How to make smooth USB access available to Virtualbox vm

[Manish Jain]

Hi,

I am running VirtualBox under FreeBSD 10.2 amd64. I created a Windows XP
vm for some work I need to do. The vm needs data which I placed on a USB
pen drive. I added a filter under VirtualBox to pass the pen drive to
the vm and then started the vm. The pen drive for some reason is not
smoothly visible to the vm - the icon for removable drive in the vm
keeps coming and going every 1-2 seconds. I think the problem is the
Gnome3 desktop environment and VirtualBox are competing for the USB pen
drive. On the host FreeBSD system, I repeatedly get error messages
"Unable to mount volume" - some error related to HALD. I tried setting
hald_enable="NO" in /etc/rc.conf and then rebooted FreeBSD. Upon
restart, the situation remains the same - the vm does not see the pen
drive long enough for the data to be copied out.

Can someone please help me ? What I want is that the pen drive is under
the control of VirtualBox, with no interference from the desktop
environment.


Thanks for any help.

[Polytropon]

Post by Manish Jain
Hi,
I am running VirtualBox under FreeBSD 10.2 amd64. I created a Windows XP
vm for some work I need to do. The vm needs data which I placed on a USB
pen drive. I added a filter under VirtualBox to pass the pen drive to
the vm and then started the vm. The pen drive for some reason is not
smoothly visible to the vm - the icon for removable drive in the vm
keeps coming and going every 1-2 seconds. I think the problem is the
Gnome3 desktop environment and VirtualBox are competing for the USB pen
drive.

Yes, that is to be expected as such a configuration tends to do lots
of automount "magic" which is now turning against the user. :-)

Post by Manish Jain
On the host FreeBSD system, I repeatedly get error messages
"Unable to mount volume" - some error related to HALD. I tried setting
hald_enable="NO" in /etc/rc.conf and then rebooted FreeBSD.

If I remember correctly, this doesn't have any effect, especially
if you have gnome_enable="YES" defined.

Post by Manish Jain
Upon
restart, the situation remains the same - the vm does not see the pen
drive long enough for the data to be copied out.

As far as I know, HAL - at the point where it was fully supported - has
been EOL'd in Linux and is therefore mostly useless in FreeBSD. The
problem you see probably is related to the Gnome 3 removable media
subsystem, the "automounter". If you want to exclusively allow USB
access to mass storage to the "Windows XP" VirtualBox instance, you
need to disable that device inside Gnome, i. e. keep Gnome from trying
to access it.

Here is an instruction on how to do it (even though it is related to
Ubuntu, it should work similarly on FreeBSD/VirtualBox):

http://askubuntu.com/questions/25596/how-to-set-up-usb-for-virtualbox

Allow me to quote the relevant text section:

Select host USB device for access from the guest

To grant access to USB devices we need to select a device to
disable in the host and to enable in the guest (this is a
precaution to avoid simultaneous access from host and guest).
This can be done from the panel Devices menu or by right
mouse click in the bottom panel of the Virtual Box Manager
on the USB icon:

(screenshot)

Tick the device you need in the guest, untick it if you need
it in the host. The selected device will immediately be
accessible from the guest. A Windows guest may need additional
drivers:

(screenshot)

Windows 10 may not accept an NTFS formatted USB pen drive.

End quote.

Also check out the next section in that document which shows how to
make certain settings permanent, which probably is more useful for
printers and scanners than for removable media, but might be handy
if you're going into "USB thumb drive exchange rage" mode. :-)

[Manish Jain]

Post by Polytropon

Post by Manish Jain
Hi,
I am running VirtualBox under FreeBSD 10.2 amd64. I created a Windows XP
vm for some work I need to do. The vm needs data which I placed on a USB
pen drive. I added a filter under VirtualBox to pass the pen drive to
the vm and then started the vm. The pen drive for some reason is not
smoothly visible to the vm - the icon for removable drive in the vm
keeps coming and going every 1-2 seconds. I think the problem is the
Gnome3 desktop environment and VirtualBox are competing for the USB pen
drive.

Yes, that is to be expected as such a configuration tends to do lots
of automount "magic" which is now turning against the user. :-)

Post by Manish Jain
On the host FreeBSD system, I repeatedly get error messages
"Unable to mount volume" - some error related to HALD. I tried setting
hald_enable="NO" in /etc/rc.conf and then rebooted FreeBSD.

If I remember correctly, this doesn't have any effect, especially
if you have gnome_enable="YES" defined.

Post by Manish Jain
Upon
restart, the situation remains the same - the vm does not see the pen
drive long enough for the data to be copied out.

