Guests don't see smartcard reader

[ain]

Hi

I'm using VB 4.3.10 with Debian 7.5 (wheezy, 64 bit) as host. When I plug an Omnikey 1021 smartcard reader into USB port the host sees it - when I run lsusb command in termnal it is listed as
Bus 003 Device 009: ID 076b:1021 OmniKey AG CardMan 1021
However guests don't see it. I want to use the SC reader in win7 (32 bit) guest but in the guest's "Devices -> USB devices" the SC reader isn't listed (it says "No USB devices connected"). I do have "Enable USB controller" checked in the guest's settings (as well as the "Enable USB 2.0 (EHCI) controller"). I also tryed adding an USB filter wiht empty fields (which as per tooltip should match all USB devices) but the guest still doesn't list the SC rreader in it's devices...
Any idea how to get it to work?

TIA
ain

[Perryg]

Have you installed the Extension Pack, and added your user name to the vboxusers group on the host?

[ain]

Have you installed the Extension Pack

Yes, under preferences the extension pack is listed with green tick, ie as active.

Have you added your user name to the vboxusers group on the host?

That I hadn't done! I did now and indeed the guest now sees the SC reader. However the software which needs to read the smartcard claims that there is no smartcard in the reader!
...
OK, did some further tests and it appears that the guest OS only sees the smartcard when it is inserted into the reader before I boot the guest! Ie on my first try I booted the guest with empty reader, checked that the guest sees the reader and then inserted the smartcard and launched the software which needs it. Result - the software don't see the SC. I noticed that when I inserted the card into the reader the led indicator light doesn't flicker as it usually does when the card is inserted... so it seems that the host doesn't detect and/or foward the "card inserted" event to the guest? Any idea how to fix that?


TIA
ain

[lagunite]

Has this issue been resolved yet? I have an Omnikey 6121 on a windows 7 pro host with a ubuntu 14 lts linux host and i can't get it to attach to the USB device.

I have added a filter in the VM config and installed the guest pack in the linux host. i start the VM and insert the omnikey when it is up. Windows drivers don't get instantiated, only the VirtualBox USB host driver, but the light on the device doesn't come on and the state of the device when I try to attach it to the guest is... 'captured'. The error i get when trying to attach it is... 'USB device ... is busy with a previous request. Please try again later.'.

It seems that the windows VBox virtual driver has captured the device but it isn't handing it off to the guest linux OS.

Any ideas?