Enabling USB ports in Oracle Virtualbox versions 4 & 5

[m654321]

https://www.linuxliteos.com/manual/tutorials.html#vbox/

Thanks Jerry - I didn't see that alternative way of installing vboxuser.
Oh well, I guess I've shown another method here, using the terminal, so folks have a choice...

Mike

[Jerry]

https://www.linuxliteos.com/manual/tutorials.html#vbox

[m654321]

Whenever I've set-up Oracle Virtualbox to test guest operating systems, there seems to be a problem with enabling the computer's USB 2.0 (in VBox version 4) or  USB  3.0 ports (version 5), so that the attached devices communicate with the guest OS.  I found a neat remedy at http://askubuntu.com/questions/25596/how-to-set-up-usb-for-virtualbox  that I'd like to share, which worked for me...

Essentially you need to be in a vboxusers group. Open the terminal and type in the following: 

Code: [Select]

sudo usermod -a -G vboxusers <username> 

(I think -a -G can alternatively be typed as -aG though I haven't tried this)
You need to reboot or logout/login for group membership to take effect.

When you have shutdown your virtual OS, go to Settings, within Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager, then down to USB, select this, and then click on the blue icon of a USB plug with a green cross on it on the right hand side of this window. Attach various USB devices and click the green cross each time, so that the devices appear in a list under USB Device Filters (with a tick next to each one). Don't forget to click 'OK button' at the bottom-right so that the changes take effect.[/font]

Regards
Mike