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Ubuntu 11.10 w/VirtualBox-ose Windows 7 no USB access under windows

Asked by Diamond

I just installed Ubuntu 11.10 on an Asus Netbook (1005HA) and it's running well. Every driver was found automatically.

I then installed Oracle's VirtualBox and installed Windows 7 Ultimate.

The problem is that nothing I've tried allows me to see a USB device (flash drive, external hard drive, portable DVD, etc.)

I've made sure that I am in the group Virtualbox.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Chris (fabricator4) said : 		#1

The OSE (Open Source Edition) version of VirtualBox in the repositories does not have USB functionality. If you want to use USB devices with VirtualBox you'll have to uninstall the OSE version and install the PUEL (Personal Use Evaluation License) available form Oracle: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

This has support for USB 1.0. For USB 2.0 support you will have to add the extension pack available from the same page.

Just Download the .deb files and double click on them. You won't need to re-install Windows in the VM, Just point VirtualBox to the same file. I think OSE and PUEL versions keep the VM files in different directories, so you'll have to either point it to the right directory or move the file.

Chris

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Diamond (diamond-socal) said : 		#2

Thanks,

I just downloaded the support files and I'm working on the install.
Strangely enough, I had disconnected an external 500GB drive from which I installed the Windows 7 iso file. I thought it wouldn't be needed any more, but VirtualBox came up with a message stating that it could not locate the /media/500GB/.../.iso. I restarted, plugged in the 500GB drive and the error went away. I will have to figure that one out too!

As for the USB devices. I went to the settings and noticed that indeed the USB settings now allowed for me to turn on USB 2.0, which was not there before. I did add the two possible devices, both the 500GB drive (USB) and a Kingston 1GB Flash Drive (USB).

The bad news: I restarted Windows 7 and noticed that the 500GB external USB drive appears and then disappears.
The good news: With a lot of patience, especially since I currently have only 512MB RAM allocated for Windows (yeah, I know, but it's a 1GB RAM system...for now, both of the USB devices appeared, stayed on the screen and I can access them.

Chris, thank you very much for your prompt reply.
I appreciate your time.

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Chris (fabricator4) said : 		#3

It's probably only complaining about the missing ISO because it's still in the mount list for the VM. Once you're finished with it you can "eject" the ISO. This can be done either in the VM window (bottom right you'll find some icons that are part of the VirtualBox window but not part of the Virtual Machine itself. Alternatively, you can find where the iso is mounted in the VirtualBox startup windows - there's a section for devices. It's the fact that it's listed in the latter that is causing to re-appear; it's like having a "CD" in the "drive" of the virtual machine. If the ISO is still mounting it's like leaving the "CD" in the "drive" of the virtual machine.

The USB devices will disappear from Ubuntu once they are available in VirtualBox. Unfortunately they can not be accessible in both places at ones. You have to "eject" the USB device from the VM before it will again be accessible from Linux.

Chris