OS X 10.5 / Ubuntu 8.10 -> Unable to mount external USB ext3

[Skeeve]

I just installed Virtual Box and Ubuntu in order to be able to read an USB Drive, formatted as ext3. But all the tipps found (ejecting, rebootng the guest etc.) didn't help. I just got the drive shown once but trying to mount it got me an "NS_ERROR_FAILURE 80004005".

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Skeeve]

Okay. No reply from anyone.

But I think I found the solution.
1) While the drive is not connected, create an empty USB Filter
2) Start the guest
3) Connect the drive
At least this did it for me.

[take]

raw disk file create
add Virtualbox manager

1. check disk partition
VBoxManage internalcommands listpartitions -rawdisk /dev/disk1

2. raw disk file
sudo VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ~/Library/VirtualBox/HardDisks/usb-hdd.vmdk \
-rawdisk /dev/disk1 -partitions 1

3. change owner
chmod username /Library/VirtualBox/HardDisks/*.vmdk

4. VirtualBox -> File Menu ->Virtual media manager

[HWgeek]

I also have had problems mounting external drives. In my case ext2 drives off of a sata to usb adapter (one of those $15 units that does, 2.5/3.5 IDE and SATA) handy on reading whats on a drive quickly, but wouldn't work right with VB and multiple drives. Here is what I found that seems to work for me.

Setup -- Mac OS X 10.4.11 with Virtual Box 2.1.4 with Ubuntu 8.0.4 clean install.
Start up Virtual Box, so you get the Sun xVM Virtualbox with your various guest VM's on the left, and settings on the right.
Plug in your adapter with drive attached, select ignore when OS X doesn't understand the drive format
Select USB (double click)
Enable USB controller if not already enabled
Ports window with USB selected should open up. Add USB device (usb plug with + sign)
Select the device (in my case JMICRON USB to ATA/ATAPI Bridge)
Make sure the box is checked next to the entry
Double click the new entry that was made (JMICRON in this example)
REMOVE the serial number , which is off the drive, and will cause VB NOT to load other drives!!!
Click OK, Click OK
Unplug the drive from the USB port
Start your guest OS (Ubuntu in this case)
Once it is booted up, plug the drive in. VB will grab the drive before OS X does, and hand it over to your Guest OS.

This will result in the drive adapter being checked in the USB status icon list on the bottom right. DO NOT uncheck, as that will hand the drive back to OS X. Which reserves the drive (mounted or not) exclusively for its own use. You will have to unplug the drive from USB and plug it back in, if you want to hand it back to VB. You can mount/umount the drive in linux as much as you want to.

My testing - 8 different drives. Had problems until I figured out the whole s/n thing and the exclusive reserve.
No claims it will improve specific issues, just what I found via trial and error, and didn't find clearly documented in other postings.

Hope this helps someone.

keywords: USB, ext2, ext3, external drive, mount