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USB Support in VB OSE

Posted: 9. Sep 2009, 22:52
by toleolu
I am getting ready to install Virtual Box on Ubuntu. Package Manager gives me version 2.1.4_OSE. I will need USB support on my Guest OS (XP) and I was reading that USB support is only available on PUEL, not OSE. Plus I see the current version of VB is 3.1.4 so Synaptic is way behind.

I've installed it on a test machine at work and sure enough, no USB support. I've seen the posts about adding my user to the group vboxusers, did that, still no USB device listed under the "Details" tab on VB, and no USB device detected by XP.

Can I get USB support with what I have, or do I need to install something else??

Thanks

Re: USB Support in VB OSE

Posted: 9. Sep 2009, 23:05
by Sasquatch
Your first piece of information is still correct, no USB in the OSE version. Grab the version from the website. That is the only one with USB support, as well as other features like VRDP and RAW Disk Access.

Re: USB Support in VB OSE

Posted: 9. Sep 2009, 23:14
by Uzume
If you want you can try and lift the USB code from QEMU and massage it into VB OSE. Until then either live without USB in VB OSE or with USB in VB PUEL.

Re: USB Support in VB OSE

Posted: 10. Sep 2009, 00:07
by toleolu
Well I installed it, it even picked up the virtual drive from the old install don't know if that's good or bad.

I had USB devices listed on the details page of VB and when I started XP it detected the USB drive and tried to install it, but it never would finish, just sat there with the Hardware is being installed dialog.

I quit that, played around with the USB Filter settings, now Windows does not see the USB thumb drive at all.

Did I screw something up??

Re: USB Support in VB OSE

Posted: 10. Sep 2009, 00:16
by dmcgraw
You are telling us that you are running the OSE Version of VB.

The OSE Version DOES NOT support USB.

Re: USB Support in VB OSE

Posted: 10. Sep 2009, 00:45
by Uzume
toleolu wrote:Well I installed it...
I am assuming you mean you installed VirtualBox PUEL.
toleolu wrote:I had USB devices listed on the details page of VB and when I started XP it detected the USB drive and tried to install it, but it never would finish, just sat there with the Hardware is being installed dialog.

I quit that, played around with the USB Filter settings, now Windows does not see the USB thumb drive at all.
The USB filter settings allow you to specify which host USB devices are visible within the guest VMM so you must specify the thumb drive you want to be seen in the guest in the filter settings. Plug the thumb drive in. Go to filter settings and make sure it is specified. Boot the XP VM. You should see USB device in the Device Manager (connected to the USB controller in the "Devices by connection" view).
(
In case you did mess something up you might try reinstalling Windows in the guess VM (under VB PUEL so it will have the USB controller from the beginning).

Re: USB Support in VB OSE

Posted: 10. Sep 2009, 00:46
by Perryg
I think that what toleolu was saying is that he did in fact change to the PUEL version. If so then it is more than like a problem with configuration.
See this Installing and using USB with Linux Host. Taken from the VBox FAQ.

Re: USB Support in VB OSE

Posted: 10. Sep 2009, 01:07
by toleolu
Yes, sorry for being so vague. I uninstalled the old VB with Synaptic and then installed PUEL from the website.

If I set up the filter, it sees it, says it's active, but now, for some reason, xp doesn't see it at all now.

Device Manager doesn't show any USB devices, it shows the host controllers but nothing attached. Device Manager did show a bang on something about Base Unit or Base System not being installed. This is an old P4 motherboard I'm playing around with. It supports USB 2.0 so it should work.

The first time I started XP after installing PUEL, the "Found Hardware Wizard" came up, and the new device icon popped up on the taskbar by the clock, said it detected it than said it was installing it, then it just hung there. I closed out the box but didn't get that warning message about the device didn't install properly or there was a problem installing the device. Anyway, it doesn't see it all now.

If anyone has any ideas about what else I might check, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks

Re: USB Support in VB OSE

Posted: 10. Sep 2009, 02:16
by Perryg
Try to unplug it while in the guest and plug it back in to get focus. See if that works.
Also did you go to the link I sent you to set it up properly?

Re: USB Support in VB OSE

Posted: 10. Sep 2009, 02:31
by Uzume
It is possible one of the USB drivers was not installed and you somehow told it to not bother you with that again. To try and get it to load the drivers again open up device manager and right click on some device (it does not matter which) and select the option to rescan devices. That should force it to ignore the ignore flags it saved before and try to install new drivers for any devices that do not have drivers.

Re: USB Support in VB OSE

Posted: 10. Sep 2009, 02:45
by toleolu
After the usb drive failed to be detected on XP, I restarted, plugged and unplugged things a couple of times, XP just doesn't see it anymore.

I went to the link about the USB config and I will try them tomorrow when I get back to work. The thing is though, why did it find it the first time, I think something happened on the XP side, that's why the initial install of the usb thumb drive never completed. I was also wondering if having it boot off the virtual drive that was created by the older version of VB might be causing the problem. Maybe I should wipe Windows out and start from scratch. I thought uninstalling the old version using Synaptic would have removed everything but obviously it didn't remove the virtual drive.

Just guessing.

Re: USB Support in VB OSE

Posted: 10. Sep 2009, 23:20
by toleolu
Started with a clean install, 3.0 is on Synaptic now so when I tried to run the deb install from the website, it told me that version was available through the package manager and that I should use that. Was the new version showing up in Synaptic now because I added the software source>> (Off the track noob question)

Removed the old version first, using Synaptic, and then went in and deleted the /.virtualbox directory, this was where the old XP install was.

The install went without a hitch, installed a clean version of XP, and it still does not detect the thumb drive. I've rescanned the devices in Device Manager and nothing ever shows on the the USB Controller(s).

Interesting thing is that while the VB Console detects the Thumb Drive in the USB Filters, the usb icon on the bottom right of the VB Window that shows the hard drive, the cdrom, etc. etc. says No USB Device Detected. I made sure I was in the vboxusers group and I edited the fstab file per the config from the previous replies.

Strange.

Re: USB Support in VB OSE

Posted: 10. Sep 2009, 23:35
by Perryg
Using the one from package manager is not going to work. It is the OSE version. You must have the PUEL version to get USB support.
Go here Get VBox PUEL and get the one for your OS.
You will need to uninstall the OSE version before you install the PUEL version.

Re: USB Support in VB OSE

Posted: 10. Sep 2009, 23:52
by toleolu
Gotta love them cold starts!!!

I finally decided, "What the hell" and did a shutdown with the usb thumb drive installed. Started the computer back up and viola usb thumb drive detected by VB and XP. I noticed I had to restart Linux when I installed VB to get the System Tools to load up on the Applications Menu.

Anyway good now. Just wish I knew what it was, was the cold boot, or was it the tweaks to etc/fstab, joining the vboxusers group, or maybe a little of all of that.

Thanks for the help, we're good to go here.

Re: USB Support in VB OSE

Posted: 11. Sep 2009, 11:11
by Sasquatch
Biggest issue was probably the group membership. If you added yourself to the vboxusers group and started VB without logging out and back in, the permissions aren't set yet.