mouse freezes when USB devices are enabled in Vista guest

[yodawise]

I have VBox 3.0.8 running on a Ubuntu 9.04 desktop host.

Guest additions are installed for a Vista guest and mouse pointer integration is enabled. If I enable USB devices in the Vista guest and start the Vista VM, my cordless Logitech mouse freezes. I have to use the key strokes to navigate to the shut down the VM to get control back for the mouse. If I disable the USB devices for the Vista VM, it starts fine and I have full control of the mouse.

I am trying to learn virtualization concepts to be able to set up various virtual test beds. Any help will be appreciated to resolve this issue. Thanks in advance.

[Sasquatch]

If the VM has an empty (or specific) USB filter, it might grab the mouse. Check that and remove the filter if there is one.

[Juan Largo]

The same thing happened to me as soon as I started a WinXP guest in VirtualBox 3.0.8. The mouse pointer stayed locked after shutting down VirtualBox. What is an "empty" USB filter? I have two active filters: One is a Logitech USB Receiver [5700], and the other is a Generic USB2.0CRW [1122]. Both of these worked with VirtualBox 3.0.6. Which filter should be removed? Don't I need the Logitech one in order to use the mouse?

[martinatycova]

If the scroll button on your mouse does not work in the guest, try adding the following lines to the mouse section in your xorg.conf file:

Option "Buttons" "5"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Hope it works.

[Sasquatch]

If the scroll button on your mouse does not work in the guest, try adding the following lines to the mouse section in your xorg.conf file:

Option "Buttons" "5"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Hope it works.

That is not the problem here. Don't post inaccurate information. The problem here is that the entire mouse doesn't work, moving it won't move the cursor.

The same thing happened to me as soon as I started a WinXP guest in VirtualBox 3.0.8. The mouse pointer stayed locked after shutting down VirtualBox. What is an "empty" USB filter? I have two active filters: One is a Logitech USB Receiver [5700], and the other is a Generic USB2.0CRW [1122]. Both of these worked with VirtualBox 3.0.6. Which filter should be removed? Don't I need the Logitech one in order to use the mouse?

Well, it is a cordless mouse, right? Then why would you pass the receiver to the VM? It will only cause problems for the Host, because that will loose control of the mouse, hence your problems.

An empty filter is a specific USB filter for any device. All the fields are empty to specify one device. Instead, it will grab all newly attached devices to the VM, and already connected, unused devices (in my case, that was my webcam that got grabbed, because my Host didn't have a driver for it or loaded anything for it, might be different for Windows Hosts).

[yodawise]

Thanks Sasquatch and others! Sorry it took me a couple a days to come back and report this issue as resolved.

My problem is resolved by not enabling the Logitech USB Receiver in the VBox Machine Settings.