As far as I know, HAL - at the point where it was fully supported - has
been EOL'd in Linux and is therefore mostly useless in FreeBSD. The
problem you see probably is related to the Gnome 3 removable media
subsystem, the "automounter". If you want to exclusively allow USB
access to mass storage to the "Windows XP" VirtualBox instance, you
need to disable that device inside Gnome, i. e. keep Gnome from trying
to access it.
Here is an instruction on how to do it (even though it is related to
http://askubuntu.com/questions/25596/how-to-set-up-usb-for-virtualbox
Select host USB device for access from the guest
To grant access to USB devices we need to select a device to
disable in the host and to enable in the guest (this is a
precaution to avoid simultaneous access from host and guest).
This can be done from the panel Devices menu or by right
mouse click in the bottom panel of the Virtual Box Manager
(screenshot)
Tick the device you need in the guest, untick it if you need
it in the host. The selected device will immediately be
accessible from the guest. A Windows guest may need additional

I tried both the Devices menu as well the bottom panel of Virtual Box
Manager. It has no effect : the pen drive appears momentarily again and
again - not long enough for me to copy out the data. I have also used
dconf-editor to set org.gnome.desktop.media-handling::automount to false
- and in gnome3, the automount has stopped. But still vbox is unable to
get clean access to the USB pen drive.

Is there anything else I can do ? I am further somewhat surprised that
an extension pack which enables USB 2.0 access is available for Linux,
but not for FreeBSD. Does anyone have any idea why is that so ?

[CeDeROM]

The USB support on VirtualBox is highly unreliable and version
dependant - it works with some releases and with some releases it does
not work as expected - not only on FreeBSD (I also use OSX version).
This is really annoying when USB stops working after an update to a
new version and you depend on this USB access with your work :-(

Maybe if you try last version of 4 branch and this works for you then
don't update ;-)

[Polytropon]

Post by CeDeROM
The USB support on VirtualBox is highly unreliable and version
dependant - it works with some releases and with some releases it does
not work as expected - not only on FreeBSD (I also use OSX version).
This is really annoying when USB stops working after an update to a
new version and you depend on this USB access with your work :-(

Just an idea:

Why not mount the USB stick on the FreeBSD host system (or even
have Gnome automount it), then make the mount directory accessible
to the "Windows" guest through localhost FTP, localhost SAMBA, or
another means of virtual network?

It sounds so stupid - it could actually work! ;-)

[Ralf Mardorf via freebsd-questions]

I have also used dconf-editor to set
org.gnome.desktop.media-handling::automount to false - and in gnome3,
the automount has stopped. But still vbox is unable to get clean
access to the USB pen drive.

On Linux I always install empty dummy packages to fulfil GVFS
dependencies. IOW GVFS isn't installed here. At least when not using
GNOME, this has got only one side effect, everything needs to be mounted
by command line or by tools. The main reason to not install GVFS for me
is, that I don't want that GVFS wakes up my external green USB HDD. As
soon as GVFS is installed, the drive spins up and down again and again.
I guess that even GNOME3 runs without issues, if GVFS is missing, but
just auto-mount crap and the trash bin wouldn't be available.

Is there anything else I can do ? I am further somewhat surprised that
an extension pack which enables USB 2.0 access is available for Linux,
but not for FreeBSD. Does anyone have any idea why is that so ?

I don't have an idea, regarding FreeBSD but USB support by vbox isn't
good on Linux machines. Access to an USB mouse, to storage devices does
work without issues, but only very old versions of vbox allow to run
iTunes on the vbox guest and to update iOS on an iPad by USB. When
doing it, there several times is the need to reconnect USB by the vbox
device menu. New versions of vbox don't allow to update iOS by USB at
all. Sharing data between iPad and the vbox guest running iTunes,
updating apps by USB "works", but is very slow and often fails, IOW
needs to be repeated. This happened with an XP guest (using vdi) and now
happens with a Win7 guest (using qcow).
At the moment vbox fails with latest Linux (the kernel) completely. I
need to stay with Linux 4.5.4.

The advantage of vbox compared to other virtual machines (at least for
Linux) is, that sharing a folder between guest and host is painless and
apart from this, setting up anything else is easy to do, too.

Regards,
Ralf

[Manish Jain]

Post by CeDeROM
The USB support on VirtualBox is highly unreliable and version
dependant - it works with some releases and with some releases it does
not work as expected - not only on FreeBSD (I also use OSX version).
This is really annoying when USB stops working after an update to a
new version and you depend on this USB access with your work :-(
Maybe if you try last version of 4 branch and this works for you then
don't update ;-)

I am glad that I did not get rid of my Windows XP installation. If vbox
USB is jittery when I need Windows, I can boot into XP and do the work.
Sounds crazy that USB is as good as missing from a supposed
virtualization solution.

