virtualbox.org

I installed VirtualBox on 21 pcs in a lab. We are testing Virtualization in our district and decided to use VB to see how it works. In this lab many users come in from the schools and use different usb brands. My concern is if the users are going to have problems using and viewing their usb contents on the guest os (XP). The host os is Vista. I want to make VB as user friendly as possible. Do I have to create a filter for the USB devices on for usage on the guest os? Do I leave usb filtering alone as is without ANY filters? I want for the VB guest os to detect and accept all kinds of usb jump drives. Also, if it does accept different brands of usb drives, do the users have initiate usage by going into the VB guest os and clicking Devices--->USB Devices---> and place a check next to their usb device. If so, is there a way where they do not need to do this and automatically detect and view usb contents on guest os?

In my experience USB support in VBox is unreliable. I think you would get better results if you ensure that all USB sticks have a standard folder on them, with network sharing enabled in the properties of that folder. It's very easy to get network shared folders running, and in my experience much more reliable. I know from my own testing that it's perfectly ok to put a network shared folder on a removable drive.

Incidentally, I do mean network shared folders, not VBox Guest Additions style shared folders. The latter seems to have problems in recent VBox versions (slow).

jluna wrote:Do I leave usb filtering alone as is without ANY filters? I want for the VB guest os to detect and accept all kinds of usb jump drives. Also, if it does accept different brands of usb drives, do the users have initiate usage by going into the VB guest os and clicking Devices--->USB Devices---> and place a check next to their usb device. If so, is there a way where they do not need to do this and automatically detect and view usb contents on guest os?

VB should support all mass storage devices. If you don't set a filter at all, then the users need to 'mount' their device through the Devices > USB menu. If you enter an empty filter, all newly attached devices will be grabbed to the VM. This can cause strange things, like sudden loss of mouse because it accidently got grabbed. It doesn't happen often though.

I read online the if I go and add a " (.) " and leave blank all fields on the usb device filter so that it would accept any brand of usb pen drives. Is that correct?

Yes, that would be an empty filter, grabbing all devices that will be connected after the VM starts and possibly devices that aren't loaded on the Host (my VM for example grabbed my webcam and/or MP3 player because my Host didn't have it loaded).