[solved] USB passthrough for USB HDD dock

ditzy · Post by **ditzy** » 29. Dec 2013, 03:33

Hi. I have been having some trouble with a USB HDD dock. I have a bunch of old-ish HDDs with ext4 partitions. I'm running Windows 7 as host and CrunchBang (Debian) as guest. I would like to give CrunchBang direct access to the USB dock, so that it can manipulate the ext4 partitions. One way or another, I just don't want Windows going near those partitions. I've tried to get USB passthrough to work with VBox. I've used the Devices > USB Devices menu to give the guest control, and that doesn't work. And I've also tried setting up a USB filter under the USB section of the Settings for the VM. That has also not worked for me. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I don't know what info you all might need, but I'll happily provide anything that's needed. Thanks!

Post by **socratis** » 29. Dec 2013, 10:04

ditzy wrote:I just don't want Windows going near those partitions.

I hear you, but I wouldn't be that afraid. If you are paranoid enough (like me), in the

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies

add the (DWORD) value

WriteProtect

and set it equal to 1. Your external USB devices should mount as read-only. Test is with a USB stick to make sure it works. More info.

ditzy wrote:I've tried to get USB passthrough to work with VBox. I've used the Devices > USB Devices menu to give the guest control, and that doesn't work. And I've also tried setting up a USB filter under the USB section of the Settings for the VM.

I'm not quite sure what exactly you mean by "passthrough" for USB. But, for the filters, start with only the ProductID and VendorID values filled in and the rest empty. See if that works...

ditzy · Post by **ditzy** » 1. Jan 2014, 06:35

socratis wrote: I hear you, but I wouldn't be that afraid. If you are paranoid enough (like me), in the

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies

add the (DWORD) value

WriteProtect

and set it equal to 1. Your external USB devices should mount as read-only. Test is with a USB stick to make sure it works. More info.

That is a really cool trick. I didn't know that was possible. I'm not too worried about the NTFS partitions, though. I'm more worried about my ext4 partitions. As far as I know, Windows can't mount them without some 3rd party tool. But either way, I'm weary of having Windows try interfacing with ext4 partitions, since that's by no means a strong point for Windows =P.

socratis wrote:I'm not quite sure what exactly you mean by "passthrough" for USB. But, for the filters, start with only the ProductID and VendorID values filled in and the rest empty. See if that works...

I've heard it referred to as "passthrough", but yeah, I meant the filters. I tried it with only the ProductID and VendorID, and it still didn't work =/. When I then went to Devices -> USB Devices and chose the dock, I get this:

Code: Select all

Failed to attach the USB device Sunplus Innovation Technology USB to Serial-ATA bridge [0132] to the virtual machine Crunchbang.

USB device 'Sunplus Innovation Technology  USB to Serial-ATA bridge' with UUID {7280a59e-60b7-4301-88ea-24213900ffdb} is busy with a previous request. Please try again later.

Result Code: E_INVALIDARG (0x80070057)
Component: HostUSBDevice
Interface: IHostUSBDevice {173b4b44-d268-4334-a00d-b6521c9a740a}
Callee: IConsole {db7ab4ca-2a3f-4183-9243-c1208da92392}

I suspect that that is because Windows has already mounted the NTFS partition on the drive, and presumably taken exclusive control of the USB, though. Not sure what else I can try =(.

Post by **socratis** » 1. Jan 2014, 18:11

ditzy wrote:USB device is busy with a previous request. Please try again later.

Create a USB filter in your guest settings while the device is plugged in the host. Delete all values except VendorID and ProductID.
Unplug the device.
Start your guest (the one that you applied the filter to). Let it start completely. Log in if you have to.
Plug your device. The filter should capture it and pass control to your guest.

Alternatively, if the device is already plugged in before you start your VM, try to eject it and see if the VM captures it.

ditzy · Post by **ditzy** » 8. Jan 2014, 18:56

After setting up the filter with only the vendor and product ids I rebooted the machine and started up the guest before plugging the dock back in. Windows still captured it and mounted the NTFS partitions. The thing about it being busy was just that I tried after that to grab the device through the Devices menu in VBox. I wasn't expecting it to work, but I didn't know how else to glean any info about it.

ditzy · Post by **ditzy** » 27. Mar 2014, 10:05

I finally solved the problem, sort of. I updated to the latest VirtualBox, which is 4.3.10, and now the USB filters work. I changed nothing in the filters, just upgraded and tried my USB HDD dock, and this time it worked flawlessly. I realized it might be a more serious issue when other USB devices that couldn't have this problem were having this problem too, haha. At that point I figured my install might be corrupted or some such and went for the reinstall. I'm not sure if it was the upgrade or just reinstalling that fixed it, but either way it works now, yay! ^_^

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