virtualbox.org

hi
I am a newbie to virtualbox. I have managed to install virtualbox onto my little netbook running Ubuntu 8.04. However, my Netbook dosen't have an internal CDROM so i have hooked up and external USB CDROM. I now want to use it via Virtualbox to install XP. In Virtualbox settings i have set up the USB filters and Virtualbox apperas to recognise my USB CDROM as a device under CDROM.However, I just cant boot from it!

Help would be appreciated.

I think, booting from USB has to be supported by the BIOS... which is in this case not your host's BIOS but the one VirtualBox has integrated for the guest.

You should try exporting the USB-CD as IDE device to the guest. Or you can create an .iso file from your installation-media and use that for your virtual IDE CD for the install.

To create the iso you use something like dd bs=64k if=/dev/sr0 of=/tmp/putyournamehere.iso

Ciao
Bernhard M.

If the host sees it as a CD, and it's also in /dev/ listed as CD drive, then you can access it in VB like a normal drive. Just attach it normally from the VM settings.