I fought for some time to get USB devices recognized by VirtualBox. Today, I came across a blog entry with a solution: add your login to the (virtualbox) group “vboxusers”. Problem solved. Not obvious. My check scanner now works via the dedicated Windows 7 machine running in VirtualBox.
Here is the relevant blog entry and link:
First follow the following steps to prepare your system to share USB with the virtual machines in VirtualBox (Personal Use and Evaluation License version):
- Be sure you installed the closed source VirtualBox (the one from the Software Manager is OK);
- Install the Guest Additions (on the virtual machine menu Devices > Install Guest Additions);
- Give your user the proper permissions (Menu > Administration > Users and Groups > Manage Groups), by adding the group “vboxusers” to your user (using the “Properties” button).
After this is done, you can simply add USB devices to your virtual machine by right clicking over the USB icon on the bottom of the virtual machine screen.
I also saw similar information at http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=190&t=101152
Re: virtual box does not work with USB support
by Monsta on Wed May 02, 2012 9:16 am
dwainehead wrote:you need to add yourself to the vbox user group.vboxusers, to be precise.
