I am running Oracle Virtualbox. Whenever it is running, I can’t plug my thumb drive into the host computer and access it. I have to shut down all of my virtual machines, stop Virtualbox, then plug in the thumb drive, and then it works. Then I can start Virtualbox and all of my virtual machines back up and everything works. This is a pain in the backside though.
I played around with USB filters in Virtualbox and all I was able to do was determine whether or not the thumb drive showed up on the virtual machine, which is not where I need it to be. I need it to be on the host machine not the virtual machine. Even when it doesn’t show up on the virtual machines the host still won’t access it until I stop Virtualbox. The host recognizes that the device is there when I look at USB devices but it won’t assign it a drive letter or let me access it as long as Virtualbox is running.
Google wasn’t much help either. All i found was page after page telling me how to get the thumb drive to work on the virtual machine (uh, thanks, but that’s exactly what I want NOT to happen).
I can’t just disable USB in the virtual machines because they need to access my USB keyboard and mouse.
Does anyone have experience with Virtualbox and can tell me how to make this work? Having to shut all of my virtual machines down just to plug in the thumb drive is getting to be really annoying.
Yes, but apparently I can only control whether the device shows up in the virtual machine or not. Even if it does not show up in the virtual machine I still cannot access it from the host unless Virtualbox is completely shut down.
I’m sorry, I don’t understand the question (which should probably keep me from butting into the thread in the first place, but …)
I have a Win 7 host with an Ubuntu Guest. Under the VM machine’s USB settings, I have “Enable USB Controller” checked and several filters listed. When I want the VM to have access to a thumb drive, I check its box. When I want the host to have access to it, I uncheck its box. Checking now, my host has access to a Lexar thumb drive (box unchecked) and the VM has access to a Kingston thumb drive (box is checked). I spent a couple minutes rearranging things, and now the reverse is true.
Where did I go wrong in trying to recreate your problem?
Are you sure about this? I would think that the physical host is the one that has access to your keyboard and mouse and just passes on the input data to the VM accordingly. I wouldn’t think that the VM has direct access to your keyboard/mouse. Otherwise, how would you type/click in the host?
I just tried exactly that. When I uncheck the box, the thumb drive does not show up in the virtual machine, but does not show up in the host machine either.
Even if no virtual machines are running, the thumb drive will not show up in the host machine’s drives as long as the Virtualbox manager is running. As soon as I shut down the Virtualbox manager the thumb drive works properly on the host machine.
You appear to be correct. I unchecked the USB box and the keyboard and mouse still worked properly in the virtual machine.
So we’re doing exactly the same thing but with different results? Could it be related to the installation? Guest additions or extensions?
4.2.6 is out, if that makes a difference (I’m not upgrading in case you’re running into a version-specific ‘feature’).
Given how much help you and others have given me in the past, the idea that something is working on my machine but not yours is making me feel very discombobulated.
I just upgraded to 4.2.6 and installed the virtualbox extensions since they had some USB related stuff and I thought it might help.
Nothing changed.
ETA: I didn’t upgrade in less than a minute. I had started the upgrade after my last post and your post mentioning the upgrade wasn’t there when I typed that.
It’s not just you. I’m running a slightly older version of VirtualBox (4.1.8) and I’ve never been able to get it to see any of my thumbdrives, even after installing the extensions, and setting up USB device filters per the online documentation. I use a shared folder when I need to get info into or out of the VM, but it’s not quite as convenient.
I should mention I’m also on Win 7, 64 bit.
Other than that, it’s a lovely piece of software.
Edit: Whoops, I misconstrued OP’s post. I have the reverse problem.
Oooooookay. I have the same problem OP has, but it’s rather strange. I have two identical USB drives, both plugged into the host machine. When I start my VM, even though both are active in the filters section, only one of them gets snagged by the VM. It disappears from the host machine. I’m going to assume there’s some sort of identity collision in however the program detects my USB devices.
Have you run with all of the USB extensions removed? I found this to be necessary for interfacing with a certain FPGA. I believe the USB 2.0 extension was to blame. The problem wasn’t all that similar to what you describe, but it at least showed that the USB extensions can cause USB issues when there would not otherwise be any…
Yes. I started out without any extensions installed.
Hasn’t made a difference.
I read through your link and didn’t see anything that I haven’t already tried.
Thank you for the replies but it is still not working. As long as the Virtualbox manager is running I cannot access the thumb drive on the host. It doesn’t matter if the virtual machines are running or not. With all of the virtual machines “powered off” the thumb drive is still not accessible as long as the Virtualbox manager is running. As soon as I exit the Virtualbox manager the thumb drive becomes accessible on the host again.
Tomorrow i’ll see if i can replicate your problem. I remember having difficulty getting the vm to ‘see’ a thumbdrive, not the other way around. But i must confess that is a while ago.
I had started the upgrade after my last post and your post mentioning the upgrade wasn’t there when I typed that.