How to Access USB in VirtualBox Running Windows XP as Guest OS

usbvirtualboxwindows

I have installed Virtual Box: Host OS Ubuntu 10.10 – Guest OS Windows XP. No problem so far.How can I access USB devices (scaners, printer, and others) from the guest os, windows XP.If this is not possible in the open source version maybe there is another virtualisation software program.

Best Answer

If you've installed the VirtualBox version from the repositories, then this is the "OSE" or "Open Source Edition" and it doesn't support either USB connections or built-in RDP support on guest OS's.

You need to install VirtualBox from the Oracle site directly in order to have access to USB connections.

Browse to http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads in order to download the appropriate .deb file. Double click on it to install it via Software Centre.

For USB support, you'll also need the "VirtualBox 4.0 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack". Download it to your hard disk. Once you've installed VirtualBox 4.0, open it, then choose File/Preferences and click on "Extensions". Hit the Add, button, then open the file you downloaded.

Alternatively, you can keep up to date with the latest VirutalBox by adding their repository to your system by doing the following :

  1. Open synaptic, choose menu Settings/Repositories, click on other, then "add" and paste in the line :

    deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian maverick contrib

  2. Then download the Oracle respository key, and add it with the line :

    wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

  3. Finally, purge the existing OSE edition, then update your respository list and install the new version :

    sudo apt-get purge virtualbox-ose
sudo apt-get update

(at this point, you'll likely get errors about a malformed release - simply pop into Synaptic, following step 1, then untick the "Source Code" entry for Virtualbox).

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.0

(you'll be prompted to download libhal1 and dkms - accept this to proceed)

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