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#1 2015-03-14 16:47:37

SwitchDhole
Member
Registered: 2015-02-01
Posts: 51

[SOLVED] Virtualbox not displaying USB devices

Hello again Arch forums!

I'm running Virtualbox in Gnome. I'm trying to access a thumb drive in my Windows virtual machine. It shows up in my file manager, but nothing shows up under "Devices" except for my disk drive. I've installed guest additions, but it didn't seem to do anything. Checking "Enable USB Controller" had no effect either.

How do I access my devices in Virtualbox?

Last edited by SwitchDhole (2015-03-16 16:51:32)

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#2 2015-03-14 17:58:03

ewaller
Administrator
From: Pasadena, CA
Registered: 2009-07-13
Posts: 19,739

Re: [SOLVED] Virtualbox not displaying USB devices

Hi SwitchDHole,

I'm running Virtualbox in Gnome

I don't know what that means.    Can you confirm the following:

You are running an Arch Linux host.
You are running a Windows as guest in a VirtualBox VM.
You are using Gnome on Arch and that you are launching VirtualBox from Gnome, but that is irrelevant to the issue.

The virtual machine does not have direct access to the drives on the host.  The "Virtual Machine" only has the drives that are on the virtual controllers on its virtual bus.  This is to be expected.

You have two options.  One, you can use shared folders.  With shared folders, you identify a directory in  file system that is available to the host and you share that with the guest.  In windows, that shared folder will show up as a network drive.  It works swimmingly.

The other option is to use the Virtual machine control to logically attach that USB device to the virtual machine.  The USB device will act to the host operating system as if the USB device was unplugged (the USB file system will not be available under Nautilus), and the USB will appear to the guest to be "plugged" into it.  In this way, the physical device is available to the virtual guest.  Windows then owns the device and uses Windows drivers to control it.  This works for all classes of USB devices.  With thumb drives, the file systems appear in Windows Finder as a local drive.

Edit:  Something went seriously wrong with my first post. Cleaned up to make it make sense.

Last edited by ewaller (2015-03-14 18:00:29)


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Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
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#3 2015-03-14 18:44:18

SwitchDhole
Member
Registered: 2015-02-01
Posts: 51

Re: [SOLVED] Virtualbox not displaying USB devices

ewaller wrote:

Can you confirm the following:
You are running an Arch Linux host.
You are running a Windows as guest in a VirtualBox VM.
You are using Gnome on Arch and that you are launching VirtualBox from Gnome, but that is irrelevant to the issue.

Sure!

Arch is my host,
Windows (7) is my guest,
and I'm running and launching from Gnome on Arch (for now).

ewaller wrote:

The other option is to use the Virtual machine control to logically attach that USB device to the virtual machine.

How do I do so? Nothing's in the "Devices" menu (on Arch, the Virtualbox window border).

Last edited by SwitchDhole (2015-03-16 14:35:00)

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#4 2015-03-14 19:06:42

ewaller
Administrator
From: Pasadena, CA
Registered: 2009-07-13
Posts: 19,739

Re: [SOLVED] Virtualbox not displaying USB devices

Are you running full screen, or are there icons at the bottom right of the guest display.  If there is a USB icon, and you right click on it, there are no USB devices listed?
If full screen, it is in a drawer.  I just checked on my machine to verify those.

Also, can you please verify what version of VirtualBox is installed:

ewaller@odin ~ 1001 %pacman -Qs virtualbox
local/virtualbox 4.3.22-2
    Powerful x86 virtualization for enterprise as well as home use
local/virtualbox-host-modules 4.3.22-2
    Host kernel modules for VirtualBox
ewaller@odin ~ 1002 %

Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

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#5 2015-03-14 21:27:32

torors
Member
Registered: 2012-09-28
Posts: 106

Re: [SOLVED] Virtualbox not displaying USB devices

Have you enabled USB under the menu Settings -> USB ? (Easy to forget)

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#6 2015-03-16 14:30:31

SwitchDhole
Member
Registered: 2015-02-01
Posts: 51

Re: [SOLVED] Virtualbox not displaying USB devices

ewaller wrote:

Are you running full screen, or are there icons at the bottom right of the guest display

I'm running virtualbox in a window. Right clicking on the USB icon gives me

No USB Devices Connected

I am running VirtualBox version 4.3.24-1.

local/virtualbox 4.3.24-1
    Powerful x86 virtualization for enterprise as well as home use
local/virtualbox-ext-oracle 4.3.24-1
    Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack
local/virtualbox-host-modules 4.3.24-1
    Host kernel modules for VirtualBox
torors wrote:

Have you enabled USB under the menu Settings -> USB?

Yes, 'Enable USB Controller' is checked, as well as 'Enable USB 2.0 (EHCI) Controller'.

Last edited by SwitchDhole (2015-03-16 15:12:53)

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#7 2015-03-16 16:51:17

SwitchDhole
Member
Registered: 2015-02-01
Posts: 51

Re: [SOLVED] Virtualbox not displaying USB devices

Fixed it!

I just had to add myself to the vboxusers group.

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#8 2015-06-13 23:47:38

WFV
Member
From: ☭USSA⛧⭒⭒⭒⭒
Registered: 2013-04-23
Posts: 288

Re: [SOLVED] Virtualbox not displaying USB devices

SwitchDhole wrote:

Fixed it!

I just had to add myself to the vboxusers group.

Thanks, yes that worked here too.

Last edited by WFV (2015-08-08 21:00:50)


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