virtualbox wont show USB ports in the guest OS

[Joep L. Blom]

Jack Wallen wrote:
> Joep L. Blom said the following:
> 
> 
>>>> -R
>>>>
>>> Thanks for the replies. Of course I run the PUEL session (I thought I 
>>> mentioned that) otherwise there is no USB pass-through.
>>> I still think it has to do with permissions in some way but the whole 
>>> USB-management as well in Ubuntu as in virtual box is not clear to me
>>> at all. I assume Ubuntu uses HAL but I read somewhere that Ubuntu
>>> already uses or will use another virtual bus system (D-bus??). And as
>>> you said, Ray, if it works it works "automagically".
>>> Anyway I have to solve the problem soon as it hinders me a lot for 
>>> several programs I have to use under W XP as no Linux equivalents are 
>>> available (e.g. a music notation program Finale: the Linux programs
>>> are as yet no real equivalent). I have obligations, necessitating, 
>>> unfortunately,the use of this and a few other Windows programs.
>>> I still hope somebody will come with a suggestion, any help is
>>> welcome. Joep
>>>
> 
> Joep,
> 
> Have you done the following (I am cutting an pasting from an article I
> wrote on ghacks.net):
> 
> Configure USB
> 
> Now it’s time to configure the system to allow USB support. You have to
> get the user ID of the vboxusers group. To do this issue the following
> command:
> 
> grep vboxusers /etc/group
> 
> which will report something like:
> 
> vboxusers:x:123:
> 
> What you need to now do is add a line to the /etc/fstab file. This line
> will be (if we stick with the user ID report you see above):
> 
> none /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=123,devmode=664 0 0
> 
> With that file saved you are ready to reboot and start up VirtualBox
> with USB support.
> 
> 
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> 
> 
> to that Jack Wallen says:
> 
> 
> 
Jack,
Thanks for your answer. I had seen that advice, however, in my Ubuntu 
jaunty, /etc/fstab/ is bare and usbfs doesn't exist.
My vboxusers group has myself and root as users assigned to the group.
I have impressions that that usbfs is for older OS's as is stated 
clearly in the manual.The text in the manual says:
<quote>
If USB is not working on your Linux host, make sure that the current 
user is a member of the vboxusers group. On older hosts, you need to 
make sure that the user has permission to access the USB filesystem 
(usbfs), which VirtualBox relies on to retrieve valid information about 
your host’s USB devices. The rest of this section only applies to those 
older systems.
<quote>
But I don't understand the way USB is handled by Ubuntu as well as 
VirtualBox. Well, we will solve it, one way or another!
Joep