USB greyed out in 3.08

[emn8w8]

I make sure that my user account is always a member of vboxusers, so I did not pay much attention in this respect.
That was clearly not enough....
What I had to do was: remove this membership and add it again, rebooted the system and from that moment all USB devices did work properly.
What was unclear is that it seems that this procedure has to be executed everytime when the vboxdrv module is recompiled
(like upgrading to a newer version or reinstalling VirualBox..)
The only question remaining is: How in the world did my mp3 player sneaked through..?..

Best regards, Erik

[lifecycled]

Hi, Have the problem of not recognizing USB devices, mainly USB Storage and Active Sync. This thread seems fairly current on Virtualbox release and Ubuntu versions. Where are you seeing the 'greyed out' USB devices? I cant seem to get windows to show the USB connection icon. Used the Ubuntu Debian installer with Guest option installed. I added virtual box to my Ubuntu User log in profile. (I do not have a guest account). Still not solved for me. Any suggestions? Vbox 3.0.8 r53138 PUEL Ubuntu Debian installer. Host Ubuntu jaunty 9.04. Windows XP as guest on Vbox.

[Sasquatch]

Hi, Have the problem of not recognizing USB devices, mainly USB Storage and Active Sync. This thread seems fairly current on Virtualbox release and Ubuntu versions. Where are you seeing the 'greyed out' USB devices? I cant seem to get windows to show the USB connection icon. Used the Ubuntu Debian installer with Guest option installed. I added virtual box to my Ubuntu User log in profile. (I do not have a guest account). Still not solved for me. Any suggestions? Vbox 3.0.8 r53138 PUEL Ubuntu Debian installer. Host Ubuntu jaunty 9.04. Windows XP as guest on Vbox.

All you needed was the normal install, no Guest Additions or whatever, that will only cause more problems on the Host. It's called GUEST Additions for a reason, you install it on the Guest (VM), not the Host (your bare metal install).

Please explain in full detail what you have done so far. See the Forum Posting Guide for some help.

[lifecycled]

Hi. I have a dual boot Dell Laptop Partitioned with XP ntfs 37gb, ntfs 47 GB data, 29gb Extended partition, 26 Gb ext3 and 2.59gb linux-swap. I have no issues with the XP boot, the drive map is to give you an idea of where Ubuntu lives.
When I boot to Ubuntu 9.04, i installed the 3.0.9 Debian ubuntu Virtualbox. I installed the XP vdi file virtual drive on the NTFS data Partition, currently 10GB. I then did a clean install of windows XP Professional. I have never manged to get USB drives or active sync for my Mobile 6.1 device to work. Under Virtualbox setup I see 4 US Filters. HTC Generic RNDIS, Dell USB Drive A01, CHESEN USB Keyboard and Uknown Device. I have currently disabled USB2.0 Controller support as mentioned in some forums.Laptop is Dell D410 Intel Centrino Package, working well under Ubuntu. When I run XP under virtualbox hosted by Ubuntu, I have the USB issue. Ubuntu sees the USB Stick, the Virtualbox XP Device manager shows no USB driver issues. I can not see the icon associated with safely adding or removing USB devices, I can not see any USB attached devices. I will now try un-installing the VBoxGuestAdditions as you suggest in my VB XP. One small nagging question for me is - is it wise to install the XP Virtualbox vdi file on the NTFS data partition, or should I move it to the ext3 partition?

[Sasquatch]

Ah, now things are more clear. Your have a clean install of XP inside VB. The GA are not a part of USB issues, so removing that won't change anything. Your problem is that you haven't read the Manual, so you don't know how to use it. Right click on the USB icon in the status bar, there you will see your USB devices which you can send to the VM. USB is only available in the PUEL version, so if you have the OSE, as your profile suggests, then it will never work.

[Dirk]

Same problem here. Installed actual version (3.0. on a debian lenny as host. No USB device available in the USB-guest (not only greyed out, they are not available). Tested on two systems (a desktop and an Eee). Downgrade to 3.0.6 did it (as only solution). Not good.

[Perryg]

Same problem here. Installed actual version (3.0. on a debian lenny as host. No USB device available in the USB-guest (not only greyed out, they are not available). Tested on two systems (a desktop and an Eee). Downgrade to 3.0.6 did it (as only solution). Not good.

Please update your profile!

Try this and see if it helps
su in terminal

Code: Select all   Expand viewCollapse view

VBOX_USB=USBFS VirtualBox

[Dirk]

Ok. Thank you. One one machine this did the job. On the other I have to see next days...
But why this? Nearly everytime I update VB I've got new problems
On an installed machine (Debian) PUEL does not update the menu-entry, the problems with USB, on my Eee I've got the 4bit-graphics-problem... Is it so complicated to ask if usbfs is used and than to use it as in the elder version?...

