virtualbox.org

How do I attach a USB floppy drive to the XP guest?

I have the following:
External USB Floppy Drive FD-05PUB
Host O/S: Mac Book Pro 10.5.x
VirtualBox: 3.2.8
Guest: XP SP3
Host A/V: Symantec Antivirus
*everytime I put floppy in the Mac the floppy is scanned

When I insert floppy the Host O/S mounts it in /Volumes/Unknown directory.

Virtualbox sees the device in usb ports.
TEAC FD-05PUB

The Floppy controller sees nothing:
Floppy Controller
Floppy Device: 0 Empty

How do I attach the USB floppy drive to the XP guest?

thank you
jockeyshortz

Sounds like the host may be taking control of the drive and not releasing it to the guest OS. Can you see the floppy drive on the host? If so, try ejecting it (toss it in the trash) but don't unplug it. Then see if the guest can capture it.

Unfortunately, Virtual box nor windows xp recognize the floppy drive.
Question: Where does VirtualBox look for the floppy drive?

When I put a floppy in the drive and do mount I get the following:
$ mount
/dev/disk0s2 on / (hfs, local, journaled)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local)
fdesc on /dev (fdesc, union)
map -hosts on /net (autofs, automounted)
map auto_home on /home (autofs, automounted)
/dev/disk1 on /Volumes/NO NAME (msdos, local, nodev, nosuid, noowners)
$

running VBoxManage showvminfo "XP windows" I get the following(with stuff deleted)

$ VBoxManage showvminfo "XP windows"

Oracle VM VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.2.8
(C) 2005-2010 Oracle Corporation
All rights reserved.

Name:
Guest OS: Windows XP
UUID:
Config file:
Hardware UUID:
Memory size: 581MB
Page Fusion: off
VRAM size: 20MB
HPET: off
Number of CPUs: 1
Synthetic Cpu: off
CPUID overrides: None
Boot menu mode: message and menu
Boot Device (1): Floppy
Boot Device (2): DVD
Boot Device (3): HardDisk
Boot Device (4): Not Assigned
ACPI: on
IOAPIC: on
PAE: off
Time offset: 0 ms
RTC: local time
Hardw. virt.ext: on
Hardw. virt.ext exclusive: off
Nested Paging: on
Large Pages: off
VT-x VPID: on
State: powered off (since 2010-09-01T16:32:47.915000000)
Monitor count: 1
3D Acceleration: off
2D Video Acceleration: off
Teleporter Enabled: off
Teleporter Port: 0
Teleporter Address:
Teleporter Password:
Storage Controller Name (0): IDE Controller
Storage Controller Type (0): PIIX4
Storage Controller Instance Number (0): 0
Storage Controller Max Port Count (0): 2
Storage Controller Port Count (0): 2
Storage Controller Name (1): Floppy Controller
Storage Controller Type (1): I82078
Storage Controller Instance Number (1): 0
Storage Controller Max Port Count (1): 1
Storage Controller Port Count (1): 1
IDE Controller (0, 0): /Users/xxxxxxx.vmdk (UUID: yyyyyy,,,,)
IDE Controller (1, 0): MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-875 (UUID: zzzzzzz)
Floppy Controller (0, 1): Empty
NIC 1: MAC: 22222222, Attachment: NAT, Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type: Am79C973, Reported speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0
NIC 1 Settings: MTU: 0, Socket( send: 64, receive: 64), TCP Window( send:64, receive: 64)
NIC 2: disabled
NIC 3: disabled
NIC 4: disabled
NIC 5: disabled
NIC 6: disabled
NIC 7: disabled
NIC 8: disabled
Pointing Device: PS/2 Mouse
Keyboard Device: PS/2 Keyboard
UART 1: I/O base: 0x03f8, IRQ: 4, attached to device '/dev/tty.PL2303-000011FD'
UART 2: disabled
Audio: enabled (Driver: CoreAudio, Controller: AC97)
Clipboard Mode: Bidirectional
VRDP: disabled
USB: enabled

USB Device Filters:

.....
Index: 1
Active: yes
Name: TEAC FD-05PUB
VendorId: 0644
ProductId: 0000
Revision: 0000
Manufacturer: TEAC
Product: TEAC FD-05PUB
Remote: no
Serial Number:


VirtualBox sees the usb floppy drive but does not do anything with it.

thank you
jockeyshortz

Mine is a Y-E DATA USB Floppy Drive and I am experiencing no problems when I attach it to a vm.
When I added the filter to the various vm's, I did uncheck the 'take-the-device' box, so I could control
when a vm will snag the device

Your filter reads like mine - except for product specific data.
The was done last year - perhaps, VBox needs to Quit/Start?