[Ralf Mardorf via freebsd-questions]

or another means of virtual network?
It sounds so stupid - it could actually work! ;-)

This sounds not stupid, but like a good idea, since the perhaps only
good thing with vbox are easy to share folders (at least on Linux
hosts). The advantage of vbox is, that there's no need to use SAMBA.

Regards,
Ralf

The USB support on VirtualBox is highly unreliable and version
dependant

I can confirm this for Linux hosts, too.

[Polytropon]

Post by Ralf Mardorf via freebsd-questions

or another means of virtual network?
It sounds so stupid - it could actually work! ;-)

This sounds not stupid, but like a good idea, since the perhaps only
good thing with vbox are easy to share folders (at least on Linux
hosts). The advantage of vbox is, that there's no need to use SAMBA.

After reading your other message, I also thought about this concept:
Make the directory where the USB media is being mounted on a "drive
letter" (or shared "folder") for the "Windows", as if it would be a
local drive. I know this is possible with wine, and VirtualBox, if I
remember correctly, does support this as well, so no need to involve
networking (and the complexity it adds, either by requiring a FreeBSD
SAMBA install or the addition of usable FTP-ready tools on "Windows").
Of course the mount/umount operations would have to take place on the
host OS, but that isn't a problem.

[Solène]

Post by Manish Jain
Hi,
I am running VirtualBox under FreeBSD 10.2 amd64. I created a Windows
XP
vm for some work I need to do. The vm needs data which I placed on a
USB
pen drive. I added a filter under VirtualBox to pass the pen drive to
the vm and then started the vm. The pen drive for some reason is not
smoothly visible to the vm - the icon for removable drive in the vm
keeps coming and going every 1-2 seconds. I think the problem is the
Gnome3 desktop environment and VirtualBox are competing for the USB pen
drive. On the host FreeBSD system, I repeatedly get error messages
"Unable to mount volume" - some error related to HALD. I tried setting
hald_enable="NO" in /etc/rc.conf and then rebooted FreeBSD. Upon
restart, the situation remains the same - the vm does not see the pen
drive long enough for the data to be copied out.
Can someone please help me ? What I want is that the pen drive is under
the control of VirtualBox, with no interference from the desktop
environment.
Thanks for any help.

Hello,

I am not sure this is possible, the handbook contains contradiction
about usb support :

https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/virtualization-host-virtualbox.html

On the top it's said that you need to install extension pack to get USB
but that this pack isn't available on FreeBSD

Post by Manish Jain
but with closed-source components available in a separate extension
pack. These components include support for USB 2.0 devices.
More information may be found on the “Downloads” page of the
VirtualBox™ wiki. Currently, these extensions are not available for
FreeBSD.

And in the middle of the page, there is a section about "21.6.2.
VirtualBox™ USB Support"


The official wiki confirms that USB2/USB3 supports is given by
installing extensions

https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch03.html#settings-usb

[Lowell Gilbert]

Post by Manish Jain
Sounds crazy that USB is as good as missing from a supposed
virtualization solution.

Unfortunately, USB requires privileged access to memory. Other
peripherals don't do this, leaving it to OS driver code. In addition to
being a huge potential source of bugs, it's a security nightmare.

You might have better luck with a different brand of USB storage.

[Manish Jain]

Post by Polytropon

Post by CeDeROM
The USB support on VirtualBox is highly unreliable and version
dependant - it works with some releases and with some releases it does
not work as expected - not only on FreeBSD (I also use OSX version).
This is really annoying when USB stops working after an update to a
new version and you depend on this USB access with your work :-(

Why not mount the USB stick on the FreeBSD host system (or even
have Gnome automount it), then make the mount directory accessible
to the "Windows" guest through localhost FTP, localhost SAMBA, or
another means of virtual network?
It sounds so stupid - it could actually work! ;-)

Sounds a bit far-fetched and would anyway need to be implemented all
over again every time I install FreeBSD.

Just wondering if this is possible - I remember there was an application
(Nero, I think) - which made it possible to copy/paste to CD/DVD RW from
Explorer itself, without the need to actually burn it via a CD/DVD
frontend. Is there any way I can use a CD/DVD just as a part of the
regular filesystem ? If that is possible, the need for USB support in
vbox would largely be mitigated.

Is there any other non-USB device which can fill in the need to make
shared data available to the guest machine ? IOMEGA floppies I think are
no longer used, but if there is something which provides seamless
access, I would not mind buying some hardware to solve the problem for
good (considering the magnitude of the problem, make that 'for very good').

