VirtualBox 4 seems to have the same permission problems described for Linux. If I connect an USB drive, it appears as “unavailable” in VBoxManage or grayed-out in then guest-GUI dropdown mene, no matter what filter I define in the host settings. How can I solve it?
It is a permission problem. For a quick test, start VirtualBox as root. If your USB device is not longer grayed-out, you may have the same problem. Problem could be fixed by adding group permissions to vboxusers in your Linux.
First of all you will need VirtualBox, not VirtualBox Open Source Edition (OSE). The latter version doesn’t support USB devices. And download VirtualBox 4 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack, its support for USB 2.0 devices, VirtualBox RDP and PXE boot for Intel cards.
For Ubuntu
After installing VirtualBox 4 do the following in Ubuntu:
# Go to System -> Administration.
# Scroll down to “Users and Groups”.
# Open Users and Groups
# Click “Manage Groups”.
# When the group settings menu pops up, scroll down to vboxusers. Highlight it. Click “Properties”.
# Check the box beside your user name below the part which says group members. Press OK.
# Reboot.
# Load Virtualbox, and USB should be enabled (when you added on usb device filter, now all devices are now ‘tickable’).
For Fedora
After installing VirtualBox 4 do the following in Fedora:
# Go to System Preferences.
# Scroll down to “Users and Groups”.
# Open Users and Groups
# Click “Groups”
# Click “Add Group”
# When the new group settings pops up, type “vboxusers”. Highlight it. Click “Properties”.
# Check the box beside your user name below the part which says group users. Press OK. (Now you will see that the group members is your user name)
# Reboot.
# Load Virtualbox, and USB should be enabled (when you added on usb device filter, now all devices are now ‘tickable’).
Enjoy~
jonboy60
I’m a Malaysian, my name is Jon Loh (jonboy60) living in Kuala Lumpur and working in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. Jonboy60.com is a blog magazine about Linux and other open source softwares. All about to a daily jobs or real life experiences I had since the year 2002 administrating Linux and Windows server in a hosting company. Basically i will be offering Linux tips, howto, tricks, latest news and tutorial. Contact Me for Career opportunities, business offers, Linux solutions for business or home, web and email server solutions, Linux consulting and expertise requests. Email to me on jonboy60{@}gmail.com. The site I’m running is VenCouture.com – Malaysia Online Fashion Shopping Boutique, VenCouture. We sell fashion clothes, sexy lingeries, baby clothing and etc.
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THANK YOU! I was trying to figure this out for two nights and on the third… I found your blog.
I’ve already bookmarked your site and will make sure to check out some of your other articles; as half of the above related posts pertain to things I’m currently working on (virtual webservers, formatting usb sticks to ntfs, etc). Awesome site, man.
Thank you. Worked perfectly.