Virtualbox Ubuntu host windows guest usb?

[shresthanator]

Im running windows vista in virtual box on my ubuntu 11.04 machine. I've managed to set up folder sharing between the host and guest but I cannot seem to get the USB working in the windows guest OS. Can someone please help me out?

[rickytikki]

Im running windows vista in virtual box on my ubuntu 11.04 machine. I've managed to set up folder sharing between the host and guest but I cannot seem to get the USB working in the windows guest OS. Can someone please help me out?

have you installed guest additions http://seogadget.co.uk/how-to-instal...est-additions/

[shresthanator]

have you installed guest additions http://seogadget.co.uk/how-to-instal...est-additions/

yes I believe I have, that is how I was able to set up a share folder between my host ubuntu machine and the guest windows. I assumed that you could just plug in a usb device and it would be detected in my guest windows OS....but apparently not.

[howefield]

Try right clicking on the USB activity icon on the bottom right corner of the Virtual Machine window and selecting the appropriate device.

[shresthanator]

Try right clicking on the USB activity icon on the bottom right corner of the Virtual Machine window and selecting the appropriate device.

Hmm....the usb icon is not there for me....like there is a folder icon and mouse icon and optical driver icon and so on...but there is no usb icon for me to enable/disable....is there something in the settings I have to enable?

[howefield]

I install the .deb package from the VirtualBox site, add myself to the vboxusers group and then install the extension pack.

Then install the VM and guest additions.

If you are using the OSE version of VirtualBox from the repository, it does not support USB.

It is the extension pack that gives you the closed source code allowing access to USB devices, (amongst some other goodies). I am not sure if adding the extension pack to the OSE version would work.