USB support on OS X El Capitan

[amammothsparkler]

Here are the steps I followed:

1. With GuestOS (WinXP SP 3) powered off, connect target USB to available USB port on HostOS (Macbook Early2014 El Capitan).
2. HostOS mounts disk.
3. Open VBManager on HostOS.
4. Navigate to Ports>>USB and Add filter for USB stick that was connected to the HostOS.
5. On HostOS, eject USB stick.
6. Start GuestOS and wait for complete bootup (I used being able to open Device Manager as "complete bootup" on GuestOS.
7. Insert USB into available HostOS USB port.
8. GuestOS recognizes "new hardware" as balloon dialogue are visible on the GuestOS taskbar.
9. Ballon states:
"Found New Hardware
USB Mass Storage"

and then

"A problem occurred during the hardware installation your new hardware may not work properly."
10. In Device Manager on GuestOS there is an yellow exclamation point on the USB Mass Storage device.
11. Viewing "Properties" of the USB Mass Storeage device the "Device Status" says:
"This device cannot start. (Code 10)
Click Troubleshoot to start the troubleshooter for this device"
12. Clicking on Troubleshoot leads to "Uninstall and Reinstall" the device. I've followed this process, but end up with the same problem.

Question - are there different drivers (on the GuestOS) I should try installing for the USB device (the stick itself or the USB Controllers)?

[loukingjr]

I assumed the USB sticks were USB 2.0. XP has no native USB 3.0 support. I know you can get USB 3.0 controller drivers for Windows 7 but I don't know about XP.

[amammothsparkler]

Confirm - USB 2.0

[loukingjr]

Well I don't know what the issue is then. I downloaded the same XP .ova from dev.modern.ie as it seems you are using. I imported it, plugged in a 4GB Sandisk USB 2.0 flash drive which I had laying around that was actually formatted as Ext4 so it actually won't mount in the Finder but, started the XP guest, selected the USB stick from the Devices menu, XP recognized it, it showed up in Windows Explorer and when I double clicked it, XP asked if I wanted to format it since it can't work with the Ext4 file system.

Maybe someone else has an idea.

[amammothsparkler]

Bump to "someone else".

[loukingjr]

Bump to "someone else".

Bumping a post is pointless. Especially a day later.

[ArnoldLayne]

Hi there,

I still can't use any USB devices with any guest machine.
According to the changelog, this should have been fixed 5.0.6.
Upgrading to VirtualBox 5.0.10 did not help. I'm on OS X 10.11.2.

Is there anything I could try besides waiting for the next VirtualBox release?

Regards,
Thomas

[loukingjr]

Did you install the VB 5.0.10 extension pack?

[ArnoldLayne]

Did you install the VB 5.0.10 extension pack?

Yep. I also updated the Guest Additions.

I see all connected devices in the USB menu, but trying to connect one to the guest results in error messages like:

Code: Select all

Failed to attach the USB device FTDI USB Serial Converter [0600] to the virtual machine Windows 10.

USB device 'FTDI USB Serial Converter' with UUID {96638335-9723-4b06-8dbd-e395213d32c6} is busy with a previous request. Please try again later.

Result Code: NS_ERROR_INVALID_ARG (0x80070057)
Component: HostUSBDeviceWrap
Interface: IHostUSBDevice {c19073dd-cc7b-431b-98b2-951fda8eab89}
Callee: IConsole {872da645-4a9b-1727-bee2-5585105b9eed}

or

Code: Select all

Failed to attach the USB device Trekstor USB-Stick QU [1100] to the virtual machine Windows 10.

Failed to create a proxy device for the USB device. (Error: VERR_GENERAL_FAILURE).

Result Code: NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component: ConsoleWrap
Interface: IConsole {872da645-4a9b-1727-bee2-5585105b9eed}

There is nothing that I know of what might be using the devices. Creating USB filters does not help.

[ArnoldLayne]

Ok, any suggestions apart from rolling back to OS X 10.10?

[loukingjr]

FWIW, I tested USB flash drives on OSX 10.11.2 Beta 4 running on a MacBook and on OSX 10.11.1 on a new iMac 5K Retina. The only thing I did to get them to mount in guests was to unmount them from the host in the Finder and select them from the Devices>USB menu. No filters. I do have all guests set to the USB 3.0 controller, xHCI.

I have no USB to Serial Adapter to test so I don't know what might be going on.

[ArnoldLayne]

FWIW, I tested USB flash drives on OSX 10.11.2 Beta 4 running on a MacBook and on OSX 10.11.1 on a new iMac 5K Retina. The only thing I did to get them to mount in guests was to unmount them from the host in the Finder and select them from the Devices>USB menu. No filters. I do have all guests set to the USB 3.0 controller, xHCI.

I have no USB to Serial Adapter to test so I don't know what might be going on.

No USB device works for me, no matter if USB flash drive, Serial Adapter, you name it. I get the error I posted before.
So you say it ought to work with 10.11.x? No Idea what could be wrong on my end, then. I use a mid 2009 Macbook Pro, btw.

[loukingjr]

Attach the vbox.log for the guest to a message here…

I can tell you there are still some USB issues with OSX 10.11.2 Betas on metal.

[Need USB]

Update on the problem: Apple changed something in IOKit, making the existing USB device capturing code (that happily works on all existing OS X versions) fail for reasons that are not at all clear. We don't know what they changed and won't know until Apple releases the relevant source code, which typically happens when the final OS is released. Given that there is no customer demand for supporting unreleased software, we do not consider it prudent to spend more time on the problem until the information we need is available.

Short version: If you need it working now, go yell at Apple. Otherwise wait.

Hi! So full release has been out a few weeks now. Is there a fix coming?

[loukingjr]

Hi! So full release has been out a few weeks now. Is there a fix coming?

A fix for what? Most USB devices work fine in VB 5.0.10 running on OSX 10.11.1 hosts.