Thanks for any tips.

[Polytropon]

Post by Manish Jain
Just wondering if this is possible - I remember there was an application
(Nero, I think) - which made it possible to copy/paste to CD/DVD RW from
Explorer itself, without the need to actually burn it via a CD/DVD
frontend. Is there any way I can use a CD/DVD just as a part of the
regular filesystem ? If that is possible, the need for USB support in
vbox would largely be mitigated.

As far as I remember, this is more or less a "mkisofs integrated
in the file browser" - i. e., it will be used for mastering the
media, or more precisely, prepare the files for burning. I don't
think ISO-9660 media (data CDs and DVDs) are easy to deal with
as r/w direct access (!) media...

Post by Manish Jain
Is there any other non-USB device which can fill in the need to make
shared data available to the guest machine ?

A small NAS could be helpful. Those can usually be accessed per
FTP, NFS and SAMBA using a regular network connection.

Post by Manish Jain
IOMEGA floppies I think are
no longer used, but if there is something which provides seamless
access, I would not mind buying some hardware to solve the problem for
good (considering the magnitude of the problem, make that 'for very good').

No. The worst solution prevails, so we're basically stuck wuth USB.
Sure, there is Firewire, but who uses that? Or external SATA disks
or SSDs, which requires an eSATA port on the machines involved.

However, you could try optical media with a UDF file system which
is said to enable r/w direct access to CDs and DVDs (usually CD-RW
and DVD-RW). If speed isn't that important, it might work. However,
UDF support sadly isn't trivial on non-"Windows" systems.

[Ralf Mardorf via freebsd-questions]

Post by Manish Jain

Post by Polytropon
Why not mount the USB stick on the FreeBSD host system (or even
have Gnome automount it), then make the mount directory accessible
to the "Windows" guest through localhost FTP, localhost SAMBA, or
another means of virtual network?
It sounds so stupid - it could actually work! ;-)

Sounds a bit far-fetched and would anyway need to be implemented all
over again every time I install FreeBSD.

It was already mentioned that virtualbox provides shared folders. Where
other virtual machines require to set up SAMBA, virtualbox provides
the shared folders, just a few mouse clicks away.

[Manish Jain]

Post by Polytropon
No. The worst solution prevails, so we're basically stuck wuth USB.
Sure, there is Firewire, but who uses that? Or external SATA disks
or SSDs, which requires an eSATA port on the machines involved.

The whole vbox experiment started with the idea of making my scanner
available to the vm. Now, with no USB, there seems no way of making the
Canon USB scanner work under the vm. Surprisingly, the list of filters
in vbox manager do not even list the Canon scanner - despite the fact
that the scanner has been switched on, and usbconfig clearly shows this :

ugen2.6: <MG2400 series Canon> at usbus2, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH
(480Mbps) pwr=ON (2mA)

Does that mean, if I can't get the scanner to work with sane/xsane,
there is no way except to actually boot XP?

The USB situation is a puzzle : it is not as if vbox cleanly bars USB
access. I actually managed to access my pendrive for about 10 seconds -
just enough to do copy out the data I needed on the VM. So I could do
the work - but given the situation, there is no to be sure USB access
would be available for any length of time in the vm.

But, for the moment, there is a solution - shared folders via vbox Guest
Additions (VGA). Although VGA is apparently not open source, but at
least I can download the iso image and make shared folders available to
the vm. That makes it possible to transfer data in and out of the vm.

But that does not yet resolve the scanner situation as of yet.

[Bernt Hansson]

Post by Manish Jain

Post by Polytropon

Post by CeDeROM
The USB support on VirtualBox is highly unreliable and version
dependant - it works with some releases and with some releases it does
not work as expected - not only on FreeBSD (I also use OSX version).
This is really annoying when USB stops working after an update to a
new version and you depend on this USB access with your work :-(

Why not mount the USB stick on the FreeBSD host system (or even
have Gnome automount it), then make the mount directory accessible
to the "Windows" guest through localhost FTP, localhost SAMBA, or
another means of virtual network?
It sounds so stupid - it could actually work! ;-)

Sounds a bit far-fetched and would anyway need to be implemented all
over again every time I install FreeBSD.
Just wondering if this is possible - I remember there was an application
(Nero, I think) - which made it possible to copy/paste to CD/DVD RW from
Explorer itself, without the need to actually burn it via a CD/DVD
frontend. Is there any way I can use a CD/DVD just as a part of the
regular filesystem ? If that is possible, the need for USB support in
vbox would largely be mitigated.
Is there any other non-USB device which can fill in the need to make
shared data available to the guest machine ? IOMEGA floppies I think are
no longer used, but if there is something which provides seamless
access, I would not mind buying some hardware to solve the problem for
good (considering the magnitude of the problem, make that 'for very good').
Thanks for any tips.

