USB in virtualbox[SOLVED]

Raccoon1400 · 2008-06-15 02:09:47

I am trying to figure out how to use usb in vbox. I added the filters, but when I go to mount the flash drive in the bottom right corner of the guest OS window, all the usb devices are greyed out. Using vbox 1.6.2. What am I doing wrong?

Last edited by Raccoon1400 (2008-06-17 00:55:02)

Mr Green · 2008-06-15 06:09:52

As far as I know usb is only supported in PEL version [or try checking box in settings of virtual machine you are going to use!]

JeremyTheWicked · 2008-06-15 06:12:48

Hi Racoon1400. vbox seems to not recognize the filters correctly (so it was here with vbox 1.6.2 at least). What worked for me was setting up a generic USB filter with all the fields left empty. This way all USB devices are accessible from vbox. Not optimal, but applying any filters grayed out everything (and I have tested it really extensively...).

Hope this helps.

Raccoon1400 · 2008-06-15 18:03:11

I tried creating a filter with all fields empty, and I put 'generic' in the title.
I am trying to mount a flash drive right now. It is greyed out whether the host machine has it mounted or not.

azleifel · 2008-06-15 19:17:14

VirtualBox PUEL 1.6.2 works fine here with USB devices (flash drives, scanner and printer). Do you have usbfs mounted?

Raccoon1400 · 2008-06-15 19:24:26

azleifel wrote:

VirtualBox PUEL 1.6.2 works fine here with USB devices (flash drives, scanner and printer). Do you have usbfs mounted?

usbfs? it's in fstab.

azleifel · 2008-06-15 20:40:49

Raccoon1400 wrote:

azleifel wrote:
VirtualBox PUEL 1.6.2 works fine here with USB devices (flash drives, scanner and printer). Do you have usbfs mounted?
usbfs? it's in fstab.

usbfs is not in fstab by default, at least, it wasn't when I installed Arch. If it's there then is your user a member of the group assigned to the usbfs in fstab?

ralvez · 2008-06-15 20:42:12

I made my USB work by adding the following to /etc/fstab

# -------- (VirtualBox USB) ---------
none /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=101,devmode=664 0 0

Hope this helps.

R.

Raccoon1400 · 2008-06-15 20:45:41

usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=101,devmode=0664 0 0

Is what I used.

Raccoon1400 · 2008-06-15 20:50:07

azleifel wrote:

Raccoon1400 wrote:
azleifel wrote:
VirtualBox PUEL 1.6.2 works fine here with USB devices (flash drives, scanner and printer). Do you have usbfs mounted?
usbfs? it's in fstab.
usbfs is not in fstab by default, at least, it wasn't when I installed Arch. If it's there then is your user a member of the group assigned to the usbfs in fstab?

possibly not. what would that group be called?

Garns · 2008-06-15 21:16:40

Raccoon1400 wrote:

usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=101,devmode=0664 0 0

Look it up :

grep 101 /etc/group

Raccoon1400 · 2008-06-15 21:26:39

that gives me this
[duncan@duncan-arch ~]$ grep 101 /etc/group
gdm:x:101:

azleifel · 2008-06-15 21:41:44

Your user isn't in the gdm group and it's probably going to be a good idea to create a new group for the usbfs to keep it separate, e.g.

sudo groupadd -K GID_MAX=999 usb

then add your user to the usb group, use grep to find the gid for the group, edit the "devgid=<gid>" option for usbfs in fstab accordingly and either reboot or unmount/mount /proc/bus/usb and logout/login.

Raccoon1400 · 2008-06-15 21:44:21

azleifel wrote:

Your user isn't in the gdm group and it's probably going to be a good idea to create a new group for the usbfs to keep it separate, e.g.
sudo groupadd -K GID_MAX=999 usb
then add your user to the usb group, use grep to find the gid for the group, edit the "devgid=<gid>" option for usbfs in fstab accordingly and either reboot or unmount/mount /proc/bus/usb and logout/login.

Okay. How do I use grep to find the gid?

azleifel · 2008-06-15 21:56:03

Like this:

[david@darkstar ~]$ grep usb /etc/group
usb:x:101:david

So the gid for the usb group is 101 in my case.

Last edited by azleifel (2008-06-15 21:57:07)

Raccoon1400 · 2008-06-15 22:07:26

azleifel wrote:

Like this:
[david@darkstar ~]$ grep usb /etc/group
usb:x:101:david
So the gid for the usb group is 101 in my case.

same here.

usbfs   /proc/bus/usb  usbfs   devgid=101,devmode=0664                 0 0

my current fstab entry. what do I change?

azleifel · 2008-06-15 22:24:36

You're in luck - your usb group got a gid of 101 so you don't need to change anything, i.e. "devgid=101" is now correct! If you've added your user to the usb group then you can skip straight to the reboot or umount/mount /proc/bus/usb and logout/login step.

EDIT: Actually, my usbfs line in fstab looks like this:

none                   /proc/bus/usb usbfs     devgid=101,devmode=664,nodev,noexec,nosuid    0      0

EDIT1: Hang on, what happened to the gdm group? If that was 101 then your usb group should have a gid of 102 or greater.

