USB broken in 1.5.4 on SuSE 10.3

I can confirm this, however I'm using different kernel than one shipped with opensuse. I'll stick with 1.5.2 version for a while.

Reconfirming on second machine (different hardware and OS) running Ubuntu 7.10 i386. VBox 1.5.4 usb system doesn't work properly: USB camera Trust spacecam150 worked fine, meanwhile OmniKey? CardMan? 3121 did not (xp guest OS, clean install). Also VBox was freezing with that card reader (there is nothing wrong with card reader since it is working under native XP installation and VBox 1.5.2).

I have to correct my first posting in that way, that USB was working in version 1.5.2 running SuSE 10.2. I upgraded the laptop in between to 10.3 (clean, new install), and it does not work neither with 1.5.2 nor with 1.5.4 group vboxusers has ID 1000, and in /etc/fstab: none /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=1000,devmode=666 0 0

Please check the permissions of /proc/bus/usb/*/* (must be read+writable for the VBox user) and /proc/bus/usb/devices (must be readable). It might be possible that /etc/fstab entries are ignored for special file systems.

It looks like the following: axel@z60m:~> dir /proc/bus/usb insgesamt 0 dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 16. Jan 09:44 001 dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 16. Jan 09:44 002 dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 16. Jan 09:44 003 dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 16. Jan 09:44 004 dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 16. Jan 09:44 005 -r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 16. Jan 20:32 devices axel@z60m:~> dir /proc/bus/usb/001 insgesamt 0 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 43 16. Jan 09:44 001

I may be wrong, but is usb not managed by udev? (I have to admit, no clue!)

The directory /proc/bus/usb is not managed by udev but the directory /dev/bus/usb. Future versions of VBox will look at /dev/bus/usb as well but current versions rely on /proc/bus/usb. It seems to me that to get the USB permissions right you have to change the file /etc/init.d/boot.localfs. Look for usbfs in this file and add -o ... to that line.

In /etc/init.d/boot.localfs is only an explicit reference to usbfs in conjunction with umount. I dont think that will help. Testwise I changed it manually:
z60m:/home/axel # dir /proc/bus/usb
insgesamt 0
drwxrwxrwx 2 root root 0 16. Jan 09:44 001
drwxrwxrwx 2 root root 0 16. Jan 09:44 002
drwxrwxrwx 2 root root 0 16. Jan 09:44 003
drwxrwxrwx 2 root root 0 16. Jan 09:44 004
drwxrwxrwx 2 root root 0 16. Jan 09:44 005
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 16. Jan 20:32 devices

I started VB, but it didnt change anything :-(

@DocB (/etc/fstab): #usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto 0 0 /dev/bus/usb /proc/bus/usb usbfs defaults,devmode=660,devgid=110 0 0

Reposting fstab, something wrong happened with formatting:

#usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto 0 0
/dev/bus/usb /proc/bus/usb usbfs defaults,devmode=660,devgid=110 0 0

Seems like misunderstandig, my posts are indicating another usb problem, not because of system misconfiguration. I'll open a new ticket.

@kriko No, that does not help, as /dev/bus/usb is already mounted by this line:
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto 0 0

Anyway, for whatever magic reason....with an unchanged line as in comment #3 it is working today. In 1.5.2. I will now recheck with 1.5.4

@DocB, yes but you should comment that out. Also set devgid to proper number, mine is 110. You get it like this:

cat /etc/group | grep vboxusers

Please see this: http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?p=7419#7419

@kriko The group-ID of vboxusers is 1000, so this is not the problem :-)
Your proposal does not help, neither does the 10.2-working-setup with
none /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=1000,devmode=666 0 0
work any longer (This setup was posted in the virtualbox forum as well). So, as the thread in the forum is getting longer as well, it seems that there are random problems with USB and Vbox.

I tried to reinstall vbox, deleted ~/Virtualbox, tried modifying the udev-rules, but I cant get it up and running anymore. Any further proposals?

Replying to DocB:

I tried to reinstall vbox, deleted ~/Virtualbox, tried modifying the udev-rules, but I cant get it up and running anymore. Any further proposals?

I wanted to chime in with a parallel experience. Was running OpenSuSE 10.2, VirtualBox 1.5.2 - all was good. Upgraded to OpenSuSE 10.3 and VirtualBox-1.5.4_27034_openSUSE103-1.i586.rpm, and pretty much no USB support at all. After fudging around with the above changes, and similar ones as per some Ubontu threads, selection of USB devices is possible in the Vista Virtual machine. Device drivers even load. But none NTFS partitions on USB drives are not visible/mountable by the Vista device manager/disk manager.

Having been a hardcore zealot/vmware convert and now the local office evangelist for VirtualBox, I've accumulated quite a bit of egg on my face over this. We are developing USB 2 disk drive applications, and I my once cherished development environment is now worthless.....

- John "S"

- John Suykerbuyk

In addition to the above, thought I would add some config details. Again with these "tweaks", I am now able to see the arrival of USB 2 DiskDrives? in my Vista guest OS, but it can not read/mount the file systems they contain.

In addition to the "dump" of info below, I would also offer the fact that even when running VirtualBox as root, USB functionality is no different.

Note: in my OpenSuSE install vboxusers gid is also 1000

Here is a recursive directory listing of /proc/bus/usb/

/proc/bus/usb/: total 0 dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Jan 22 14:24 001 dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Jan 22 14:24 002 dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Jan 22 14:24 003 dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Jan 22 14:24 004 dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Jan 22 14:24 005 dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Jan 22 14:24 006 dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Jan 22 14:24 007 -r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 22 15:57 devices

/proc/bus/usb/001: total 0 -rw-rw-rw- 1 root vboxusers 43 Jan 22 14:24 001 -rw-rw-rw- 1 root vboxusers 43 Jan 22 14:24 003 -rw-rw-rw- 1 root vboxusers 234 Jan 22 14:24 004 -rw-rw-rw- 1 root vboxusers 52 Jan 22 14:24 005 -rw-rw-rw- 1 root vboxusers 52 Jan 22 14:24 006

/proc/bus/usb/002: total 0 -rw-rw-rw- 1 root vboxusers 43 Jan 22 14:24 001 -rw-rw-rw- 1 root vboxusers 77 Jan 22 14:24 003

/proc/bus/usb/003: total 0 -rw-rw-rw- 1 root vboxusers 43 Jan 22 14:24 001 -rw-rw-rw- 1 root vboxusers 77 Jan 22 14:24 002 -rw-rw-rw- 1 root vboxusers 446 Jan 22 14:24 003

/proc/bus/usb/004: total 0 -rw-rw-rw- 1 root vboxusers 43 Jan 22 14:24 001

/proc/bus/usb/005: total 0 -rw-rw-rw- 1 root vboxusers 43 Jan 22 14:24 001

/proc/bus/usb/006: total 0 -rw-rw-rw- 1 root vboxusers 43 Jan 22 14:24 001

/proc/bus/usb/007: total 0 -rw-rw-rw- 1 root vboxusers 43 Jan 22 14:24 001 -rw-rw-rw- 1 root vboxusers 723 Jan 22 14:24 005 -rw-rw-rw- 1 root vboxusers 50 Jan 22 16:00 007

And in the above threads, there was also mention of this directory ls -lvh /proc/bus/usb/devices -r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 22 15:57 /proc/bus/usb/devices

and finally, the /etc/fstab line for usbfs: usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=1000,devmode=666,nodev,noexec,nosuid

Changing the line for usbfs to the one you mentioned, it still does not work. Vbox itself shows the attached USB-devices greyed out in the menu - so there will be no chance for an OS to connect to tem

Replying to DocB:

Changing the line for usbfs to the one you mentioned, it still does not work. Vbox itself shows the attached USB-devices greyed out in the menu - so there will be no chance for an OS to connect to tem

One other bit of pure evilness that I did on a hunch from what I was reading in the Ubunto threads was to edit (as root) /etc/udev/rules.d/50-udev-default.rules changing access to libusb to "666" as follows:

I think that was the bit that got me able to "see" USB devices. I still cannot access the USB endpoints. In my case the endpoint is the disk drive contained by the external USB enclosure.

# libusb device access SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="add", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device", NAME="bus/usb/$env{BUSNUM}/$env{DEVNUM}", MODE="0666"

Replying to JohnSuykerbuyk:

One other bit of pure evilness that I did on a hunch from what I was reading in the Ubunto threads was to edit (as root) /etc/udev/rules.d/50-udev-default.rules changing access to libusb to "666" as follows:

yes, tried that as well, but with no success as well. Getting somewhat frustrated:-(

@VBox-Developers: Tried one of you guys to debug it under SuSE 10.3?

