[SOLVED] Enabling USB support in virtualbox

[doktor5000]

Hello,

So, this is something I tried several times and I just feel frustated. I need to get USB support on a guest machine and no matter what I try I always see the USB devices list empty.

Right now I'm on mageia 5 and have got installed vbox 5.1.2_OSE r108956 from the repositories. Also have got the extensions installed (see attached image).

Still I don't see any USB device from the menu devices->USB. It just says no USB devices attached. Tried with different guests (XP and windows 8) with the same result, both of them with guest additions installed. And usually with devices such as keyboard/mouse, tvtuner or USB memory. Not to talk about integrated devices from the laptop like the card reader or the webcam.

Has anyone been able to do it?

Any suggestion is welcome.

[benmc]

Hi asimov-solensan ,

have you added "vboxusers" to your "group"

Mcc => System => administration tools: manage users on system => highlight "user" and edit => choose "groups tab", => choose "vboxusers".

regards

[jkerr82508]

You may also need to enable the appropriate USB controller(s) in the VM's Settings. IIRC they are not always enabled by default.

Jim

[asimov-solensan]

Yes I had the USB controllers enabled in the VMS, the problem was what benmc said. I needed to add my user to the group.

Thanks a lot for the answer, this was really fast.

[benmc]

Hi asimov-solensan

please edit the title of your first post in this thread by prefixing with [solved]

thanks

Benmc

[jiml8]

Just as an FYI, I have done a lot with the USB stack in virtual machines. My experience has been that vmware has much better USB support than virtualbox. In all the time I have been using virtual machines, I have had vmware fail to work properly exactly once; with a particular series of USB modems when I tried to flash firmware. Every other thing I have done (which includes JTAG interfaces, many different types of USB modem, serial to USB adapters, among others) has worked flawlessly. I have even developed drivers for USB devices within VMs running in vmware.

This might not matter to you; VB USB support has improved considerably over the last couple of years. However, should you run into trouble, take a look at vmware player.

[benmc]

FYI # 2

USB pendrives and Virtual Box are not always a good mix.

Be absolutely sure that the Host O.S has finished reading from or writing to the USB device before attaching it to the Guest O.S. as the Guest O.S will "take ownership" as soon as it is attached.
The result is it may not cleanly un-mount from the host.

Corrupted data is one outcome, or a partition size of 0b, or a dead USB device.

[asimov-solensan]

Thanks for the advice. Usually I access USB sticks sharing the folder /var/run/ whatever is mounted that user.