USB Devices unavailable/grayed-out due to permission problem

[g29115]

Host: Ubuntu 9.10, VB: 3.0.10

All my usb devices are greyed out. USB label printer, CF card reader, 4gb mem stick, usb ext hd....

I know for me, before the upgrade to 9.10 this weekend everything worked fine. The flip side for me was that Ubuntu wouldn't automount and display the devices as icons on my desktop or anywhere else. After the upgrade that works great, but now my XP guest can't use any USB device. One step forward, one step back. Sorry this is light on specifics, but that is what I have now. Figured I'd add to the chain so Sun and Ubuntu can start helping to figure this out.

[Gnumpf]

Host: Ubuntu 9.10, VB: 3.0.10
... After the upgrade that [Gnumpf: automount] works great, but now my XP guest can't use any USB device

Works as designed, I would say. If Ubuntu mounts the device, the virtual host cannot access it. "umount" the devices in Ubuntu, then try again. HTH.

[szhvoj]

Host: Ubuntu 9.10, VB: 3.0.10
... After the upgrade that [Gnumpf: automount] works great, but now my XP guest can't use any USB device

Works as designed, I would say. If Ubuntu mounts the device, the virtual host cannot access it. "umount" the devices in Ubuntu, then try again. HTH.

I do have the same problem:

Code: Select all

$ VBoxManage list -l usbhost
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.0.10
(C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

Host USB Devices:

UUID:               fbad661e-470c-493e-a887-f9e64406a1ee
VendorId:           0x046d (046D)
ProductId:          0xc00e (C00E)
Revision:           17.16 (1716)
Manufacturer:       Logitech
Product:            USB-PS/2 Optical Mouse
Address:            sysfs:/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb8/8-1//device:/dev/bus/usb/008/002
Current State:      Unavailable

UUID:               2cc27bec-aa4e-47c5-8b4c-81ad4ae8e30b
VendorId:           0x04a9 (04A9)
ProductId:          0x1900 (1900)
Revision:           3.7 (0307)
Manufacturer:       Canon
Product:            CanoScan
Address:            sysfs:/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.7/usb1/1-6//device:/dev/bus/usb/001/003
Current State:      Available

UUID:               54779dc4-a42d-4e00-b987-e6073722368d
VendorId:           0x04b3 (04B3)
ProductId:          0x3025 (3025)
Revision:           1.9 (0109)
Manufacturer:       LITE-ON Technology
Product:            USB NetVista Full Width Keyboard.
Address:            sysfs:/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb8/8-2//device:/dev/bus/usb/008/003
Current State:      Unavailable

UUID:               bc44da00-90c9-4b3f-a65a-25d9f9fdfb11
VendorId:           0x0df7 (0DF7)
ProductId:          0x0900 (0900)
Revision:           0.0 (0000)
Manufacturer:       Mobile Action
Product:            i-gotU
Address:            sysfs:/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.7/usb1/1-5/1-5.3//device:/dev/bus/usb/001/006
Current State:      Unavailable

UUID:               1cc7ca86-0fdf-4ecd-af57-fe1e6c5eeb92
VendorId:           0x1130 (1130)
ProductId:          0x6801 (6801)
Revision:           3.2 (0302)
Product:             
Address:            sysfs:/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.7/usb1/1-5/1-5.1//device:/dev/bus/usb/001/004
Current State:      Unavailable

$ umount /dev/bus/usb/001/004
umount: /dev/bus/usb/001/004 is not mounted (according to mtab)

The only one which works fine is the canon scanner. But no one is mountable flash memory.
Why is the unknown device "unavailable"? Btw: it's a weather station...
The same for the I gotU device, a gps logger which hasn't used in linux host.

Linux host, windows XP guest, Vbox 3.0.10, uname -a:
Linux kubuntu 2.6.28-16-generic #55-Ubuntu SMP Tue Oct 20 19:48:24 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

Thanks for any help!

[Gnumpf]

I do have the same problem:

Code: Select all

$ VBoxManage list -l usbhost
...
VendorId:           0x1130 (1130)
...
Address:            sysfs:/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.7/usb1/1-5/1-5.1//device:/dev/bus/usb/001/004
Current State:      Unavailable

$ umount /dev/bus/usb/001/004
umount: /dev/bus/usb/001/004 is not mounted (according to mtab)

The only one which works fine is the canon scanner. But no one is mountable flash memory.
Why is the unknown device "unavailable"?

Maybe the "well known problem" with bad permissions.
Search for "permission chmod unavailable solved" in the linux section of the forum.
... and dont ask linux-questions in the windows section. tnx.

[Girts]

I have a variation on that problem...

HISTORY
I was running Vbox on Ubuntu host, XP guest very happily using two Canon printers. Then upgraded to Ubuntu 9.10, re-installed Guest Additions, enabled both printers and two other USB devices

PROBLEM
Both printers are shown greyed out and unavailable on XP, but are enabled in Vbox. The other 2 devices are fine.
I remember having this sort of trouble at first when I started on XP within Vbox, but can't remember what sort of incantation/dance/spell was necessary to get the thing working! I seem to remember something about needing to remove the USB while XP is on and replace it in a different socket while dancing naked under a full moon, or somesuch Windows tosh.
All the permissions etc are there (the other devices work fine) it's just getting Windows to realise there are two Canon printers needing to speak to me!

SUGGESTIONS?