Ubuntu

Virtual Box OSE - USB access

Asked by srikumar

I have installed Virtual Box OSE and then Win XP and other windows programs. The windows programs use the data files on the HDD through Shared Folders.

In a similar manner the USB Pen Drive was set up as a Shared Folder and I find that I am able to access the USB Pen Drive from Virtual Box OSE /WinXP.

Is it OK for the USB Pen Drive to be accessed in this way or should it not be done.

Many hardware such as Pen Drives, Digital Cameras, Printers, Portable HDD's, some KeyBoards and Mouse all use the USB port. The usability of Virtual Box OSE would be greatly enhanced with the availability of USB support.

any comments on this ?

thanks
srikumar

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

Sure you can access it as you wish as long as the partition on the USB is mounted and the shre point is marked as a shared folder in the virtualbox config. The config will also tell you how to map a network drive to the device.

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Ryan Dwyer (ryandwyer) said : 		#2

Also note there's a closed source edition of VirtualBox has support for USB devices.

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srikumar (ssrikumar) said : 		#3

Thank you for your response.

I did try out the "closed" source edition and was able to set up the usb pen drive and the usb printer. However I was unable to install my other windows based programs since it came out with an error message so I had to wipe out the whole thing and get back to my Ub9.10/WinXP dual boot system at the office.

I still have the Ub9.10/Virtual Box OSE/WinXP system at home and have been experimenting on how to get the most of it when I realized that the USB pen drive was just another data source and could therefore be set up as a shared folder.

thanks
srikumar

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Ian McGee (ian-imcgee) said : 		#4

Gents, i had a similar problem with an ipod. Go to users find the vboxusers group and add your user name to it, hey presto.