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Hello VirtualBox people!

I am a linux n00b using Linux Mint 7 (Ubuntu-based) and I have downloaded and installed virtualbox-3.0_3.0.4-50677_Ubuntu_intrepid_i386.deb

I installed Win XP Pro SP3 on it and it works but does not mount USB hard drives. I have searched the forum here and tried few things like:
- Add user to vboxusers group (sudo usermod -G vboxusers -a 'user')
- followed the instructions for intrepid at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VirtualBox/USB
- I have USB controller (including USB 2.0 EHCI controller) enabled in settings
- I have added "USB storage (9740)" and the actual USB hard drive itself in settings [(un)check marked]
- I have added empty filters in the USB in settings [(un)check marked]

Still, the USB boxes are grayed out when I start the VM and XP loads. The USB hard drive is recognized and works in the host OS. When running "VBoxManage list usbhost", I get current state: unavailable.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

WinXP now recognizes USB hard drives, I just had to restart the host OS (Linux Mint) for the changes (see post above) to take effects.

Now, why does it take so long for XP to boot up if USB hard drives are turned on? It lags on the welcome screen for several minutes before it loads into Windows.

Also, does anyone know what graphics drivers are need because I tried the ATI Omega set for my Radeon 3200HD but the drivers did not take. Moving windows across the screen is a little slow/choppy. Any recommendations?

Thanks again.

Windows is more than likely trying to read the USB drive at boot and if it is large then it will take a while to load. You can leave it unplugged until the VM is booted and then plug it in that should speed it up.

Now to the video. You can not install video drivers in the guest. VirtualBox must use its own drivers.
If you supply us with the settings of the guest (all of them) we may be able to see what the problem is. Also we need to know how much memory you have in the host.

All questions about USB and video are covered in the VirtualBox FAQ.

@Perryg and @Sasquatch thank you both for the replies.

Perryg wrote:Windows is more than likely trying to read the USB drive at boot and if it is large then it will take a while to load. You can leave it unplugged until the VM is booted and then plug it in that should speed it up.

Thanks, that seems to help speed it up a little bit.

Perryg wrote:Now to the video. You can not install video drivers in the guest. VirtualBox must use its own drivers.
If you supply us with the settings of the guest (all of them) we may be able to see what the problem is. Also we need to know how much memory you have in the host.

How do I supply you with the all the settings of the guest (via some command in terminal?)?
The basic settings:
- 1 processes (2x processors seems to crash XP)
- currently: 1024MB RAM (tried up to 2048MB did not help much)
- 128MB graphic memory
- 10GB dynamic HDD (about half full)
- OS: Win XP SP3

Host machine:
- AMD Athlon64 5200+ (2.66GHz)
- 4GB DDR2 800MHz RAM
- ATI Radeon 3200HD (512MB shared)
- 500GB SATA 7200RPM
- OS: Linux Mint 7

What setting would you recommend that I change to tweak the performance? Also, why is the processor speed display in XP system properties variable (changes from boot to boot)? It does not really affect the performance (as I do not do CPU intensive activities inside guest OS XP) but just curious.

Sasquatch wrote:All questions about USB and video are covered in the VirtualBox FAQ.

Thanks. I will take a look.

Try 512 Meg of RAM and 16 or 32 Meg Vram.