Last edited by azleifel (2008-06-15 22:32:04)

Raccoon1400 · 2008-06-15 22:59:16

I've done all this and it still won't work.

azleifel · 2008-06-15 23:09:48

So, what exactly are the symptoms?

Do your usb devices turn up in /proc/bus/usb? For example, if I plug in a usb flash drive and then run "cat /proc/bus/usb/devices" I get the following:

T: Bus=01 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=05 Cnt=02 Dev#= 7 Spd=480 MxCh= 0
D: Ver= 2.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=0b27 ProdID=0601 Rev= 1.00
S: Manufacturer=USBest Technology
S: Product=USB Mass Storage Device
S: SerialNumber=00000000001595
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=80 MxPwr= 80mA
I:* If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 3 Cls=08(stor.) Sub=06 Prot=50 Driver=usb-storage
E: Ad=01(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=125us
E: Ad=82(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms
E: Ad=83(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 64 Ivl=16ms

and a "ls -l /proc/bus/usb/001/007 gets me:

-rw-rw-r-- 1 root usb 57 2008-06-16 00:00 /proc/bus/usb/001/007

(the device node 001/007 can be derived from the entry in the devices list, i.e. Bus=01 and Dev#= 7 in this case).

With a VM selected in VirtualBox but not running, what do you get when you click on the USB entry under Details on the right hand side?

Raccoon1400 · 2008-06-16 00:32:11

[duncan@duncan-arch ~]$ cat /proc/bus/usb/devices

T:  Bus=05 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#=  1 Spd=480 MxCh= 8
B:  Alloc=  0/800 us ( 0%), #Int=  0, #Iso=  0
D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=01 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=1d6b ProdID=0002 Rev= 2.06
S:  Manufacturer=Linux 2.6.25-ARCH ehci_hcd
S:  Product=EHCI Host Controller
S:  SerialNumber=0000:00:1d.7
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr=  0mA
I:* If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub
E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=   4 Ivl=256ms

T:  Bus=05 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=02 Cnt=01 Dev#=  4 Spd=480 MxCh= 0
D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=0781 ProdID=5406 Rev= 2.00
S:  Manufacturer=SanDisk
S:  Product=U3 Cruzer Micro
S:  SerialNumber=3512300802818E95
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=80 MxPwr=200mA
I:* If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=08(stor.) Sub=06 Prot=50 Driver=usb-storage
E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms
E:  Ad=02(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms

T:  Bus=04 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#=  1 Spd=12  MxCh= 2
B:  Alloc= 11/900 us ( 1%), #Int=  1, #Iso=  0
D:  Ver= 1.10 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=1d6b ProdID=0001 Rev= 2.06
S:  Manufacturer=Linux 2.6.25-ARCH uhci_hcd
S:  Product=UHCI Host Controller
S:  SerialNumber=0000:00:1d.3
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr=  0mA
I:* If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub
E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=   2 Ivl=255ms

T:  Bus=04 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=00 Cnt=01 Dev#=  2 Spd=1.5 MxCh= 0
D:  Ver= 1.10 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=045e ProdID=0047 Rev= 3.00
S:  Manufacturer=Microsoft
S:  Product=Microsoft 5-Button Mouse with IntelliEye(TM)
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=a0 MxPwr=100mA
I:* If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=03(HID  ) Sub=01 Prot=02 Driver=usbhid
E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=   4 Ivl=10ms

T:  Bus=03 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#=  1 Spd=12  MxCh= 2
B:  Alloc=  0/900 us ( 0%), #Int=  0, #Iso=  0
D:  Ver= 1.10 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=1d6b ProdID=0001 Rev= 2.06
S:  Manufacturer=Linux 2.6.25-ARCH uhci_hcd
S:  Product=UHCI Host Controller
S:  SerialNumber=0000:00:1d.2
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr=  0mA
I:* If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub
E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=   2 Ivl=255ms

T:  Bus=03 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=00 Cnt=01 Dev#=  2 Spd=12  MxCh= 0
D:  Ver= 1.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=0557 ProdID=2006 Rev= 2.02
S:  Manufacturer=ATEN UC-1284B
S:  Product=ATEN UC-1284B Printer Cable
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=80 MxPwr=100mA
I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=07(print) Sub=01 Prot=01 Driver=usblp
E:  Ad=01(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS=  64 Ivl=0ms
I:* If#= 0 Alt= 1 #EPs= 2 Cls=07(print) Sub=01 Prot=02 Driver=usblp
E:  Ad=01(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS=  64 Ivl=0ms
E:  Ad=82(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS=  64 Ivl=0ms
I:  If#= 0 Alt= 2 #EPs= 3 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=00 Prot=ff Driver=usblp
E:  Ad=01(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS=  64 Ivl=0ms
E:  Ad=82(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS=  64 Ivl=0ms
E:  Ad=83(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=   4 Ivl=1ms

