Windows 7 - USB and folder sharing problem with Virtual Box

I am running Ubuntu in Virtuakl Box. Runs fine except that I have trouble with sharing. Guest additions are installed. When I try to attach the USB stick, I get this message:



The USB stick was activated in the vBox control panel when the Virtual machine was off.

And when I try to attach the folder, nothing happens. More details here: That one was activated too.

The main problem you are running into there is that Linux doesn't natively support USB from the start. One reference I can point you to for Basic USB Configuration can be seen at: How to get USB devices working under Linux

The home page for that site is seen at: USB Support for Linux Often with the other OS just like with Windows with usb devices of any type drivers may be required!

As for VBox I never can get anything usb even optical going since I still have to get the integrated components part to work on the Portable VirtualBOX version of that particular program. For now however I'll be getting more familiar with the latest VM Player 4.0 just released. The first VM was Linux Mint Debian for a look at the latest version of VM Player.

Upon starting up the VM I just saw created it automatically listed the external hard drive enclosure presently on as well as a flash drive plugged into a hub. Note the screen attached below.

The funny thing is that I had the USB shared on my vBox in my old system. But I do not remember how I did that. This new installation is the same, but it just does not want to work. The folder sharing though I have never managed.

I went over the support docs at the VBox site and was only able to find one item regarding "Setting up USB on Ubuntu 7.04" obviously a much older release seen at: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/USB_on_Ubuntu_7.04

That's likely the closest to what you are looking for there with the edit of ubuntu configuration file adding a little more info on one entry already present.

Thanks, that is an interesting next step once I was able to mount the stick. I will work on it some more tomorrow. I may also seek the help of the vBox forum where I am a member. Now it is after midnight and too late for experiments, lol.

Well let me know how it goes once you can get back to it. Meanwhile I'll be tasked with another distro on another program trying to custom install it onto the VHD there!

Will do. Your project sounds interesting too.

I went for the latest version of VM Player 4.0 and had a few surprizes! For one I never expected to be using GParted on the 8gb VHD stored on the drive as a file.

When the distro's installer wouldn't take I found out the VHD needed a partition table then created by the distro's version of GParted. The new primary was created after followed by choosing the file system and editing the primary to see it made the mount point "/".

When the installation finishes up I won't need to keep the live to install disk in the dvd drive any longer.

Wolfgang, did you download and install VirtualBox Extension Pack? It is needed for USB2 support, so if your USB port and stick are USB2, stick is not going to work with VirtualBox when Extension Pack is not installed.



Kari

Kari, I did not download the extension pack originally. But after reading the documentation a bit, I installed it afterwards. But maybe it did not install right. I will try again with your link. Thank you.