How to get the mouse right

[Rijkvegard]

Hi! My name is Rijk, i am a Dutch student, currently studying Informatics.
For my study, we have to learn basic shell scripting in linux. I decided to install Linux Mint v.14 (just because it looks so pretty).
Installation was flawless, except for 1 thing:
My mouse and keyboard don't function in Linux Mint. Does anybody know how i get it right?

I am using a laptop, and tried to use a external USB mouse... It just doesn't seem to work.

I am sorry if this is a really noob question, i just can't figure it out...

Regards,
Rijk

[mpack]

1. Make sure you don't have a USB filter defined which might be grabbing ownership of keyboard or mouse from the host. The host must own keyboard and mouse, not the guest.
2. Install the guest additions. This will give you a better mouse experience (integrated mouse cursor).

I assume this VM was installed by you from scratch in VirtualBox. If this VM was, for example, borrowed from another student who installed using VMWare, then keyboard and mouse issues might be expected for other reasons (i.e. VMware equivalent of GAs are not compatible with VirtualBox).