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I'm considering changing my host OS from Windows to Ubuntu and virtualizing Windows in VirtualBox, instead. But I'm worried that there will be issues with some of my devices, such as my USB devices (e.g. electric piano, Android device) that require driver installation for them to be usable in Windows.

The problem is that those devices don't have drivers for Ubuntu. For them to be usable in an environment where the host OS is Ubuntu and the guest OS is Windows, the USB connections would have to passed through directly to the guest OS, and then the drivers would be installed as usual in the guest OS.

Is it possible to pass USB connections without drivers from Ubuntu to a guest OS in VirtualBox?

Maxim Zaslavsky
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2 Answers2

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Speaking from personal experience, yes.

An example: I have several devices for which there are not Windows 7 drivers but there are XP drivers. I set up an XP virtual machine, and when I plug one of these devices in, they show up under the USB icon in VirtualBox. I can then attach them and XP recognizes them and installs the proper drivers. The devices work as expected.

My host is Windows 7, but I'm fairly sure that USB passthrough works the same in Ubuntu.

nc4pk
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Ubuntu and most Linux distros now have support on most modern hardware. Also, Virtualbox has the ability to do USB passthrough.

  1. Go-to the "Settings" of the VM you want to run.

  2. Go-to "USB" tab.

  3. Click "Enable USB Controller"

  4. You can then choose from:

    • USB 1.1 (OHCI) Controller
    • USB 2.0 (OHCI + EHCI) Controller
    • USB 3.0 (xHCI) Controller

    , based on the type of USB you want to use.

  5. On the right side of the "USB Device Filters" click the "Plus USB Icon"

  6. You should be able to select your USB from a list of USB devices.

  7. Finally you can apply the changes.

If you are not seeing any of the USB devices, you will have to add your user to the "vboxusers" group.

To do this you would:

  • sudo adduser $USER vboxusers

, and then you would need to "Log Out" of your session and then log back in.

If that way doesn't work(It should work for most cases), you can also try:

  • sudo usermod -aG vboxusers $USER

, if you don't have the "adduser" command.

If want to learn more you can visit the Virtualbox Manual

Also, you can check out a similar post: No USB devices available in VirtualBox.

sonAndrew
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