1

I have a VirtualBox ubuntu guest running on a osx host. I've searched the web and implemented the solution for similar problems, but nothing has helped me resolve my issue.

When I connect my phone, ubuntu mounts the device automatically. When I connect my USB drive (Kanguru SS3 32GB), it does not mount the drive. I'm only using one processor for my VM settings. VirtualBox has the device available and selected under the "USB Devices" menu, but the /media/ folder is empty and the drive does not automount.

So I don't know what to do at this point. Seems like overkill but should I uninstall/reinstall VirtualBox? Why would the guest os mount one usb device, but not the other?

3
  • some devices need an USB filter rule to be recognized. See askubuntu.com/questions/209950/….
    – Takkat
    May 8, 2014 at 19:33
  • @Takkat I added a usb filter but it is still not recognized. One thing of note is that I don't have the 'vboxuser' group and I'm not sure how to get it. Some of the solutions to similar problems have suggested that adding my user account to that group will solve the problem, but I don't have that group available to test it.
    – mblPrgr
    May 8, 2014 at 19:49
  • The group vboxusers (note the trailing s!) should have been created on installing Virtual Box. Also see askubuntu.com/questions/25596/how-to-set-up-usb-for-virtualbox but I have no experience on an OSX host.
    – Takkat
    May 8, 2014 at 20:05

1 Answer 1

1

I'm not entirely sure about why Ubuntu would see one USB versus another other than perhaps file system type or limitations in the guest addition USB handlers.

The solution I use is to mount the USB drive (or partition) as an OSX volume and then access it from Ubuntu via VirtualBox. In other words, a bit roundabout compared to mounting the USB drive directly in Ubuntu. But this approach has an additional benefits - both OSX and Ubuntu can see the same drive and can use it for easily sharing data between host and guest.

If using the USB partition frequently in Ubuntu and in OSX then should make the partition case-sensitive. An optional bonus is encrypting the partition if you're into that sort of thing.

Steps:

OSX: Mount the partition normally in Finder.
           OSX typically automounts a USB drive to /Volumes ... Example: /Volumes/MyUsbPartition.
           See also: http://osxdaily.com/2013/05/13/mount-unmount-drives-from-the-command-line-in-mac-os-x/
OSX: Share that volume via VirtualBox Manager
    Open VirtualBox
    Add '/Volumes/MyUsbPartition' as a ShareFolder (with full access).
        I enable "Auto Mount" and "Make Permanent" but if only mounting it termporarily, don't make it permanent.
            This means the "shared folder" will appear automatically in Ubuntu as /media/sf_MyUsbOsxPartition (permissions: user:root, group:vboxsf).
        NOTE: Requires "Guest Extensions". See selected answer for http://askubuntu.com/questions/22743/how-do-i-install-guest-additions-in-a-virtualbox-vm
            Summary: Ubuntu APT install  virtualbox-guest-additions-iso (places ISO in /usr/share/virtualbox).
            Mount this as a CD (sudo mount /usr/share/virtualbox/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso /mnt)
            Run the install (./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run)
Ubuntu:
    Login as your normal user (example: "MySelf")
    Add user to the vboxsf group (usermod -aG vboxsf MySelf; # Or edit /etc/groups directly)
        Only need to do this once since will remain for future cases

At this point the drive can be accessed directly from either OSX or Ubuntu.

The downside is the extra step to add it as a shared folder in VirtualBox. This isn't generally a severe drawback in my use case but your mileage may vary.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .