USB doesn't work under SuSE 11 and VB 1.6.2 (10.3) SOLVED

[aemau]

The subject says it all. On one virtual disk I can attach (?) the usb devices in settings but when I run the disk the usb devices are all listed as not available. On a second vdi the use devices are not even recognized.

I can probably explain the difference in behaviour by the fact that the vdi files were created under different versions of VBox.

I suspect that the problem in the first instance is due to trying to use a VB compiled for 10.3 on an 11.0 SuSE system.

Can anyone confirm this and give me some idea of how long it might take to get VBox compiled for 11.0.

Allan

[rschaffter]

I Installed it using the generic Linux installer rather than the 10.3 RPM and have the same problem. The error on running setup for a VM is:

Code: Select all

Could not load the Host USB Proxy Service (VERR_FILE_NOT_FOUND). The service might be not installed on the host computer.


Result Code: 
0x00004005
Component: 
Host
Interface: 
IHost {81729c26-1aec-46f5-b7c0-cc7364738fdb}
Callee: 
IMachine {f95c0793-7737-49a1-85d9-6da81097173b}

These VMs work fine under SuSE 10.3 with 1.6.2.

Cheers,

Rod Schafffter

[stefan.becker]

And what have we tested yet?

USBFS Settings?

[rschaffter]

usbfs settings were pretty boring, so I edited fstab to include this:

Code: Select all

usbfs                /proc/bus/usb        usbfs      devgid=100,devmode=0664 0 0

where 100 is the users group, but no effect. I had previously tried 1000 which is the VBox group, also without effect.

Cheers,

Rod Schaffter

[s1oan]

I tried it too without success

I modified fstab as is described in the FAQ and the user manual for openSUSE, using the right ID. I even changed the "664" to "666" as the manual says.

I checked the "Enable USB controller" and added an empty filter.

The VM (windows xp sp3) finds the new hardware and installs the drivers but the usb flash device isn't recognized. It is mounted successfully on openSUSE but not in the VM.

I tried to modify "/etc/udev/rules.d/50-udev.rules" but that file doesn't exist in openSUSE 11. However, there's a file called "50-udev-default.rules" in the same dorectory but there wasn't any line like DEVPATH="/module/usbcore", ACTION=="add", RUN+="/bin/mount -t usbfs usbfs /proc/bus/usb"
so I didn't modify that file.

As a last attempt, I temporarily added my user to the "root" group but the VM couldn't see the usb flash memory device.

[Djhg2000]

I found this, should solve the USB problem (it did for me )

http://forums.suselinuxsupport.de/index ... ntry256901
It's for 10.2, but it still works for 11.0.

[bobs_your_uncle]

Of course manually mounting usbfs works but who wants to mount it manually everytime?

The question is: why does the fstab fail to mount it in the first place?

I have tried every syntax variation under the sun but without success.

Perhaps opensuse can enlighten.....

[aemau]

I finally found a solution which seems to work after trying the above without success. I included a statement "mount -a" in my /etc/init.d/boot.local file. That finally seems to have solved the problem. Just why remains a puzzle. All previous attempts resulted at most in my usb devices being recognized as being there but not available.

Now to see how many other problems I run into before finally committing to SuSE 11.

Allan

[bobs_your_uncle]

Ok folks forget the clunky workarounds here is the solution:

Both Ubuntu 8.04 and Opensuse 11 by default mount the usb file system at:

/sys/bus/usb/drivers

whereas virtualbox looks for the usbfs at:

/proc/bus/usb

therefore the solution is to use fstab to remount thus:

/sys/bus/usb/drivers /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=xxx,devmode=664 0 0

where xxx is of course your user id
tested on both above distros using virtualbox 1.6.2

[aemau]

Just finished trying that. Was that the complete fstab entry? If so, it didn't work.

Allan

[bobs_your_uncle]

Yes - sure you have the correct devgid - must match vboxuser

you can check with

grep vboxuser /etc/group

[aemau]

It still simply just doesn't work as suggested. If I look at /proc/bus/usb there are no entries. The virtual machine reports that there are no usb devices detected. If I issue a "mount -a" command as root the devices show up under /proc/bus/usb but are still not recognized by the virtual machine. The only thing which seems to work on my machine is to use the fstab entry "none /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=vboxusersgid,devmode=664 0 0" and either issue the "mount -a" command as root either manually or more conveniently to include the command in my /etc/init.d/boot.local file.

Allan

[bobs_your_uncle]

Here is my complete fstab:

/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_MAXTOR_STM38081_6QZ1TDM2-part1 / ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_MAXTOR_STM38081_6QZ1TDM2-part2 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_MAXTOR_STM38081_6QZ1TDM2-part4 /windows/C vfat users,gid=users,umask=0002,utf8=true 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0
/dev/sda4 /mnt/windows vfat defaults,gid=disk,umask=0000 0 0
/dev/sda3 /mnt/linux ext3 user,rw,auto 0 0
/sys/bus/usb/drivers /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=1000,devmode=664 0 0

If it works you should see numbered folders in /proc/bus/usb which correspond to any usb devices connected at boot to your machine; make sure your boot.local scripts have also been removed. Should work.....

[aemau]

I have my partitions mounted by their device name i.e. /dev/sda8 etc. Could this make the difference? I'd really hate to have to change that at this point as I'm so used to doing things this way.

Allan

[aemau]

After sleeping on it overnight I tried again this morning. Except for the first three lines in your fstab my fstab entries are letter for letter identical to yours. When I boot up there is absolutely nothing in /proc/bus/usb. If I issue the "mount -a" command as root my usb devices do appear. BUT if I load the virtual machine no usb devices are to be found. If I try to change the settings of the virtual machine before starting it, I receive the error message that the host usb system cannot be accessed.

If I revert to my original setup as mentioned above my usb devices show up in the virtual machine.

I'm really at a loss to understand what is going on.

To add to my confusion, I have just tested all usb devices present on my virtual machine. All of them work except for my Wacom Bamboo tablet. When I check the tablet using the XP device manager, Windows reports that the device is working. But it simply refuses to work when I try to use it and I know it used to work under 1.6.0.

I guess I'll have to revert to 1.6 until this problem gets sorted out.

Allan