[Solved] Can't mount USB wireless adapter with guest OS

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Oriky
Posts: 2
Joined: 16. Nov 2017, 22:18

[Solved] Can't mount USB wireless adapter with guest OS

Post by Oriky »

I have a Panda Wireless N600 dual-band wireless-N USB adapter and I'm trying to get it be recognized by Virtualbox in order to use with my guest OS. My host machine is running Debain 9 and I'm running Virtualbox 5.2. I have installed the extension pack. Here is what I've done to try and get it to work:

1. Started Virtualbox
2. Plugged in my wireless adapter
3. Went to the USB settings for the Kali Linux machine
4. Attempted to connect my wireless adapter with Kali by adding a USB.
5. My wireless adapter wasn't detected on USB 2.0 or 3.0 ports (even though my host machine detects it and it's connected).
6. Unplug the wireless adapter and started Kali
7. Once Kali starts, plug it back in. Still not detected.
8. Restarted Kali, this time with the wireless adapter plugged in. Still, my USB wireless adapter isn't detected.

I run ip add in the terminal and get this output:

1: lo: mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 ::1/128 scope host
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp2s0f2: mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state DOWN group default qlen 1000
link/ether 38:d5:47:9f:ec:e4 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wlp3s0: mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether 94:e9:79:17:5d:5f brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 192.168.0.15/24 brd 192.168.0.255 scope global dynamic wlp3s0
valid_lft 84461sec preferred_lft 84461sec
inet6 fe80::257c:b507:4aeb:3077/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
6: wlx9cefd5fe1a14: mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether 9c:ef:d5:fe:1a:14 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 192.168.0.16/24 brd 192.168.0.255 scope global dynamic wlx9cefd5fe1a14
valid_lft 86388sec preferred_lft 86388sec
inet6 fe80::2b5f:55db:b194:2582/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

Not sure why the labels for ethernet, internal wifi card and my wireless adapter are so strange but #2 is my ethernet, #3 is my internal wireless card and #6 is my USB wireless card.

When I go into virtualbox, I open the settings for the guest OS and go to Network settings. Currently it's attached to a NAT network but when I switch it to bridged mode, I can see both my internal and USB wifi cards. Then I go to USB settings to attach my USB wireless adapter but when I click the add button, it shows no USBs available. I've tried this for USB 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. I've also switched USB ports on my computer and tried the process all over again.

I ran ifconfig and got the ethernet address and the loopback address only.

I reached out to Panda support to see if they had any ideas and they said that since the wireless adapter works on my host machine, that maybe my host machine was preventing it from showing up on virtualbox. I disabled the USB adapter by running:

ip link set [USB adapter name] down

This turned my adapter off but it still wasn't recognizeable on virtualbox.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Can't mount USB wireless adapter with guest OS

Post by mpack »

Oriky
Posts: 2
Joined: 16. Nov 2017, 22:18

Re: Can't mount USB wireless adapter with guest OS

Post by Oriky »

Thank you so much! I ran:

Id

This listed all the different groups on my computer. Then I ran:

groups [my username here]

I wasn't a part of the vboxusers group

I added myself by running:

sudo usermod -a -G vboxusers [my username here]

Then I restarted my computer and my USB wireless adapter shows up and I successfully mounted it with my guest OS!
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Can't mount USB wireless adapter with guest OS

Post by mpack »

Thanks for reporting back, marking as solved.
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