Sierra Wireless USB modem kills VirtualBox

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scottderrick
Posts: 1
Joined: 16. Nov 2012, 19:16

Sierra Wireless USB modem kills VirtualBox

Post by scottderrick »

On Mint 11 and Mint 13 hosts, Windows 7 and Windows Vista guests.
VBox 4.1 and 4.2.4

I have a Sierra Wireless 250U 3g/4g usb modem I'm trying to test. There is no linux support, so I thought I'd test it on my Window guests. I installed the software which is from Sprint, which installs a manager and drivers, etc.. Installs find in a W7 and Vista guest. I plug in the USB modem and VB sees two modems, the 3G and the 4G. I'm not interested in testing the 3G just the 4G. here are the listing for the two modems in the SW 250U

T: Bus=02 Lev=03 Prnt=05 Port=00 Cnt=01 Dev#= 8 Spd=480 MxCh= 0
D: Ver= 2.00 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=ff Prot=ff MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=198f ProdID=0220 Rev=00.01
S: Manufacturer=Beceem Communications Inc.
S: Product=Mobile WiMax SS
S: SerialNumber=MSB220
C: #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=a0 MxPwr=500mA
I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 6 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=ff Prot=ff Driver=usbbcm

T: Bus=02 Lev=03 Prnt=05 Port=01 Cnt=02 Dev#= 7 Spd=12 MxCh= 0
D: Ver= 1.10 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=1199 ProdID=0301 Rev=00.03
S: Manufacturer=Sierra Wireless, Incorporated
S: Product=Sierra Wireless Device
S: SerialNumber=4Vx«Íïÿÿÿÿ
C: #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=a0 MxPwr=500mA
/usr/bin/usb-devices: line 79: printf: 09: invalid octal number
I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 0 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=ff Prot=ff Driver=sierra

The Sierra Wireless is the 3G modem the Beceem is the 4G. The Beceem uses the bcm_wimax driver in windows, teh 3G uses a Sierra driver.

If I capture the 3G driver in either windows guests, I can connect using the spring wireless manager to the 3G network, if I "attempt" to capture the 4G(Beceem) driver, both windows guests hang, the virtualbox manager hangs, sometimes I get a black GPF screen that blames the bcm_wimax driver as the culprit. The linux host becomes unstable and I can't shut down virtualbox, even with a force kill, and the only way to recover is a hard power cycle in the linux host.

I can understand virtual box not supporting some usb devices, its always been that way. But to crash the guest and drag the whole host system down seems like a bad bug?

Any solutions to this?

thanks,

Scott
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