virtualbox.org

I'm using VirtualBox 4.3.17 with the VirtualBox extensions on a Windows 7 x64 host. I have a VM that I want to disable USB in for security reasons. In the VM settings I unchecked 'Enable USB Controller' but when I did that an invalid settings icon appeared with this message:

USB controller emulation is not currently enabled on the USB page. This is needed to support an emulated USB input device. It will be done automatically if you confirm your changes.

Then VirtualBox enabled the USB option that I had just disabled. I don't want to emulate any USB devices in this particular VM, although I do need to emulate USB devices in other VMs. Why can't I shut off USB in an individual VM? Thanks

Minimum information needed for assistance.

Provide the "showvminfo" output.

And note that 4.3.17 is a test build. Limited support will be provided outside of its "home" discussion.

mpack wrote:Provide the "showvminfo" output.

And note that 4.3.17 is a test build. Limited support will be provided outside of its "home" discussion.

Ok. The info is attached. Has anyone reported this before?

Your pointing device is set to "USB Tablet", therefore USB emulation is required. Change the pointing device to "PS/2 Mouse" under System, Motherboard.

Your problem is that the Pointing Device (on the System page of Settings) is set to "USB Tablet". VirtualBox knows that USB has to be enabled for this to work, and so it will switch it on automatically. In order for USB to remain disabled, you will have to select "PS/2 Mouse" for Pointing Device.

socratis wrote:Your pointing device is set to "USB Tablet", therefore USB emulation is required.

dlharper wrote:Your problem is that the Pointing Device (on the System page of Settings) is set to "USB Tablet". VirtualBox knows that USB has to be enabled for this to work, and so it will switch it on automatically.

Thanks! I changed it to PS/2 mouse and I can disable USB. I'm not sure why it was on USB tablet. If USB can't be disabled the error message should explain why so the user can figure it out.

Well, if you look at the image you posted, the error message clearly states:

USB controller emulation is not currently enabled on the USB page. This is needed to support an emulated USB input device. It will be done automatically for you if you confirm your changes.

socratis wrote:Well, if you look at the image you posted, the error message clearly states:

USB controller emulation is not currently enabled on the USB page. This is needed to support an emulated USB input device. It will be done automatically for you if you confirm your changes.

You're right but that was unclear to me. I've filed an enhancement request to clarify the wording.

+1. Also to the bugtracker.

It's strange how differently people think. To me the error message already seems clear. It would immediately set me asking what input device it could be referring to, and thirty seconds later I'm sure I would have found the cause. After all, AFAIK there are no hidden devices in a VBox VM. All the devices are explicitly enabled in the recipe you create, and there can't be many that require USB.

One question I do have is, which VM template enables a USB tablet by default? I believe that recent VBox versions might have added that to the Win98 recipe (kind of making up for not having GAs), but I wasn't aware of others, and your VM us called "Debian"? So which OS were you actually installing, and which OS version template did you choose?

IIRC most if not all new guest recipes use tablet as the default pointing device now. They use it because it works seamless instead of having to press the host key to get the pointer out of the guest without the additions installed.

According to vbox/trunk/src/VBox/Main/src-all/Global.cpp

Not enabled by default:
Other/Unknown, Other/Unknown (64-bit), Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 4, Other Windows, Linux 2.2, Linux 2.4, Linux 2.4 (64 bit), Red Hat, Red Hat (64 bit), Xandros, Xandros (64 bit), Oracle, Oracle (64 bit), Oracle Solaris 10 5/09 and earlier, Oracle Solaris 10 5/09 and earlier (64 bit), FreeBSD, FreeBSD (64 bit), OpenBSD, OpenBSD (64 bit), NetBSD, NetBSD (64 bit), OS/2 Warp 3, OS/2 Warp 4, OS/2 Warp 4.5, eComStation, OS/2 1.x, Other OS/2, DOS, Netware, L4, QNX, JRockitVE

Enabled by default:
Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows XP (64 bit), Windows 2003, Windows 2003 (64 bit), Windows Vista, Windows Vista (64 bit), Windows 2008, Windows 2008 (64 bit), Windows 7, Windows 7 (64 bit), Windows 8, Windows 8 (64 bit), Windows 8.1, Windows 8.1 (64 bit), Windows 2012 (64 bit), Other Windows (64-bit), Linux 2.6 / 3.x, Linux 2.6 / 3.x (64 bit), Arch Linux, Arch Linux (64 bit), Debian, Debian (64 bit), openSUSE, openSUSE (64 bit), Fedora, Fedora (64 bit), Gentoo, Gentoo (64 bit), Mandriva, Mandriva (64 bit), Turbolinux, Turbolinux (64 bit), Ubuntu, Ubuntu (64 bit), Other Linux, Other Linux (64-bit), Oracle Solaris 10 10/09 and later, Oracle Solaris 10 10/09 and later (64 bit), Oracle Solaris 11 (64 bit), Mac OS X, Mac OS X (64 bit), Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (64 bit), Mac OS X 10.7 Lion (64 bit), Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion (64 bit), Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks (64 bit)