T:  Bus=02 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#=  1 Spd=12  MxCh= 2
B:  Alloc=  0/900 us ( 0%), #Int=  0, #Iso=  0
D:  Ver= 1.10 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=1d6b ProdID=0001 Rev= 2.06
S:  Manufacturer=Linux 2.6.25-ARCH uhci_hcd
S:  Product=UHCI Host Controller
S:  SerialNumber=0000:00:1d.1
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr=  0mA
I:* If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub
E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=   2 Ivl=255ms

T:  Bus=01 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#=  1 Spd=12  MxCh= 2
B:  Alloc=  0/900 us ( 0%), #Int=  0, #Iso=  0
D:  Ver= 1.10 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=1d6b ProdID=0001 Rev= 2.06
S:  Manufacturer=Linux 2.6.25-ARCH uhci_hcd
S:  Product=UHCI Host Controller
S:  SerialNumber=0000:00:1d.0
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr=  0mA
I:* If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub
E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=   2 Ivl=255ms
[duncan@duncan-arch ~]$

and

[duncan@duncan-arch ~]$ ls -l /proc/bus/usb/001/007
ls: cannot access /proc/bus/usb/001/007: No such file or directory
[duncan@duncan-arch ~]$

azleifel · 2008-06-16 18:21:27

Raccoon1400 wrote:

[duncan@duncan-arch ~]$ cat /proc/bus/usb/devices
T: Bus=05 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=02 Cnt=01 Dev#= 4 Spd=480 MxCh= 0
D: Ver= 2.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=0781 ProdID=5406 Rev= 2.00
S: Manufacturer=SanDisk
S: Product=U3 Cruzer Micro
S: SerialNumber=3512300802818E95
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=80 MxPwr=200mA
I:* If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=08(stor.) Sub=06 Prot=50 Driver=usb-storage
E: Ad=81(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms
E: Ad=02(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms

So correct ls command would have been:

ls -l /proc/bus/usb/005/004

Raccoon1400 · 2008-06-16 18:30:28

[duncan@duncan-arch ~]$ ls -l /proc/bus/usb/005/004
ls: cannot access /proc/bus/usb/005/004: No such file or directory

Raccoon1400 · 2008-06-16 18:35:46

however,

[root@duncan-arch 005]# ls -l /proc/bus/usb/005/001
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root gdm 43 2008-06-16 10:22 /proc/bus/usb/005/001
[root@duncan-arch 005]#

azleifel · 2008-06-16 19:07:13

Every time that a usb device is mounted (without rebooting in between) it will be assigned a different device node. Now, your last post tells me that you still have usb devices assigned to the gdm group.

[root@duncan-arch 005]# ls -l /proc/bus/usb/005/001
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root gdm 43 2008-06-16 10:22 /proc/bus/usb/005/001
[root@duncan-arch 005]#

This implies that you don't have usb working in VirtualBox because you either haven't made any changes yet or haven't rebooted since making the changes. Let us know when you've caught up

Raccoon1400 · 2008-06-17 00:54:42

Fixed it. I changed the fstab entry to what you suggested in post 17. You edited and I didn't see the change right away.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-06-15 02:09:47

USB in virtualbox[SOLVED]

#2 2008-06-15 06:09:52

Re: USB in virtualbox[SOLVED]

#3 2008-06-15 06:12:48

Re: USB in virtualbox[SOLVED]

#4 2008-06-15 18:03:11

Re: USB in virtualbox[SOLVED]

#5 2008-06-15 19:17:14

Re: USB in virtualbox[SOLVED]

#6 2008-06-15 19:24:26

Re: USB in virtualbox[SOLVED]

#7 2008-06-15 20:40:49

Re: USB in virtualbox[SOLVED]

#8 2008-06-15 20:42:12

Re: USB in virtualbox[SOLVED]

#9 2008-06-15 20:45:41

Re: USB in virtualbox[SOLVED]

#10 2008-06-15 20:50:07

Re: USB in virtualbox[SOLVED]

#11 2008-06-15 21:16:40

Re: USB in virtualbox[SOLVED]

#12 2008-06-15 21:26:39

Re: USB in virtualbox[SOLVED]

#13 2008-06-15 21:41:44

Re: USB in virtualbox[SOLVED]

#14 2008-06-15 21:44:21

Re: USB in virtualbox[SOLVED]

#15 2008-06-15 21:56:03

Re: USB in virtualbox[SOLVED]

#16 2008-06-15 22:07:26

Re: USB in virtualbox[SOLVED]

#17 2008-06-15 22:24:36

Re: USB in virtualbox[SOLVED]

#18 2008-06-15 22:59:16

Re: USB in virtualbox[SOLVED]

#19 2008-06-15 23:09:48

Re: USB in virtualbox[SOLVED]

#20 2008-06-16 00:32:11

Re: USB in virtualbox[SOLVED]

#21 2008-06-16 18:21:27

Re: USB in virtualbox[SOLVED]

#22 2008-06-16 18:30:28

Re: USB in virtualbox[SOLVED]

#23 2008-06-16 18:35:46

Re: USB in virtualbox[SOLVED]

#24 2008-06-16 19:07:13

Re: USB in virtualbox[SOLVED]

#25 2008-06-17 00:54:42

Re: USB in virtualbox[SOLVED]

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