Perhaps this is worth a try.

http://linux.bytesex.org/misc/webfs.html

[Mario Lobo]

On Tue, 5 Jul 2016 19:27:01 +0200

Post by Bernt Hansson

Post by Manish Jain

Post by Polytropon

Post by CeDeROM
The USB support on VirtualBox is highly unreliable and version
dependant - it works with some releases and with some releases it
does not work as expected - not only on FreeBSD (I also use OSX
version). This is really annoying when USB stops working after an
update to a new version and you depend on this USB access with
your work :-(

Why not mount the USB stick on the FreeBSD host system (or even
have Gnome automount it), then make the mount directory accessible
to the "Windows" guest through localhost FTP, localhost SAMBA, or
another means of virtual network?
It sounds so stupid - it could actually work! ;-)

Sounds a bit far-fetched and would anyway need to be implemented all
over again every time I install FreeBSD.
Just wondering if this is possible - I remember there was an
application (Nero, I think) - which made it possible to copy/paste
to CD/DVD RW from Explorer itself, without the need to actually
burn it via a CD/DVD frontend. Is there any way I can use a CD/DVD
just as a part of the regular filesystem ? If that is possible, the
need for USB support in vbox would largely be mitigated.
Is there any other non-USB device which can fill in the need to make
shared data available to the guest machine ? IOMEGA floppies I
think are no longer used, but if there is something which provides
seamless access, I would not mind buying some hardware to solve the
problem for good (considering the magnitude of the problem, make
that 'for very good').
Thanks for any tips.

Perhaps this is worth a try.
http://linux.bytesex.org/misc/webfs.html
_______________________________________________
https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to

From my side, I've been having woes with VBox usb usage, to the point
that I wrote to the developers of VB directly. What follows is the
conversation I had with Mr. Frank Mehnert | Software Development
Director, VirtualBox.

Post by Bernt Hansson
I've been using VB with FreeBSD since its early days, when
USB 1.0 used to be the standard.
Now a days, it is no longer viable, even if we downgrade the USB
connection through the OS to usb 1.0. The device shows up on the guest
but that is as far as it goes. It simply doesn't work.
I see that you have pre-compiled extension packs for Windows and Linux
hosts. VB compiles and works great through the ports in FreeBSD. The
highest available official version 4.3.38 but through the works of
Jung-uk Kim, I am running 5.0.20 right now! If it wasn't for this USB
issue, VB would be completely operational on FBSD!
You probably have been asked about this a lot, but do you see a
possibility anywhere in the future, of providing a pre-compiled
extension pack for FreeBSD? I never understood why Windows and Linux
have it and FreeBSD doesn't. Is there a particular reason for it?
Is there anyway I can help with this matter? Anybody in particular I
can plead for this?
Again, my apologies for barging in, and thank you for reading and for
your time.

Frank:

hard to say. I guess if the USB devices worked in the past then this
was probably because the due to the missing Extension Pack the devices
were forced to use the USB 1 mode.

Providing Extenicode for FreeBSD is not impossible but would require
some effort. The most important part is probably to find a compatible
build environment.

I don't say "No" in general but we need to think about this in more
detail.

Kind regards,

Frank

[m***@bontempi.net]

Post by Mario Lobo
On Tue, 5 Jul 2016 19:27:01 +0200

Post by Bernt Hansson

Post by Manish Jain

Post by Polytropon

Post by CeDeROM
The USB support on VirtualBox is highly unreliable and version
dependant - it works with some releases and with some releases it
does not work as expected - not only on FreeBSD (I also use OSX
version). This is really annoying when USB stops working after an
update to a new version and you depend on this USB access with
your work :-(

Why not mount the USB stick on the FreeBSD host system (or even
have Gnome automount it), then make the mount directory accessible
to the "Windows" guest through localhost FTP, localhost SAMBA, or
another means of virtual network?
It sounds so stupid - it could actually work! ;-)

Sounds a bit far-fetched and would anyway need to be implemented all
over again every time I install FreeBSD.
Just wondering if this is possible - I remember there was an
application (Nero, I think) - which made it possible to copy/paste
to CD/DVD RW from Explorer itself, without the need to actually
burn it via a CD/DVD frontend. Is there any way I can use a CD/DVD
just as a part of the regular filesystem ? If that is possible, the
need for USB support in vbox would largely be mitigated.
Is there any other non-USB device which can fill in the need to make
shared data available to the guest machine ? IOMEGA floppies I
think are no longer used, but if there is something which provides
seamless access, I would not mind buying some hardware to solve the
problem for good (considering the magnitude of the problem, make
that 'for very good').
Thanks for any tips.

