USB 3.0 not working on Windows 10 host in Ubuntu 16.04 guest

[toadjamb]

I have two laptops running Ubuntu 16.04 via VirtualBox. On one of them, usb drives work exactly as expected. On the other... not so much. I _THINK_ it's due to lack of USB 3.0 support in the guest, but I don't understand how one guest would have it and the other would not. Here are the details:

Working System:
Mac OSX El Capitan 10.11.5
VirtualBox 5.0.22 r108108
Ubuntu 16.04 4.4.0-28-generic

Not working:
Windows 10
VirtualBox 5.0.22 r108108
ubuntu 16.04 4.4.0-28-generic


Diagnostics

At first, I thought it was a problem with Windows (and maybe it is), but when I run `lsusb` on the guests, I get different results (USB 3.0 is missing from the guest on the Windows host).

From the working machine:

Code: Select all

Bus 002 Device 001 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003 Apple, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 002 VirtualBox USB Tablet
Bus 001 Device 001 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

From the non-working machine:

Code: Select all

Bus 001 Device 001 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 002 VirtualBox USB Tablet
Bus 002 Device 001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[socratis]

Just a thought. Have you enabled the xHCI controller in the VM settings, Ports, USB on your Windows 10 computer?

[toadjamb]

Yes... And no. That was one of the first things I did. ...Back when I had still had hope. However, it does appear that when I ran `lsusb`, it was at a point when I had switched it back to USB 2.0 just to see if I could get it to work. In other words, while I did see the output above, it was not in the context I thought it was. Running `lsusb` with xHCI enabled yields the expected result from `lsusb`. I apologize for the red herring there.

Sadly, that only means that I am back to having absolutely no idea what to do.

One of the first things I did was to attempt to install the VirtualBox 'VBoxUSB' driver by right+clicking on it in explorer and clicking 'install'. It may have already been installed. I honestly have no idea. I had read a bunch of posts that left me thinking that maybe I needed different drivers, but I haven't removed any, I only made the one meager attempt at installing a new one.

If it helps, the machine is an Acer Predator...

I'm really quite lost.

[socratis]

As a first step, make sure that the recipes of the two VMs are identical and do not have any minute differences (like not enabled USB3). Do not touch the one that's working. If that doesn't work, let us know.

[toadjamb]

I sincerely appreciate the help. The windows box is my personal laptop, so I have a limited amount of time in the evening to try these things and write thoughtful responses...

Yours is a fair suggestion, but I'm not using Vagrant or chef or anything, so here's what I did:

On the (macbook) laptop that 'works':
1. Created a new vm on the working machine with no OS installed.
2. Enabled usb 3.0 in the vm settings.
3. Used the Ubuntu iso image to boot to a LiveCD version of Ubuntu.
4. Plugged in my usb drive and saw it come up.

I then copied ALL of the VirtualBox settings for that vm along with the iso image to the (windows) laptop that does not 'work'.

On the (windows) laptop that does not 'work':
1. Open VirtualBox and 'Add...' the vm that I copied over.
2. Observe that settings were intact (i.e. usb, processors, memory, display acceleration, etc.)
3. Boot to Ubuntu LiveCD using the iso that I copied over.
4. Plugged in my usb drive and waited. And waited. And... the light on the drive turned off and never came back.

That seems like a good litmus test. That LiveCD doesn't have anything 'extra' on it. It's got the fewest variables possible. I didn't even try to add the guest additions.

[toadjamb]

Just for the record, these operations were performed with nothing else plugged in to any usb drive on either machine. My mouse and keyboard were left disconnected.

[socratis]

That seems like a good litmus test. That LiveCD doesn't have anything 'extra' on it. It's got the fewest variables possible. I didn't even try to add the guest additions.

That was an excellent Litmus test! A couple of questions:
1) You didn't even create a USB filter for your device or you simply didn't mention that step?
2) Does your Win laptop have native support for USB3? How sure are you? What's the exact model?

[toadjamb]

You didn't even create a USB filter for your device or you simply didn't mention that step?

I did create a filter, I just left it out of the details. It was just an empty one, so as to catch everything.

2) Does your Win laptop have native support for USB3? How sure are you? What's the exact model?

