vboxusers: no user group GUI

What is the output of:

lsb_release -a; uname -a

Thanks

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
Release: 12.04
Codename: precise
Linux ea-lap 3.2.0-29-generic #46-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jul 27 17:03:23 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Have you looked in system settings?

not so far,, just did, there is no mention of user groups. there is user accounts but it gives only access to actual accounts.

So what are you wanting to achieve?

In order to use USB in VBox, it requires my username in the Vboxuser group, I have no way at this time to accomplish that, The USB icon in Vbox states that no USB items are connected, I have both a printer ad a USB stick plugged in.

And the report I need has been printed

I still think the problem on the other computers needs to be fixed, I will be back tomorrow.
Thanks for your help so far.

EA

sudo usermod -a -G vboxusers $USER

Will do it for you

Sorry, it did not. I used this same command before, but without the '$' and all i got from terminal was a list of options and in the USB icon "no USB Devices connected"

I just realized, that on the two computers where I do have the 'user groups' GUI, the operating system (12.04 LTS) was installed through upgrades only. On the other two I installed 12.04 LTS fresh from a USB stick. No 'user group' GUI on either. This started with a freshly downloaded version. The laptop where I specifically noticed the lack of 'user groups' worked OK with version 11.10, the upgrade did too. But because of an unrelated problem I did a fresh install and now have no access to USB in the virtual box.

The under lying problem may not be 'user groups', but something entirely different??

the $USER variable will change to the user running the command, it saves me having to ask the username as it is astracted. You can test this with:

echo $USER

So you didn't have to change anything at all. If you run:

groups

You can see what groups your username is in.

Did as suggested, $USER = ea, groups showed ea, adm, cdrom, sudo, dtp, plugdev, lpadmin, sambashare.

No vboxusers.

What is the output of:

cat /etc/group

Thanks

/cat/etc/group: No such file or directory

using sudo: result is : cat/etc/group: command not found

Read the command I gave, then read what you ran.....

root:x:0:
daemon:x:1:
bin:x:2:
sys:x:3:
adm:x:4:ea
tty:x:5:
disk:x:6:
lp:x:7:
mail:x:8:
news:x:9:
uucp:x:10:
man:x:12:
proxy:x:13:
kmem:x:15:
dialout:x:20:
fax:x:21:
voice:x:22:
cdrom:x:24:ea
floppy:x:25:
tape:x:26:
sudo:x:27:ea
audio:x:29:pulse
dip:x:30:ea
www-data:x:33:
backup:x:34:
operator:x:37:
list:x:38:
irc:x:39:
src:x:40:
gnats:x:41:
shadow:x:42:
utmp:x:43:
video:x:44:
sasl:x:45:
plugdev:x:46:ea
staff:x:50:
games:x:60:
users:x:100:
nogroup:x:65534:
libuuid:x:101:
crontab:x:102:
syslog:x:103:
fuse:x:104:
messagebus:x:105:
bluetooth:x:106:
scanner:x:107:
colord:x:108:
lpadmin:x:109:ea
ssl-cert:x:110:
My fault:
lightdm:x:111:
nopasswdlogin:x:112:
netdev:x:113:
whoopsie:x:114:
mlocate:x:115:
ssh:x:116:
avahi-autoipd:x:117:
avahi:x:118:
pulse:x:119:
pulse-access:x:120:ault
utempter:x:121:
rtkit:x:122:
saned:x:123:
ea:x:1000:
sambashare:x:124:ea
vboxusers:x:125:

Somewhere in this dialog you suggested that I had the non open source version. so I went ahead and did the following:
Using sudo gedit, I added the usernames to vboxusers above.
then I removed Virtual box from this laptop and reinstalled it from Snaptic Package Manager. the ose version.

The results are what was needed. all of the USB functions are now available: USB sticks, UB printer, Webcam etc.

Thanks for your help, my problem on this computer is solved.

EA

problem solved

Use gksudo with gedit, not sudo

Thanks, I'll remember that