Perhaps this is worth a try.
http://linux.bytesex.org/misc/webfs.html
_______________________________________________
https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to

From my side, I've been having woes with VBox usb usage, to the point
that I wrote to the developers of VB directly. What follows is the
conversation I had with Mr. Frank Mehnert | Software Development
Director, VirtualBox.

Post by Bernt Hansson
I've been using VB with FreeBSD since its early days, when
USB 1.0 used to be the standard.
Now a days, it is no longer viable, even if we downgrade the USB
connection through the OS to usb 1.0. The device shows up on the guest
but that is as far as it goes. It simply doesn't work.
I see that you have pre-compiled extension packs for Windows and Linux
hosts. VB compiles and works great through the ports in FreeBSD. The
highest available official version 4.3.38 but through the works of
Jung-uk Kim, I am running 5.0.20 right now! If it wasn't for this USB
issue, VB would be completely operational on FBSD!
You probably have been asked about this a lot, but do you see a
possibility anywhere in the future, of providing a pre-compiled
extension pack for FreeBSD? I never understood why Windows and Linux
have it and FreeBSD doesn't. Is there a particular reason for it?
Is there anyway I can help with this matter? Anybody in particular I
can plead for this?
Again, my apologies for barging in, and thank you for reading and for
your time.

hard to say. I guess if the USB devices worked in the past then this
was probably because the due to the missing Extension Pack the devices
were forced to use the USB 1 mode.
Providing Extenicode for FreeBSD is not impossible but would require
some effort. The most important part is probably to find a compatible
build environment.
I don't say "No" in general but we need to think about this in more
detail.
Kind regards,
Frank

I know that the subject line reads «How to make smooth USB access
available to Virtualbox vm», but I was wondering if anybody has
successfully shortcut that issue by using Bhyve with the -s switch?

As per the wiki [1], «The bhyve hypervisor now supports Microsoft
Windows virtual machines as of FreeBSD HEAD SVN tag r288524»

[1] https://wiki.freebsd.org/bhyve/Windows

Priyadarshan

[Priyadarshan]

Post by Mario Lobo
On Tue, 5 Jul 2016 19:27:01 +0200

Post by Bernt Hansson

Post by Manish Jain

Post by Polytropon

Post by CeDeROM
The USB support on VirtualBox is highly unreliable and version
dependant - it works with some releases and with some releases it
does not work as expected - not only on FreeBSD (I also use OSX
version). This is really annoying when USB stops working after an
update to a new version and you depend on this USB access with
your work :-(

Why not mount the USB stick on the FreeBSD host system (or even
have Gnome automount it), then make the mount directory accessible
to the "Windows" guest through localhost FTP, localhost SAMBA, or
another means of virtual network?
It sounds so stupid - it could actually work! ;-)

Sounds a bit far-fetched and would anyway need to be implemented all
over again every time I install FreeBSD.
Just wondering if this is possible - I remember there was an
application (Nero, I think) - which made it possible to copy/paste
to CD/DVD RW from Explorer itself, without the need to actually
burn it via a CD/DVD frontend. Is there any way I can use a CD/DVD
just as a part of the regular filesystem ? If that is possible, the
need for USB support in vbox would largely be mitigated.
Is there any other non-USB device which can fill in the need to make
shared data available to the guest machine ? IOMEGA floppies I
think are no longer used, but if there is something which provides
seamless access, I would not mind buying some hardware to solve the
problem for good (considering the magnitude of the problem, make
that 'for very good').
Thanks for any tips.

Perhaps this is worth a try.
http://linux.bytesex.org/misc/webfs.html
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From my side, I've been having woes with VBox usb usage, to the point
that I wrote to the developers of VB directly. What follows is the
conversation I had with Mr. Frank Mehnert | Software Development
Director, VirtualBox.