[lifecycled]

Hi, Perhaps Sun can consider OSE or PUEL in the 'about page'. I am reasonably certain I am PUEL as I went to the Virtualbox.org site and noted the PUEL option, downloading the Jaunty Debian package http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads. The 4 USB drivers referred to were enabled from the VirtualBox settings tab. This is where I have unchecked USB 2.0 Support as suggested in other forums. When I issue the VBOX_USB=USBFS VirtualBox command in Terminal it opens the VirtualBox application. Is this the expected behaviour? The XP is SP3. I am reading the User Manual. dkms is the default installer on my Ubuntu and current. I am checking "In order to use VirtualBox’s USB support, the user account under which you intend to run VirtualBox must have read and write access to the USB filesystem (usbfs)." furthermore " f any users on your system should be able to access host USB devices from within VirtualBox guests, you should also add them to the appropriate user group that your distribution uses for USB access, e.g. usb or usbusers." I am looking in my Ubuntu User Settings Profile, I can see vboxusers but no reference to usb or usbusers. In my Ubuntu Login Privileges I see Access external Storage device automatically, but no reference to USB. I am going to try following this link http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/USB_on_Ubuntu_7.04 Found the file 10-vboxdrv.rules that contains "
KERNEL=="vboxdrv", NAME="vboxdrv", OWNER="root", GROUP="root", MODE="0600"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb_device", GROUP="vboxusers", MODE="0664"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device", GROUP="vboxusers", MODE="0664"
sort of similar to the /etc/udev/rules.d/40-permissions.rules in the 7.04 usbuser suggestion, but this file does not exist so I will leave this all alone.

Fix: After adding the usbuser group, and selecting my login profile I rebooted laptop to Ubuntu and ran VirtualBox, checked USB settings, found I could now add "USB Flash Memory", not an option before. Ran XP, and SUCCESS I now have a USB Flash Drive detected and working. No Mobile 6 device yet. Good the 'Safely Remove Hardware' icon is showing. Also my internal Dell Bluetooth driver was recognised as a 'new device'. After shutting XP down, switching Mobile WM6 device to USB storage mode (WM5 storage utility) I can now add this under USB Settings as Microsoft Windows Mobile Device. Next boot of XP allowed me to browse both USB devices. Fixed Active Sync, now able to add "HTC USB Serial for Wizard" (my wm6 build). The 'fix' seems to be creating a usbusers user group in Ubuntu 9.04 and adding my login to the group. I have enabled USB 2 support on the vBox settings and this also seems ok.

I need to check this for a few days, but if all stable I am well on the way to Linux as my primary operating system. A 'must have' for me is a synchronised mobile device, currently this is WM6. Happy to run XP in VirtualBox to keep this part going. I am also quite enthused about the ability to port to anther system later. Hope to be rebuilding my Dell partitions soon, removing the dual boot.

[trevieze]

3.0.6 thru 3.0.8 have notorious USB problems. 3.04 was the last good USB Vbox. To get my USB to Serial adapter to work in 3.0.8 I had to disable all other USB filters and leave the serial one enabled. Then I followed all the standard procedures for getting USB to work. Like not plugging device in until vbox is running, thats a biggie. I know this is for Linux but I often use this information when there is a problem in Vista! I only use 3.0.8 because it has that neat web interface programmed in python available for testing.

[agromsl]

As indicated in a previous message, I had to go back to VBox 3.0.6 to be able to use USB device in XP VM on Ubuntu64 Guest (9.04).

With new kernel package released this week (2.6.28-16 generic #55) for Ubuntu 9.04, I could install Sun's Virtual Box 3.0.8r53138 and still be able to use USB devices. Mice, keyboards, mass storage devices now work fine.


But it still can't hold connection to Blackberry long enough to complete a sync or a backup. This actually is about the last limitation that prevents me from recommanding the migration of lots of computers to VirtualBox.

[diggedy]

Im having the same probelms with my usb. All items are greyed out apart from my epson printer. The main thing I want to use is my windows mobile device.
I am using Kubuntu 9.10 but I also used VB with 9.04 and the issue was present then too. I have tried using VBOX_USB=USBFS VirtualBox but I get the message : No protocol specified
Failed to open the X11 display!
Ive also tried looking to add VB to my user groups but I cant find that in kubuntu.

Any help would be appreciated

[Sasquatch]

Ive also tried looking to add VB to my user groups but I cant find that in kubuntu.

Don't add VB to your user groups, add your user to the VB group. The command is in the VirtualBox FAQ.

I am using Kubuntu 9.10 but I also used VB with 9.04 and the issue was present then too. I have tried using VBOX_USB=USBFS VirtualBox but I get the message : No protocol specifiedFailed to open the X11 display!

That error would only occur if you run it outside a terminal (or Konsole for KDE users). Running it without a GUI or as a user that does not have a display won't work.

[alavarre]

Take a look at viewtopic.php?f=7&t=23854

A partial very very simple fix on SuSE 11.1 is to edit /etc/udev/rules.d/10-vboxdrv.rules to replace MODE= with MODE:= (note the colon). This solves the problem for many non-storage devices (smart card reader, radio cable, ANT Agent...)

Enabling storage devices (sdb, sdc) still eludes me.

But hey, we have progress.

Best regards, Andy

[apfigueiredo]

In my particular case, I had to mount usbfs in /proc/bus/usb manually using

sudo mount -t usbfs usbfs /proc/bus/usb

I know it should have been done automatically somewhere by a script, but manually it worked.

Hope this helps