I'm fairly certain. It's a brand new 'gaming' laptop with blue usb ports marked with 'SS' beside each of them (earlier google searches told me this was a likely indicator).

When I browse device manager, the usb controllers have the following items listed (again, with no attached usb devices of any sort):
Intel(R) USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller - 1.0 (Microsoft)
USB Root Hub (xHCI)

[socratis]

What's the USB3 device? Do you have the VendorID and ProductID? Does the Win10 see it natively?

[toadjamb]

Technically, I'm not sure the device itself is USB3... But it works on the mac with usb 3 settings...

I looked in 'device manager' after plugging in the usb drive and looked at its properties. I had to poke around a bit, but I found this:
USB\VID_0781&PID_5406&REV_0010

The '0781' and '5406', and '0010' match the Vendor ID, Product ID, and Revision ID reported by VirtualBox when I add it there...

[socratis]

I asked you 3 questions, you gave me the PID and VID only.
1) Would it kill you to tell me that it is a "Cruzer Micro U3" stick? You had to have me go searching?
2) Does Windows see it natively? You don't need to do the tests on the Mac. We know it's working there. "Windows wont recognize Cruzer Micro" returns a lot of results.
BTW, the device is USB2.

[toadjamb]

I apologize... I read your second question as a refined version of the first and your last question as "does windows see (the VID and PID) natively (as opposed to getting it through vb)?"

I have no intention of making anyone do anything for me that I can do myself. I knew the device was a sandisk cruzer. I just didn't realize that's what you were asking.

I was assuming you were headed down the path of having me enter the product and vendor id in virtualbox, so perhaps I jumped to other conclusions, as well. At any rate, none of it was due to a lack of willingness to answer a question or do proper research to find the answer.

Again, my apologies. I will answer every sentence that ends in a question mark henceforth, regardless of what I _think_ the intent of the question is.

I cannot reiterate enough how much I appreciate the help. I'm doing my best to answer questions appropriately, including stating steps that I took to find information so that if this thread proves useful to others in the future, there will be details along the way.

So, just to be clear...

Would it kill you to tell me that it is a "Cruzer Micro U3" stick?

No. It would not. I did not realize you wanted an explicit answer to this question.

You had to have me go searching?

No, I didn't... Had you simply indicated in your response that you were looking for explicit answers to each question, I would have been happy to provide the information, including searching for it, if necessary.

Does Windows see it natively?

Yes.

[toadjamb]

Again, my most sincere thanks to anyone who helps with this. Seriously. I greatly appreciate the time and effort it takes.

[socratis]

I'm sorry if it sounded like I took a stick and was beating you with it. Long night. My apologies

I'm out of ideas. Unless....

Unless there is something wrong with the installation of VirtualBox in Windows (like the USB filter). Would you mind uninstalling the current VirtualBox, reboot, install VirtualBox using right-click "Run as administrator" and try again?

Another thing you can try even before that is to see if the VM can recognize any USB device at all. Actually if it is not recognized as is, but it is recognized after the uninstall/install we'll know what was wrong.

[toadjamb]

I tried a few other usb drives and even a usb webcam, to no avail. And then I did more exasperated googling. Someone in a VERY old post said they were having trouble and got it to work using a usb hub. I had avoided using a hub, as I assumed it would cause more problems rather than fewer, but it worked! Lucky for me, I actually have a USB3 hub. It even (appears) to work with an encrypted drive (i.e. I can see the drive in the disk list), but I had to go to the devices dropdown and select the drive. The thumb drive worked without this step.

It's kind of a pain to have to carry around a usb hub just to get usb to work, but it's definitely better than no usb support at all!

For now, I think I'm going to proceed with this 'solution' and see how far it gets me. Hopefully, at least to the weekend.

It definitely makes no sense to me that a hub would work, but connecting directly would not.

Socratis,

I thank you tremendously for your help! While this was not an explicit suggestion from you, I had no hope and likely would have just let this whole thing sit for days (or weeks) waiting for inspiration. Having someone suggesting ANYTHING was a huge help. When I bought this laptop, the whole configuration relied on having USB working in VirtualBox. If you are in L.A. (or ever pass through), drop me a line. I would be more than happy to buy you a beer or coffee or other drink of your choice.