Post by Bernt Hansson
I've been using VB with FreeBSD since its early days, when
USB 1.0 used to be the standard.
Now a days, it is no longer viable, even if we downgrade the USB
connection through the OS to usb 1.0. The device shows up on the guest
but that is as far as it goes. It simply doesn't work.
I see that you have pre-compiled extension packs for Windows and Linux
hosts. VB compiles and works great through the ports in FreeBSD. The
highest available official version 4.3.38 but through the works of
Jung-uk Kim, I am running 5.0.20 right now! If it wasn't for this USB
issue, VB would be completely operational on FBSD!
You probably have been asked about this a lot, but do you see a
possibility anywhere in the future, of providing a pre-compiled
extension pack for FreeBSD? I never understood why Windows and Linux
have it and FreeBSD doesn't. Is there a particular reason for it?
Is there anyway I can help with this matter? Anybody in particular I
can plead for this?
Again, my apologies for barging in, and thank you for reading and for
your time.

hard to say. I guess if the USB devices worked in the past then this
was probably because the due to the missing Extension Pack the devices
were forced to use the USB 1 mode.
Providing Extenicode for FreeBSD is not impossible but would require
some effort. The most important part is probably to find a compatible
build environment.
I don't say "No" in general but we need to think about this in more
detail.
Kind regards,
Frank

I know that the subject line reads «How to make smooth USB access
available to Virtualbox vm», but I was wondering if anybody has
successfully shortcut that issue by using Bhyve with the -s switch?

As per the wiki [1], «The bhyve hypervisor now supports Microsoft
Windows virtual machines as of FreeBSD HEAD SVN tag r288524»

[1] https://wiki.freebsd.org/bhyve/Windows

Priyadarshan

[Manish Jain]

Post by Bernt Hansson

Post by Manish Jain

Post by Polytropon

Post by CeDeROM
The USB support on VirtualBox is highly unreliable and version
dependant - it works with some releases and with some releases it does
not work as expected - not only on FreeBSD (I also use OSX version).
This is really annoying when USB stops working after an update to a
new version and you depend on this USB access with your work :-(

Why not mount the USB stick on the FreeBSD host system (or even
have Gnome automount it), then make the mount directory accessible
to the "Windows" guest through localhost FTP, localhost SAMBA, or
another means of virtual network?
It sounds so stupid - it could actually work! ;-)

Sounds a bit far-fetched and would anyway need to be implemented all
over again every time I install FreeBSD.
Just wondering if this is possible - I remember there was an application
(Nero, I think) - which made it possible to copy/paste to CD/DVD RW from
Explorer itself, without the need to actually burn it via a CD/DVD
frontend. Is there any way I can use a CD/DVD just as a part of the
regular filesystem ? If that is possible, the need for USB support in
vbox would largely be mitigated.
Is there any other non-USB device which can fill in the need to make
shared data available to the guest machine ? IOMEGA floppies I think are
no longer used, but if there is something which provides seamless
access, I would not mind buying some hardware to solve the problem for
good (considering the magnitude of the problem, make that 'for very
good').
Thanks for any tips.

Perhaps this is worth a try.
http://linux.bytesex.org/misc/webfs.html

I reconsidered my position. With the USB situation as it is, there is no
way I can make the Windows XP vm do anything meaningful. It seems
ridiculous that VirtualBox passes on my APC UPS to the vm, but the
scanner and printer are not even available for filtering. The pen drive
filter is available, but the goddamn thing won't work in the vm.
VirtualBox is a pathetic piece of software, in my opinion. I am very
glad that I did not get rid of my Windows XP installation - otherwise I
would have been left on very marshy grounds if and when I needed Redmond
services.

[Ralf Mardorf via freebsd-questions]

Post by Manish Jain
I reconsidered my position. With the USB situation as it is, there is
no way I can make the Windows XP vm do anything meaningful. It seems
ridiculous that VirtualBox passes on my APC UPS to the vm, but the
scanner and printer are not even available for filtering. The pen
drive filter is available, but the goddamn thing won't work in the vm.
VirtualBox is a pathetic piece of software, in my opinion. I am very
glad that I did not get rid of my Windows XP installation - otherwise
I would have been left on very marshy grounds if and when I needed
Redmond services.

You didn't describe what you actually try to archive and how you tried
to do this.

You e.g. can't connect to the printer, by using a Windows guest's driver
for the printer. The real hardware is handled by the host.

I don't use a printer at all, but assumed I would use a printer, I
anyway would consider to print using the host, even if printing using
the guest would be possible, data transmission is slower, slower
virtual hard disk, slower virtual hardware interfaces.

Which program requires scanning and printing? Isn't it possible to scan
and print using the host? I guess the Software running on the guest OS
is most likely able to import a scanned pic and to export text or pic
files for printing, by using a shared folder.

Virtualbox most likely is the weakest virtual machine available
regarding a lot of aspects, but OTOH it's most likely the most easiest
to use virtual machine. Virtualbox doesn't require graphical desktop
sharing by VNC, it doesn't require SAMBA to share files, you can set up
everything by just a few mouse clicks, without the learning curve other
virtual solutions require.

Regards,
Ralf

[Mario Lobo]

On Wed, 06 Jul 2016 05:08:02 +0000
***@bontempi.net wrote:

....

