device > >Before that, I used these two devices on Windows and Linux without any >particular issues, either on a real Linux system with Brltty 6.6, or in a >Linux VM hosted by Windows with the same Brltty 6.6. > >On MacOS however I noticed something strange with my VarioUltra device: the >transfer speed of the device (sending braille input / receiving braille dots >to print) is very very slow. For example, if I type characters quickly, the >device will freeze for several seconds and then the characters will be >processed by BRLTTY, making it very inconfortable to use. > >About my current setup: >- Running latest macOS Sonoma on an ARM64 (m2Pro) chip >- Running latest VMWare Fusion software version to use a Linux ARM64 Debian >virtual machine >- Connect my braille device(s) to the VM and not to the Mac, so that BRLTTY >can see and interact with them. > > >My observations: >- Using the Focus 40 5th generation connected to USB, everything works very >well, nothing to complain about. I’m able to read and more importantly write >very quickly (typing at around 4 to 6 chars per second), and everything is >responsive. >- Using the VarioULTRA 40 connected to USB-HID to the same VM, things are very >sluggish: typing at the same speed will result in the situation described >above, i.e. slowness / freeze of the device until either a key is pressed, or >a certain time. > > >What I tried: >1) With the Focus 40: >- Works well everywhere: in a VM hosted by Windows/Mac, Linux host, and MacOS >Host using the screen driver. >2) With the VarioULTRA device: Works well on a Linux VM hosted by Windows and >linux Host, become sluggish on a Linux VM hosted by MacOS. >3) I tried to change hypervisors, and every software behaves the same, either >with UTM or VMWare Fusion (UTM can use either QEMU backend for virtualisation, >or Apple’s builtin virtualisation support).
I was playing around with a M1 Mac, Sonoma and Linux in a VM in the past. I used UTM and Parallels as hypervisor and I am not using my braille device as input device, just wanted it to use as a normal braille output device. The braille device is a EL80C from Papenmeier. My expierinces with Linux in a VM on the Mac were mixed: - It was no problem to setup the VMs, no matter if I used UTM or Parallels. - I used VMware Fusion in the past on a Intell Mac but not on the M1 machine. With VMware Fusion I worked for some months but I had also some problems that caused me to switch back to a normal Laptop with Linux or Windows and virtualize things there. Is the support of the Apple CPUs with VMware Fusion stable and fast meanwhile? I read that there are performance issues still with VMware Fusion, but if you are happy with the system speed I'd give it another try. - Witzh UTM as hypervisor on my M1 machine I had the biggest problems with the USB connection of the braille device. That was the reason I gave up. - With Paralles as hypervisor I had the best performance and the stablest system so far. But sometimes also the USB connection was disconnected and also I had very ofthen problems with the focus when switching between the VM and the host operating system. - Attaching the braille device to the VMs worked in general, but very ofthen connection got lost, e.g. after the MacBook was in sleep mode. Do you have similar problems? - Remapping the capslock key to use it as the screen reader key in the VM was not easy. For this problem I have no working solution so far. How did you setup this? I was not able to find a working solution for UTM and Parallels, but in the past, wehn using VMware Fusion, I got it working somehow. - Very ofthen the focus got lost when switching between the VM and the host operating system no matter what hypervisor I used. Sorry to have no answer to your questions but maybe you do have ideas how I could solve the problems I have, especialy the problem with the remapping of the screen reader key. If I have a solution for this I would again setup a Linux VM on my Mac and see how things are working and maybe we can find solutions to your problems then.Also I'd be very happy to write a guide for such a setup, because I know some other people that have those problems with their Mac and virtulization too. Ciao, Schoepp _______________________________________________ This message was sent via the BRLTTY mailing list. To post a message, send an e-mail to: [email protected] For general information, go to: http://brltty.app/mailman/listinfo/brltty
