virtualbox wont show USB ports in the guest OS

[jack wallen]

On Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:14:01 +0100
Chris G <cl at isbd.net> wrote:

> On Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 05:31:04PM +0200, Joep L. Blom wrote:
> > 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.
> > > 
> 
Are you running the OSE edition of VirtualBox? If so I don't believe it
has USB support built in. In order to get USB support you have to
install the closed source edition.