VirtualBox & USB problem

[kenmo]

Recently upgraded from WinXp Pro to Win7-64 Home Premium. I'm really impressed with Win7...

However my Vissioneer USB scanner is not supported by Windows Vista or 7 and according to the website will not be...

I installed VirtualBox and installed WinXp. However I'm find the USB support to be hit or miss. Sometimes it works but most often it doesn't.

Of the 5 reboots of the virtual WinXp machine only once did it have access to my USB external drive. And now I'm having a devil of a time with my scanner....

I'm using the most recent build of VB from SUN and I have USB sharing enabled...

Any thoughts or comments would be greatly appreciated....

Also does Microsofts VirtualPC have better USB support?

[guns1inger]

There is a Windows 7 specific version of MS' virtual PC, with a Windows XP image ready to go. You can use it, according to M$ at least, to run legacy XP software from the Win7 environment, while they use the VM in the background. It is called XP Mode. You can get it here : http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

However while getting the link I noticed that you are running home premium, and the virtual XP Mode is for Professional and above. Bummer.

You can still run Virtual PC on Win 7 home premium, but you don't get XP Mode.

In answer to your specific question - I believe it does, but USB support in most VMs is a bit iffy.

[jagabo]

USB support in most VMs is a bit iffy.

Exactly. Along with other hardware emulation like firewire, 3d acceleration, video acceleration, etc.

[rallynavvie]

VMware's USB passthrough has been spectacular but it isn't freeware. If you get the VM set up completely in a copy of Workstation (even the free trial) you can use Player to run the VM for free and I believe it will support USB peripherals, but no changes to the settings are allowed after the Workstation trial expires. I've been using VMware's implementations at work for old USB devices like cash drawers, receipt printers, and scanners. Thus why they refer to it as "USB passthrough".

[kenmo]

I just tried to access my Lacie 1tb from virtual pc (still using VirtualBox) and I'm being prompted I must format the drive. It's a 1 tb Lacie drive with most of my photos and images on it. So that prompt made m nervous.


When I power off the virtual pc, I check the Lacie from the host and it's fine....

Tried again & the virtual pc wants to format the Lacie..This is making me very nervous... I don't want to lose my photos....

[rallynavvie]

What format does VirtualBox store the VM as?

[jagabo]

What format does VirtualBox store the VM as?

The drive is big file in their proprietary format. The VM settings are in an XML file.

[rallynavvie]

It doesn't dynamically allocate HDD space? It allocates the entire virtual hard disk when it's created? Crazy.

I think VMware Converter will convert VirtualBox to VMware VMDK format or there are some other V2V apps that can do VMDK or OHV files. Then you can open these in VMware Player.

I just checked the VMware site to see what formats the free VMware Player can take and it seems the new version of player allows you to create VMs not just use existing VMs. The advantages of Workstation over Player are more aimed towards enterprise users (VM security, packaging, and multiple snapshots). Since it's free I'd highly recommend checking it out after converting your existing VirtualBox build.

[disturbed1]

It doesn't dynamically allocate HDD space? It allocates the entire virtual hard disk when it's created? Crazy.

It would be if it wasn't dynamic

Dynamically resizing is the default option. VirtualBox can also export, convert, create images that are compatible with VMWare. There's also the OVF (Open Virtualization Format). VirtualBox comes with a very thorough manual that covers these topics.

VBoxManage createhd --filename <filename>
--size <megabytes>
[--format VDI|VMDK|VHD] (default: VDI)
[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
[--type normal|writethrough] (default: normal)
[--comment <comment>]
[--remember]
VBoxManage clonehd <uuid>|<filename> <outputfile>
[--format VDI|VMDK|VHD|RAW|<other>]
[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
[--type normal|writethrough|immutable]
[--remember] [--existing]

VBoxManage convertfromraw <filename> <outputfile>
[--format VDI|VMDK|VHD]
[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]
VBoxManage convertfromraw stdin <outputfile> <bytes>
[--format VDI|VMDK|VHD]
[--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX]

If you convert the image to load in VMWare Player, you still have to find the OS tools for VMWare. Or are these now free for just the Player. VMWare server is free, a little more complicated, but plenty more capable when compared to VirtualBox. VirtualBox is a great consumer virtualization application, if you need more, VMWare is the way to go.

the new version of player allows you to create VMs not just use existing VMs.

when did that happen. That's great news for hobbyist!

[jagabo]

It doesn't dynamically allocate HDD space? It allocates the entire virtual hard disk when it's created? Crazy.

As disturbed1 pointed out, the virtual drive starts out small and dynamically expands as necessary -- up to the maximum size that was specified when you created it.

[rallynavvie]

I'm assuming since the new version of VMware Player allows you to create VM that it also has the VMware Tools added so you can get the proper integrations/accelerations in place for your VMs. And it probably has versions for Windows 7 now since Fusion 3 and Workstation 7 have added that support. Indeed it is a huge enhancement for their free software, though since I get Workstation and Fusion licenses from work I've not tried downloading Player to see its limitations just yet.

[disturbed1]

Thanks rallynavvie!!

It's been some time since I've used VMware. Personally I've been quite happy with KVM. VirtualBox seems hit or miss depending on the version they release, seemed as if it was only me that had problems with it. I kept VMware server 2.x installed for some time. It was fabulous, 99% as fast as KVM. Went through my yearly system hardware/software upgrade cycle and decided not to bother with VMware. In the past VMware's installation used to be atrocious in Linux (lots of hackery unless you ran specific versions of specific distros). Of course I know it's a simple double click with Windows

I can confirm that version 3.0 does in fact include the VM Tools for free. It will prompt you to download them as you create the VM. This is outstanding to me. In past, the player was always free, but the OS integration tools were not. Installation was a snap, no Linux voodoo needed. USB worked without a hitch. Plug and Play. Tested a VM with Windows 2000, using a wireless USB NIC, printer, music device, and cheap usb camera.

[rallynavvie]

One of my coworkers was going to download it for his Ubuntu box where he's using VirtualBox now. I'll let him know it running will in *nix.