Unable to add user to a "missing" vboxuser group

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mahnac72
Posts: 4
Joined: 13. May 2021, 11:04

Unable to add user to a "missing" vboxuser group

Post by mahnac72 »

Installed Virtualbox Version 6.1.22 r144080 on Ubuntu 20.04.2LTS.
Installed above deb package using the software install as normal.
Then declared a Windows 7 32 virtual machine; Installed OS with ISO file and restart machine after install. Start Virtualbox Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit without issue.
Also added the extension pack 6.1.22 r144080.

Wanted to add my user to vboxuser group so that the my user can use USB devices from VM VirtualBox guests.
Before adding the user, I checked user "id" and "groups" using Ubuntu terminal commands and found user groups command not listing vboxuser as a group.

When referring to Oracle R VM VirtualBox R User Manual on page 47 of 401
"2.4.2 The vboxuser Group"
"The installer creates the system user group vboxuser during installation for Oracle Solaris hosts
that support the USB features required by Oracle VM VirtualBox."

I have read that one can add a group manually and then presumably add a user but not sure this is the correct method.

The goal is to be able to use a programmer from Microchip, the PICkit4, in the Guest OS running on 32 bit so to be able to use the Assembler, which does not run on 64 bit systems.
fth0
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Posts: 5668
Joined: 14. Feb 2019, 03:06
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Linux, Windows 10, ...
Location: Germany

Re: Unable to add user to a "missing" vboxuser group

Post by fth0 »

FWIW, changing the group membership of a Linux user only takes effect after the next login of the user, and the groups command shows only the groups that the user is a member of.
mahnac72
Posts: 4
Joined: 13. May 2021, 11:04

Re: Unable to add user to a "missing" vboxuser group

Post by mahnac72 »

After watching this Youtube video "How to Use USB Devices in VirtualBox Ubuntu | Install VirtualBox Extension Packs in Linux" at 4:25 / 6:40 and following "the adding of user to vboxusers group" using the terminal command line "sudo usermod -aG vboxusers >username< (where >username< is replaced by required user)

Now when I used terminal to confirm if my user "colin" was added to the group "vboxusers" resulted in the group vboxusers being listed as a group user colin belonged to.
With this done, the next step is to select the virtual machine, settings, USB and use the +USB symbol to add a device.
In my case the Microchip Technology Incorporated MPLAB PICkit4 device had been detected.
Opening the MPLAB X IDE v5.05 and checking if the programmer is found, which it was successfully able to from within the virtual machine allowing selection of the tool for programming devices.
Case solved.
Attachments
Groups users.png
Groups users.png (14.12 KiB) Viewed 2719 times
sudo usermod -aG vboxusers user.png
sudo usermod -aG vboxusers user.png (14.17 KiB) Viewed 2719 times
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