USB2 is broken on SuSE 10.3 and I don't think we can fix it. The hack to mount USBFS in the alternate location is... a hack. The permissions games is... a hack.. and most importantly none of them fix the underlying problem(s).

VirtualBox developers: Can you please take a look?

Unfortunately, and hopefully only for the time being, I have been forced back onto VMWare WorkStation? where the USB2 stuff still works.

Just for information: I installed 1.5.2 on a different machine running SuSE 10.3, did the changes to /etc/fstab...and USB works out of the box. Weird.

I can also confirm USB is broken in 1.5.4 on Ubuntu 7.10.

BTW: when I try to edit virtual machine, I get this error:

Could not load the Host USB Proxy Service (VERR_FILE_NOT_FOUND). The service might be not installed on the host computer.

Result Code: 0x80004005 Component: Host Interface: IHost {81729c26-1aec-46f5-b7c0-cc7364738fdb} Callee: IMachine {31f7169f-14da-4c55-8cb6-a3665186e35e}

Did you enable USB with the steps described in http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/User_FAQ? USB will not work by default on Ubuntu hosts, you have to force the Ubuntu init scripts to mount the required files during startup.

Same problem is in 1.5.6. Even if I fill out the USB-settings for a certain device, it is not displayed with these characteristics.

@John Suykerbuyk: I tried vmware server as well...USB works out of the box, and the GPS device connects w/o problems.....

Still broken in 1.6.0...sad :-(

I have debian host and XP guest. When I first plug-in a USB device (memory stick, iPod, etc.), WinXP sees it but can't install it properly. When I uninstall all USB from WinXP and reboot, everything gets reinstalled correctly and works well.

Replying to etw98:

I have debian host and XP guest. When I first plug-in a USB device (memory stick, iPod, etc.), WinXP sees it but can't install it properly. When I uninstall all USB from WinXP and reboot, everything gets reinstalled correctly and works well.

This is w/ VB 1.6.0

I have reworked our FAQ entry, please have a look at USB on openSUSE at http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/User_FAQ. I've done this myself on openSUSE10.3 / AMD64 and it works very well.

I checked new FAQ and tried the slightly changed settings, Vbox shows me one active device filter for USB, but in the menu under USB everything is greyed out....

Did you actually restart your host? Or make sure you execute

mount /proc/bus/usb

once?

Sure I did....

z60m:/home/axel # mount /proc/bus/usb
mount: usbfs ist bereits eingehängt oder /proc/bus/usb wird gerade benutzt
mount: Laut mtab ist none schon auf /proc/bus/usb eingehängt

Please unmount that directory and mount it again. Please post then the output of

/bin/ls -lR /proc/bus/usb

and

id

here we go:

z60m:/home/axel # more /etc/fstab
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_TOSHIBA_MK1032G_16IX6866T-part2 /                    e
xt3       acl,user_xattr        1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_TOSHIBA_MK1032G_16IX6866T-part1 /boot                e
xt2       acl,user_xattr        1 2
/dev/mapper/cr_sda4  /home                ext3       acl,user_xattr,noauto 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_TOSHIBA_MK1032G_16IX6866T-part3 swap                 s
wap       defaults              0 0
proc                 /proc                proc       defaults              0 0
sysfs                /sys                 sysfs      noauto                0 0
debugfs              /sys/kernel/debug    debugfs    noauto                0 0
usbfs                /proc/bus/usb        usbfs      noauto,devmode=0666   0 0
devpts               /dev/pts             devpts     mode=0620,gid=5       0 0
none                 /proc/bus/usb        usbfs      auto,busgid=108,busmode=077
5,devgid=108,devmode=0664   0 0

z60m:/home/axel # umount /proc/bus/usb
z60m:/home/axel # mount /proc/bus/usb
z60m:/home/axel #
z60m:/home/axel # /bin/ls -lR /proc/bus/usb
/proc/bus/usb:
insgesamt 0
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 16. Mai 11:37 001
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 16. Mai 11:37 002
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 16. Mai 11:37 003
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 16. Mai 11:37 004
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 16. Mai 11:37 005
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 16. Mai 11:37 devices

/proc/bus/usb/001:
insgesamt 0
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 43 16. Mai 11:37 001

/proc/bus/usb/002:
insgesamt 0
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 43 16. Mai 11:37 001
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 52 16. Mai 11:37 002

/proc/bus/usb/003:
insgesamt 0
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 43 16. Mai 11:37 001

/proc/bus/usb/004:
insgesamt 0
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 43 16. Mai 11:37 001
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 57 16. Mai 11:37 002

/proc/bus/usb/005:
insgesamt 0
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 43 16. Mai 11:37 001

z60m:/home/axel # id
uid=0(root) gid=0(root) Gruppen=0(root)

Please could you remove the first line with usbfs from your /etc/fstab file? This line prevents the second line from taking effect. And then please post the output of

id

while you are logged in as normal user (which starts the VirtualBox application).

