Strange USB Device Behaviour - Only 1 Device Available

[kasperbs]

Hi,
I have VBox installed on Linux MInt 64 bit RC running Windows XP 32 bit. I'm having troubles accessing my USB drives. I have the following settings in Virtual Box on that should match any device and the others selected for the specific devices.



If you can't see the screenshot, the direct link is here: http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/8411 ... hotbe3.png

Problem is that when I boot into my Guest OS no matter whether the USB's are mounted on host or not, only one is available and that is my Hewlett Packard Printer. It's also available even when I haven't enabled a filter for ANY device.

If you want to use BBCode tags like img, don't disable it when posting .

[kasperbs]

having searched the web for the past couple of days it has amazed me how many actually have this problem and has gotten no answers to their questions.

I have just figured out how to do this and it was so simple that my only conclusion is that the gurus trying to help must have missed it.

If you have this problem you have to make sure you have added yourself to the 'vboxusers' group in your OS.

You can check if you are a member by executing this command in the terminal:

Code: Select all

$ grep vbox /etc/group

If your username does not appear in the output, you are not a member and have to add your self. Do it and all your USB devices will be available to you.

[lapezza]

how?

i'm not able to add myself into the workgroup...

could u explain me how to do please?
i'm just a noob (beginner)

[metodk]

how?

Code: Select all

sudo /usr/sbin/adduser $( whoami ) vboxusers

[lapezza]

tnx,

i did it, but the answer from the terminal is: only one or two names are allowed

i don't understand, WTF does it mean?
sorry for my short knowledge, but i need to solve this problem.

[yk]

The reply below is NOT the answer:

I just found the solution and posted it here:
http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic. ... 8355#58355
Again sorry that no one has gotten back to you with this simple answer

-- As I stated in my query: I have read both How To: Install VirtualBox on Fedora 10 [Tutorial] and Mounting USB on VirtualBox (Linux host). Neither solves the problem.

The answer posted is: sudo /usr/sbin/adduser $( whoami ) vboxusers

Before my query, I already had checked that my account (the result of whoami) was in group vboxusers. On RHEL5 current this method DOES NOT WORK in so far as I can tell. However, whatever VMware Workstation does for this issue DOES WORK. The problem evidently is the following. When a new USB device physically is attached, modern Linux automatically checks what kind of device it is, and, for a file system device (e.g., a USB flash drive), automatically creates a mount point in /media/whatever, mounts it, and allows access for an ordinary end user on the Linux side. VMware Workstation intercepts this action, and allows the user instead to attach the device raw to the VMware virtual machine (the same concept as the VirtualBox virtual machine) in such a way that the guest OS (e.g., MS Win XP) "sees" the device as native hardware and does the appropriate action in the guest OS. In VirtualBox, the USB device must not be "greyed out" for one to manually attach the device to the virtual machine. As root in the host OS, there is no problem. As an ordinary user in the host OS, I cannot get the device to go non-grey under RHEL 5. If VirtualBox would do the same thing under the host OS that VMware does, the problem evidently would be solved -- USB devices are available "raw" to the guest OS under VMware on RHEL5.

[Sasquatch]

You can add you user to the VBoxUsers group from the GUI too. If you use Gnome, open System > Administration > Users and Groups. Hit Unlock, then click on Manage Groups. Now look for the VBoxUsers group and tick the checkbox next to your username.

[lapezza]

i tried...

it doesn't work...

heeeeeeeeeelp!!!!

[Sasquatch]

i tried...

it doesn't work...

heeeeeeeeeelp!!!!

Did you also log out and back in after the change?

[lapezza]

of course... but it's still not working!!!!

how can i do...???

[tinman10000000]

I had the following problem with USB inside a windows guest The USB device was added to the system in the virtualbox setup screen. When the virtual machine was started up, the usb icon at the bottom of the main screen did not show the usb enabled. Right clicking on this usb icon showed the usb devices currently plugged in, but these were grayed out ( disabled ) and could not be enabled. Try this -- find the device node inside the procfs mount - it will be something like /proc/bus/usb/005/003 ( on mine it is /proc/bus/usb/001/00x - the x changes as device is plugged/unplugged). This is the node specifically for the one usb device and was created when the usb device was plugged in - you have to find this file. Change the GROUP to the group you need to be in to use usb on your system --(usbdevices, usb, on mine it is plugdev - whatever) - and you need to be root to do this . Change the permissions to 0664 ( see chmod for this - you need the group to have read/write access). Do all of this before you start up virtualbox - then when virtualbox starts up, right click on the usb icon and select your usb device.

If you plug in the usb device after virtualbox starts up, do all of the previous, and then plug in a second usb device - I guess this causes the usb system or virtualbox to refresh itself.

[lapezza]

solved...

now is working, i wasn't in the group...
now i just have to understand how to share folders between Ubuntu and Windows (Guest)

thanks...

lapezza!

[Sasquatch]

I had the following problem with USB inside a windows guest The USB device was added to the system in the virtualbox setup screen. When the virtual machine was started up, the usb icon at the bottom of the main screen did not show the usb enabled. Right clicking on this usb icon showed the usb devices currently plugged in, but these were grayed out ( disabled ) and could not be enabled. Try this -- find the device node inside the procfs mount - it will be something like /proc/bus/usb/005/003 ( on mine it is /proc/bus/usb/001/00x - the x changes as device is plugged/unplugged). This is the node specifically for the one usb device and was created when the usb device was plugged in - you have to find this file. Change the GROUP to the group you need to be in to use usb on your system --(usbdevices, usb, on mine it is plugdev - whatever) - and you need to be root to do this . Change the permissions to 0664 ( see chmod for this - you need the group to have read/write access). Do all of this before you start up virtualbox - then when virtualbox starts up, right click on the usb icon and select your usb device.

If you plug in the usb device after virtualbox starts up, do all of the previous, and then plug in a second usb device - I guess this causes the usb system or virtualbox to refresh itself.

That's a rather long and unneeded path to get it working. The VirtualBox FAQ already lists how to get USB working properly.