USB Wifi stops working (#15927)

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Mac OS X hosts.
Briantb
Posts: 15
Joined: 28. Aug 2016, 03:49

USB Wifi stops working (#15927)

Post by Briantb »


[ModEdit; related ticket: #15927: USB Wifi Dongle drops connection after short period]
Preamble: Host machine is a MacBook Pro, running VirtualBox 5.1.4 ( w/ extensions + guest additions installed)

I am attempting to use a Think Penguin branded TPE-N150USB Wireless N USB Dongle. In both Ubuntu (16.04) and Tails (2.5) Guest VM's, both machines are able to recognize and use the Wifi Adapter out of the box, that seems to work great.

However, about 10 seconds into actually using the wifi, the wireless connection is dropped, I get a "You are now Offline" message. Any subsequent attempts to reconnect to my wifi either fail, or the network goes "Out Of Range", even if I right next to my router. The only way to get 10 more fleeting seconds of web surfing is to restart the VM.

If I boot natively into Ubuntu from a USB stick, using the same computer, I can stay connected to the wifi NO problem, so I'm inclined to believe its Virtual Box Related rather than a defected dongle. Any suggestions?
socratis
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Re: USB Wifi stops working

Post by socratis »

Try the following: VM settings, Ports, USB, enable the USB3 (xHCI) controller. See if it changes the situation.
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Briantb
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Joined: 28. Aug 2016, 03:49

Re: USB Wifi stops working

Post by Briantb »

socratis wrote:Try the following: VM settings, Ports, USB, enable the USB3 (xHCI) controller. See if it changes the situation.
I've tried with USB3 enabled, no difference.
Briantb
Posts: 15
Joined: 28. Aug 2016, 03:49

Re: USB Wifi stops working

Post by Briantb »

Is there anything I can do to escalate this issue? If nothing else, I'd like confirmation that there is or isn't an issue using USB wifi devices with virtualbox.
Briantb
Posts: 15
Joined: 28. Aug 2016, 03:49

Re: USB Wifi stops working

Post by Briantb »

Anyone have any suggestions, even wild ass suggestions? Is there any sort of more official support system than the community forums?

Plllleeeease help me!
erdeslawe
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Re: USB Wifi stops working

Post by erdeslawe »

Quote "Is there any sort of more official support system than the community forums?"

Yes, if you have a support contract with Oracle.
ChipMcK
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Re: USB Wifi stops working

Post by ChipMcK »

Briantb wrote:I am attempting to use a Think Penguin branded TPE-N150USB Wireless N USB Dongle. In both Ubuntu (16.04) and Tails (2.5) Guest VM's, both machines are able to recognize and use the Wifi Adapter out of the box, that seems to work great.
That reads that you have connected the USB device to two VMs concurrently.
Briantb
Posts: 15
Joined: 28. Aug 2016, 03:49

Re: USB Wifi stops working

Post by Briantb »

ChipMcK wrote: That reads that you have connected the USB device to two VMs concurrently.
No, not simultaneously. It behaves the same, whether I use Tails or Ubuntu guest vm's. Pretty sure you couldn't actually attach it simultaneously to both, VB throws an error if you try.
Briantb
Posts: 15
Joined: 28. Aug 2016, 03:49

Re: USB Wifi stops working

Post by Briantb »

erdeslawe wrote: Yes, if you have a support contract with Oracle.
Drat... I was worried about that. Not for this product, and definitely not for stuff unrelated to work.
mpack
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Re: USB Wifi stops working

Post by mpack »

I'm not sure an Oracle support contract would help here. There could be many reasons why a wireless connection is dropped which has nothing to do with VirtualBox: you could have a marginal signal, the device driver might be badly written and very sensitive to OS load. Without specific knowledge of the device, who's to know?

You could also have configured the VM badly, e.g. overcommitting RAM or CPU, causing system wide performance problems. Without a log, who's to know?
Briantb
Posts: 15
Joined: 28. Aug 2016, 03:49

Re: USB Wifi stops working

Post by Briantb »

mpack wrote:I'm not sure an Oracle support contract would help here. There could be many reasons why a wireless connection is dropped which has nothing to do with VirtualBox: you could have a marginal signal, the device driver might be badly written and very sensitive to OS load. Without specific knowledge of the device, who's to know?

You could also have configured the VM badly, e.g. overcommitting RAM or CPU, causing system wide performance problems. Without a log, who's to know?
I'm not inclined to blame the drivers, since the wifi works flawlessly when booted natively into Linux. And its definitely not signal, the problem persists when I'm sitting directly next to my router. I am admittedly new to VirtualBox, so a bad configuration, though unlikely with my very vanilla setups, is certainly a possibility. If you can point me in the direction of any helpful diagnostic logs or configuration summaries, I'm certainly willing to provide them to assist anyone willing to help troubleshoot.
mpack
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Re: USB Wifi stops working

Post by mpack »

Providing a VM log file: with the VM fully shut down, right click and "Show Log" in the GUI, save "VBox.log" (ONLY) to a zip, and attach the zip here.

The suggestion was that your drivers may react badly under load. Not react badly when used normally. USB in a VM is inherently higher latency then USB used natively.
Briantb
Posts: 15
Joined: 28. Aug 2016, 03:49

Re: USB Wifi stops working

Post by Briantb »

mpack wrote:Providing a VM log file: with the VM fully shut down, right click and "Show Log" in the GUI, save "VBox.log" (ONLY) to a zip, and attach the zip here.

The suggestion was that your drivers may react badly under load. Not react badly when used normally. USB in a VM is inherently higher latency then USB used natively.
Thank you for your help, I have attached the requested VBox.log
Attachments
ubutest-2016-09-02-10-35-17.log.zip
Requested Log
(23.53 KiB) Downloaded 12 times
Perryg
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Re: USB Wifi stops working

Post by Perryg »

I would like to see the actual configuration of this guest.
From the hosts terminal type VBoxManage showvminfo <VM Name> --details and post here. Replace <VM Name> with the actual name of the VM. Use " " if the name has a space in it.
Briantb
Posts: 15
Joined: 28. Aug 2016, 03:49

Re: USB Wifi stops working

Post by Briantb »

Perryg wrote:I would like to see the actual configuration of this guest.
From the hosts terminal type VBoxManage showvminfo <VM Name> --details and post here. Replace <VM Name> with the actual name of the VM. Use " " if the name has a space in it.
Sure, thanks. Attached below.
Attachments
showvminfo-details.txt
As requested.
(3.33 KiB) Downloaded 17 times
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