Removed the line, but the result did not change.

axel@z60m:~> id
uid=1000(axel) gid=100(users) Gruppen=0(root),16(dialout),33(video),100(users),108(vboxusers)

Forgot: After remounting /proc/bus/usb , I started vbox with a saved XP session. As soon the session was up, the system crashed and rebooted. I had this phenomenon already some times, but was never sure about the cause.

The crash is a different problem. Please could you start VirtualBox like this:

strace -f -o ~/log -s512 /usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxSVC &
VirtualBox -startvm VM_NAME

Please start the VM and shut down it once fully bootet. Please compress the resulting file ~/log and attach it to this defect. Please attach VBox.log of this VM session as well.

Frank, I added the VBox.log, but the packed log is still too large to attach it. Do you have an Email-Address for me? Thx

Axel, the log file you sent me clearly states that the current user does not have permission to access /proc/bus/usb/*/* readable + writable. The question is: Why? Do you have any security extension enabled?

Not that I'm aware of. USB is dynamically configured by udev. May that be an issue (although that access is set to 666). Any idea where I could look?

Could you attach here the complete output of dmesg? And perhaps there is a warning regarding the failing access somewhere in /var/log/*?

No, /var/log/messages looks OK, e.g. if I attach a Card reader:

May 19 19:26:01 z60m kernel: usb 4-2: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 4
May 19 19:26:01 z60m kernel: usb 4-2: new device found, idVendor=058f, idProduct=6362
May 19 19:26:01 z60m kernel: usb 4-2: new device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
May 19 19:26:01 z60m kernel: usb 4-2: Product: Mass Storage Device
May 19 19:26:01 z60m kernel: usb 4-2: Manufacturer: Generic
May 19 19:26:01 z60m kernel: usb 4-2: SerialNumber: 058F312D81B
May 19 19:26:01 z60m kernel: usb 4-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
May 19 19:26:01 z60m kernel: Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2
May 19 19:26:01 z60m kernel: ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
May 19 19:26:01 z60m kernel: Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
May 19 19:26:01 z60m kernel: scsi2 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
May 19 19:26:01 z60m kernel: usb-storage: device found at 4
May 19 19:26:01 z60m kernel: usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
May 19 19:26:01 z60m kernel: usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
May 19 19:26:01 z60m kernel: USB Mass Storage support registered.
May 19 19:26:02 z60m kernel: scsi 2:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Generic  USB SD Reader    1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
May 19 19:26:02 z60m kernel: sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
May 19 19:26:02 z60m kernel: sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
May 19 19:26:02 z60m kernel: scsi 2:0:0:1: Direct-Access     Generic  USB CF Reader    1.01 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
May 19 19:26:03 z60m kernel: sd 2:0:0:1: [sdc] 501760 512-byte hardware sectors (257 MB)
May 19 19:26:03 z60m kernel: sd 2:0:0:1: [sdc] Write Protect is off
May 19 19:26:03 z60m kernel: sd 2:0:0:1: [sdc] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
May 19 19:26:03 z60m kernel: sd 2:0:0:1: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
May 19 19:26:03 z60m kernel: sd 2:0:0:1: [sdc] 501760 512-byte hardware sectors (257 MB)
May 19 19:26:03 z60m kernel: sd 2:0:0:1: [sdc] Write Protect is off
May 19 19:26:03 z60m kernel: sd 2:0:0:1: [sdc] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
May 19 19:26:03 z60m kernel: sd 2:0:0:1: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
May 19 19:26:03 z60m kernel:  sdc: sdc1
May 19 19:26:03 z60m kernel: sd 2:0:0:1: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk
May 19 19:26:03 z60m kernel: sd 2:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
May 19 19:26:03 z60m kernel: scsi 2:0:0:2: Direct-Access     Generic  USB SM Reader    1.02 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
May 19 19:26:03 z60m kernel: sd 2:0:0:2: [sdd] Attached SCSI removable disk
May 19 19:26:03 z60m kernel: sd 2:0:0:2: Attached scsi generic sg4 type 0
May 19 19:26:03 z60m kernel: scsi 2:0:0:3: Direct-Access     Generic  USB MS Reader    1.03 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
May 19 19:26:03 z60m kernel: sd 2:0:0:3: [sde] Attached SCSI removable disk
May 19 19:26:04 z60m kernel: sd 2:0:0:3: Attached scsi generic sg5 type 0
May 19 19:26:04 z60m kernel: usb-storage: device scan complete
May 19 19:26:05 z60m hald: mounted /dev/sdc1 on behalf of uid 1000

