Okay, not quite: I was using vmware, but it was difficult so here is how:
I'm using vmware 1.0.2 on ubuntu feisty with a Windows XP SP2 guest.
The problem is that the phone USB connection keeps dropping off, or not appearing without a restart of the server (not just the Windows guest OS).
Solution, in my case, was to randomly unplug and replug my bluetooth USB dongle. This seemed to generate USB events and/or reallocate USB devices to different ports. Make sure you get the phone in a USB2 port, or you'll be waiting for ever for the firmware transfer. There was something suggestive of legacy-method handling of USB by vmware, but I can't be bothered to get to the derriere of it.
This was scary given the warnings about NOT unplugging the phone during flashing. I had to abort flashing about three times before I figured this out, and no harm seems to have been done.
Good luck!
PS It is intensely annoying to have to register yet another username password combo to post something. I nearly didn't bother.