this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2026
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I have an 8bitdo controller, and the software for customizing macros and updating firmware only runs on windows, and I just use a virtual machine with USB passthrough set up and it works amazingly.
You just reminded me that I wanted to look up if that works, thanks!
I just use Virtual Machine Manager, the thing is that once you add the controller to the list of passthrough devices into the Windows VM, it'll change (spoof? create a virtual device?) into another device ID meaning you then have to add that device afterwards and then you'll be able to use the software to change stuff. Bit finicky, and it means it'll have to be done each time one wants to boot up said VM and change stuff. But it works.
How can you do this without bricking the controller? Have you ever tried updating its firmware this way? In my experience thats a big nono.
As long as you do pass through of the USB device (or USB host controller), it should be fine. The VM acesses it directlty without passing through a virtualized version of the device (like what normally happens with sound, network, graphics) and the VM can even DMA to it. Down side is that the hardware isn't visible to the host anymore, so if you pass through a GPU, it's used exclusively by the VM, not the host. If you connect a monitor to the GPU, you see the VM, not the host. So you can only do this with hardware that is intended specifically for use within the VM. Zune management sounds like an ideal use case. See IOMMU if you're interested in some if the tech side if it.