virtualbox wont show USB ports in the guest OS

[Joep L. Blom]

Derek Broughton wrote:
> Joep L. Blom wrote:
> 
>> I have the distinct feeling that the problem is in the permissions as I
>> but I can't find out which are not set. I even tried to set the
>> /proc/bus/usb directory chain to 777 (which is definitively NOT a good
>> idea) but it didn't work.
> 
> Why is it not a good idea?  Really, a USB device is almost always under 
> physical user control, so allowing world access on a single user system is 
> insignificant.  However - I don't see any evidence that ubuntu is using 
> /proc/bus/usb these days. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what it _is_ using.
> 
>> Virtualbox starts up normally and the Devices tab shows the USB-ports
>> but they are greyed out. In the vbox manager the USB ports are set. Also
>> the local user - who starts virtualbox - is subscribed to the group
>> vboxusers as recommended in the manual.
> 
> I can confirm I have the same problem - I attached my webcam in the vbox 
> manager, and it shows up in the XP guest, but greyed out and can't be 
> activated.
> 
>> The manual also says that in 'modern hosts' (I have a brand new AMD
>> Phantom  II system) 
> 
> I'm pretty sure that means "modern host OSes", not modern hardware.
> 
>> I don't want to start virtual box from a root account.
> 
> No, you don't :-)  The results can be very odd...
Derek,
I'm happy to have a fellow sufferer!
And I agree that starting it as root, at least must be done very careful!.
Yes the manual is quite unclear in several points on the exact meaning 
of the writing, when they mean host OS they must write Host OS. For 
simple minded readers like me you have to be very explicit!
Well, enough exclamation marks.
I see you also have no idea how USB ports are managed in Ubuntu. One 
thing is for sure, they are available and working. Another thing is I 
can imagine that virtualbox wants to have exclusive rights over the 
ports. But how they manage that is very unclear.
Well, I hope somebody has more information on USB in Ubuntu and it's 
relation to Virtualbox.
Joep