Post by m***@bontempi.net
I know that the subject line reads «How to make smooth USB access
available to Virtualbox vm», but I was wondering if anybody has
successfully shortcut that issue by using Bhyve with the -s switch?
As per the wiki [1], «The bhyve hypervisor now supports Microsoft
Windows virtual machines as of FreeBSD HEAD SVN tag r288524»
[1] https://wiki.freebsd.org/bhyve/Windows
Priyadarshan

For me at least, here are the problems with this approach for
production use:

-Bleeding edge FreeBSD HEAD
-Remastering a Windows ISO
-An AutoUnattend.xml automatic installation file
-Windows VirtIO network driver
-DVD-ROM remastering utilities (p7zip and sysutils/cdrtools-devel)
-RDP Remote Desktop Protocol client (net/freerdp)

plus all the gothchas involved in the whole procedure.

For now, it is a lot to ask just for using usb (in my case).

[Thomas Mueller]

Post by Manish Jain
Is there any other non-USB device which can fill in the need to make
shared data available to the guest machine ? IOMEGA floppies I think are
no longer used, but if there is something which provides seamless
access, I would not mind buying some hardware to solve the problem for
good (considering the magnitude of the problem, make that 'for very good').

Micronet makes Fantom external hard drives, multi-TB, USB 3.0, some also with eSATA: see micronet.com

I haven't ordered one yet but have been thinking of it.

If you don't already have eSATA port, it may be possible with a PCI or PCIE card with eSATA port(s).

You could also consider possibilities with NAS as Polytropon suggested.

Tom

[Manish Jain]

Post by Thomas Mueller

Post by Manish Jain
Is there any other non-USB device which can fill in the need to make
shared data available to the guest machine ? IOMEGA floppies I think are
no longer used, but if there is something which provides seamless
access, I would not mind buying some hardware to solve the problem for
good (considering the magnitude of the problem, make that 'for very good').

Micronet makes Fantom external hard drives, multi-TB, USB 3.0, some also with eSATA: see micronet.com
I haven't ordered one yet but have been thinking of it.
If you don't already have eSATA port, it may be possible with a PCI or PCIE card with eSATA port(s).
You could also consider possibilities with NAS as Polytropon suggested.
Tom

Thanks for your reply. Even if I could somehow manage to get shared data
available to the vm (which incidentally can be easily done with Guest
Additions shared folders), it only addresses part of the problem. There
is no way I can use my USB scanner and printer. The way Oracle has
programmed/policied vbox, it makes vbox useful in a very limited way. I
think the better thing to do - at least for the time being - is to just
boot the XP physical installation when Windows functionality is needed.
Luckily, that doesn't happen often now - something like once a week at
the most.

It's unfortunate that Oracle and a whole bevy of companies use
open-source technologies to create commercial software that aims to ruin
the open source spirit. There ought to be legal bars that prevent abuse
of the open source world.

Please let me know if you manage to make data available to guests via
eSATA. I might purchase a PCI/PCIE card with an eSATA port if you have
success. That would mitigate the need for closed-source Guest Additions.

[Manish Jain]

Post by Thomas Mueller

Post by Manish Jain
Is there any other non-USB device which can fill in the need to make
shared data available to the guest machine ? IOMEGA floppies I think are
no longer used, but if there is something which provides seamless
access, I would not mind buying some hardware to solve the problem for
good (considering the magnitude of the problem, make that 'for very good').

Micronet makes Fantom external hard drives, multi-TB, USB 3.0, some also with eSATA: see micronet.com
I haven't ordered one yet but have been thinking of it.
If you don't already have eSATA port, it may be possible with a PCI or PCIE card with eSATA port(s).
You could also consider possibilities with NAS as Polytropon suggested.
Tom

Thanks for your reply. Even if I could somehow manage to get shared data
available to the vm (which incidentally can be easily done with Guest
Additions shared folders), it only addresses part of the problem. There
is no way I can use my USB scanner and printer. The way Oracle has
programmed/policied vbox, it makes vbox useful in a very limited way. I
think the better thing to do - at least for the time being - is to just
boot the XP physical installation when Windows functionality is needed.
Luckily, that doesn't happen often now - something like once a week at
the most.

It's unfortunate that Oracle and a whole bevy of companies use
open-source technologies to create commercial software that aims to ruin
the open source spirit. There ought to be legal bars that prevent abuse
of the open source world.

Please let me know if you manage to make data available to guests via
eSATA. I might purchase a PCI/PCIE card with an eSATA port if you have
success. That would mitigate the need for closed-source Guest Additions.