Arch Linux

jlacroix

Member

Registered: 2009-08-16

Posts: 576

[SOLVED] Virtualbox and USB Support

I use Virtualbox quite regularly for work and school. I have Windows installed within Virtualbox, and I use it whenever school or work requires. However, USB support has never worked for me (even with the fstab addition) and I thought maybe I'll spend some time to figure this out.

Basically, I may want to do things like insert a flash drive and make it available to the VM, or even sometimes an MP3 player or even my PSP. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work. There USB filters, but often times the device I want is greyed out, and can't be selected. When I am able to select a device to create a filter, it doesn't do anything. I did check the Wiki already.

Maybe I'm missing something? Or is USB support in Virtualbox just that bad? I was hoping there would be some sort of way I can dedicate a USB port to Virtualbox, and make it exclusive. I think VMWare can do that but I'm not sure that Virtualbox can.

Last edited by jlacroix (2010-10-19 02:41:44)

Dogmeat

Member

From: Slovak Republic

Registered: 2009-02-24

Posts: 193

Re: [SOLVED] Virtualbox and USB Support

What Virtualbox package do you use? Is it from Arch binary repo or from AUR?

jlacroix

Member

Registered: 2009-08-16

Posts: 576

Re: [SOLVED] Virtualbox and USB Support

What Virtualbox package do you use? Is it from Arch binary repo or from AUR?

Oh sorry, that would help, right? I'm using the one from AUR (virtualbox_bin).

Dogmeat

Member

From: Slovak Republic

Registered: 2009-02-24

Posts: 193

Re: [SOLVED] Virtualbox and USB Support

virtualbox_bin from AUR should support USB properly. virtualbox-ose from repo doesn't support usb. Did you notice this message after installing Virtualbox package?

==> If USB does not work for you out-of-the-box, add the following line
==> to "/etc/fstab":
==> "none /proc/bus/usb usbfs auto,busgid=108,busmode=0775,devgid=108,devmode=0664 0 0"

(I know you mentioned the fstab entry in your first post...)

Update: Are you a member of vboxusers group?

Last edited by Dogmeat (2010-10-18 18:49:29)

jlacroix

Member

Registered: 2009-08-16

Posts: 576

Re: [SOLVED] Virtualbox and USB Support

(I know you mentioned the fstab entry in your first post...)

Update: Are you a member of vboxusers group?

I know for sure I did the fstab thing, but as for the group membership, I'll check as soon as I get home.

jlacroix

Member

Registered: 2009-08-16

Posts: 576

Re: [SOLVED] Virtualbox and USB Support

I don't believe it, it's working! This is the first time I've ever had success. I haven't tried a flash drive yet but I will try it soon. I don't see why it wouldn't work though.

I didn't have the fstab entry or the membership in vboxusers. I remember adding the fstab entry to my desktop, but I guess I forgot about the laptop. Also, I always thought that vboxusers was something the installer automatically assigned the user to, I didn't know I had to do that manually. I thought that if I wasn't a member of vboxusers, that Virtualbox wouldn't work.

Thanks!

DStein

Member

From: Buffalo, NY USA

Registered: 2009-11-27

Posts: 60

Re: [SOLVED] Virtualbox and USB Support

I hope it's ok to post in this thread because if I started a new thread the title would be identical.  I am also using virtualbox_bin from AUR and while USB passthrough works just fine to my Windows XP guest, it can't be working any faster than USB v1.1 speed.  I have the appropriate entry in /etc/fstab and am a member of the virtualbox group.  No permissions problems and from what I can tell there's no corruption of data to/from any of my USB flash drives.  The only issue I've had other than the aforementioned lack of speed is with a 1TB Western Digital Passport.  It seemed to have "lost" some directories.  In other words they appeared completely empty on the XP side.  After shutting down the guest I verified that all of the files were indeed still there and intact.  I've basically chalked that one up to a deficiency in Windows XP.  But this speed issue is seriously holding me back.