USB failure under Ubuntu Lucid -> fixed after the 3.1.6 release

[Jiehan Zheng]

Hello,

I have problem using USB inside my guest VM, my host is Ubuntu Lucid.

Everything goes OK under Karmic, but the last VirtualBox usbfs line in /etc/fstab stopped Lucid from booting up, so I removed that line.

Then I got the following error when opening Settings window:

"Could not access USB on the host system, because neither the USB file system (usbfs) nor the DBus and hal services are currently available. If you wish to use host USB devices inside guest systems, you must correct this and restart VirtualBox. The USB Proxy Service could not be started, because neither the USB file system (usbfs) nor the hardware information service (hal) is available."

[Thomas Novin]

usbfs is deprecated and also hal is deprecated in Lucid.

There is some discussion about this in this thread:

​http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=27820

[Michael Thayer]

We are aware of this issue, and it will get fixed as soon as possible.

[dimitris]

Confirming the workaround in the referenced thread: Running hald manually (under sudo) allows VB to access the USB devices.

Lucid on amd64 host, WinXP SP3 guest, VB 3.1.6.

[Michael Thayer]

This has been fixed in the development code. 3.0.2 beta 1 contains a fix, but not the final one.

[Thomas Novin]

3.0.2 beta? 4.0.2 beta perhaps?

[SiaR]

Hi, Im trying with the workaround and doesn't work. I have Lucid on i686, WinXP SP2 guest and VB 3.1.6 r59338.

[Frank Mehnert]

3.2.0 Beta 1. It is already late today.

[Michał Gołębiowski]

When could we expect running Lucid repository? (I guess it'll be with 3.2.0, not 3.1.x version)? At least an approximation (a day, a week or a month) would be useful.

[Frank Mehnert]

Fixed in 3.1.8

[Vladimír Bláha]

Still not working in 3.1.8 under the host Ubuntu 10.04 64 bit with guests Windows XP SP3 Prof. 32bit.

USB devices are detected, listed, but grayed and cannot be activated.

Perhaps the fact that I first used the version 3.1.6 might cause this.

[Frank Mehnert]

Please could you do the following to help debugging the problem:

1. Make sure no VBoxSVC daemon is running
2. start the VBoxSVC daemon manually in one terminal window

   strace -f -o ~/log -s128 /usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxSVC
   

3. start the VM in another terminal window:

   VirtualBox --startvm VM_NAME
   

The click at the USB devices (which are greyed out in your case) and terminate the VM. Then terminate VBoxSVC with CTRL-C.

Please compress and attach the file ~/log to this ticket.

[cakoolen]

created by strace -f -o ~/log -s128 /usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxSVC on ubuntu 10.04 32 bits

[Vladimír Bláha]

Replying to frank:

Please could you do the following to help debugging the problem:

1. Make sure no VBoxSVC daemon is running
2. start the VBoxSVC daemon manually in one terminal window

   strace -f -o ~/log -s128 /usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxSVC
   

3. start the VM in another terminal window:

   VirtualBox --startvm VM_NAME
   

The click at the USB devices (which are greyed out in your case) and terminate the VM. Then terminate VBoxSVC with CTRL-C.

Please compress and attach the file ~/log to this ticket.

Done. Please, find attached an strace log file.

[Vladimír Bláha]

I am sorry. Something went wrong and Firefox repeatedly loaded up the first file in the same folder where the log file was. That is why the two desktop links were loaded - unintentionally. Can you delete them?

-> Done (Michael)

[Rob]

I can confirm that this issue happens to me as well. Same environment Ubuntu Lucid 64bit Host with Windows XP SP3 guest. But for me, there is one difference. One of my USB devices (my printer) shows up while all the others show as grayed out.

Screenshot attached.

[Johann Renner]

I can confirm this is fixed, at least for a slightly different configuration... and with a small trick. I'm running (K)ubuntu Lucid 32bit Host and WinXP SP3 as guest in VirtualBox 3.1.8. I just had to add my username to /etc/group (as root), specifically to the line:

'vboxusers:x:125:<add_your_linux_username>'

After a reboot, my virtualized Windows started to show my USB devices in black.

Note: Adding devices to the machine by the USB device filter (in Settings) just 'plug' the device to your machine by default. If you don't add the device in the filter, you can add it later in the virtual machine windows: got to Devices->USB Devices and select the checkbox (I didn't know that until know :P).

[Vladimír Bláha]

Johanner, thank you for the tip.

This was the first time I checked the vboxusers group in my fresh installation of Ubuntu 10.04. I did it through the gnome gui tool (System -> Preferences -> Users and Groups) and to my surprise I found that my username was listed there but was not active. (Perhaps some bug in upgrading procedure of VirtualBox from a version for Ubuntu 9.10 to v.3.1.8. for 10.04)

After activating my membership and logging out and in the USB support of VirtualBox works like a charm.

[Rob]

Yes, that worked for me as well. Thank you Johanner.

[Frank Mehnert]

Works here with VBox 4.0.6. Always make sure to add the current user to the vboxusers group.