I have rw-access, but in VBox it is still greyed out.

Please could you plug your card reader again and then post the output of

VBoxManage list usbhost

I had a look at the strace log you sent me via private E-mail. Actually VBox was trying to access exactly one device /proc/bus/usb/003/002 -- what a kind of device was this?

The device was a USB-mouse, I think.

Now, with the card reader attached (and accessible under Linux), the command gives the following:

axel@localhost:~> VBoxManage list usbhost
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 1.6.0
(C) 2005-2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

Host USB Devices:

UUID:               a57716c6-8314-46b0-2290-11ab0781243e
VendorId:           0x0483 (0483)
ProductId:          0x2016 (2016)
Revision:           0.1 (0001)
Manufacturer:       STMicroelectronics
Product:            Biometric Coprocessor
Address:            /proc/bus/usb/003/009
Current State:      Unavailable

UUID:               04b2d7f0-3f7f-4760-af86-42092b420786
VendorId:           0x058f (058F)
ProductId:          0x6362 (6362)
Revision:           1.38 (0138)
Manufacturer:       Generic
Product:            Mass Storage Device
SerialNumber:       058F312D81B
Address:            /proc/bus/usb/004/013
Current State:      Unavailable

UUID:               fcf9425f-210e-423e-d680-0692d8be465e
VendorId:           0x0a5c (0A5C)
ProductId:          0x2110 (2110)
Revision:           1.0 (0100)
Manufacturer:       Broadcom Corp
Product:            BCM2045B
Address:            /proc/bus/usb/003/010
Current State:      Unavailable

OS: openSuSE 10.3
VB: 1.6.0

My problem with greyed out (not working ) USB devices got solved by changing the usbfs line in fstab to: usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs auto,busgid=XXX,busmode=0775,devgid=XXX,devmode=0664 0 0

where XXX equals the gid for the vboxusers group (1000 in my case).

:-)

yes, this tweak is well known, but it did not help in my case....

Actually, tried 1.6.2 on a different machine, where I can see the at least the USB devices not greyed out. The following devices are listed:

axel@southpole:~> VBoxManage list usbhost
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 1.6.2
(C) 2005-2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

Host USB Devices:

UUID:               fca7fcc6-6eb0-4af8-bb82-cdbe9abd5707
VendorId:           0x046d (046D)
ProductId:          0xc00e (C00E)
Revision:           17.16 (1716)
Manufacturer:       Logitech
Product:            USB-PS/2 Optical Mouse
Address:            /proc/bus/usb/002/002
Current State:      Busy

UUID:               050c3e0d-44b4-41f7-dea6-fe13090d426a
VendorId:           0x058f (058F)
ProductId:          0x6362 (6362)
Revision:           1.38 (0138)
Manufacturer:       Generic
Product:            Mass Storage Device
SerialNumber:       058F312D81B
Address:            /proc/bus/usb/004/004
Current State:      Busy

UUID:               d14aa7a5-7579-429b-5885-7da059e8f585
VendorId:           0x091e (091E)
ProductId:          0x0003 (0003)
Revision:           0.1 (0001)
Address:            /proc/bus/usb/004/005
Current State:      Held

The last device is a Garmin Forerunner 305, for which I added an entry in the USB Filter List. It is still listed as 'unknown device' in the menu of that Virtual machine. But worse, it is not connected properly to the machine: Sometime it just says nothing, sometimes it issues the error:

Failed to create a proxy device for the USB device. (Error: VERR_READ_ERROR).


Fehlercode:
0x80004005
Komponente:
Console
Interface:
IConsole {d5a1cbda-f5d7-4824-9afe-d640c94c7dcf}

No change in 1.6.4, Gamin still cant connect , although it is shown in the device list of the device manager. Will try more when I have some spare time....