How to make smooth USB access available to Virtualbox vm

[Manish Jain]

On 07/05/16 22:57, Bernt Hansson wrote:
> On 2016-07-05 16:15, Manish Jain wrote:
>> On 07/05/16 12:02, Polytropon wrote:
>>> On Tue, 5 Jul 2016 08:10:49 +0200, CeDeROM wrote:
>>>> The USB support on VirtualBox is highly unreliable and version
>>>> dependant - it works with some releases and with some releases it does
>>>> not work as expected - not only on FreeBSD (I also use OSX version).
>>>> This is really annoying when USB stops working after an update to a
>>>> new version and you depend on this USB access with your work :-(
>>> Just an idea:
>>>
>>> Why not mount the USB stick on the FreeBSD host system (or even
>>> have Gnome automount it), then make the mount directory accessible
>>> to the "Windows" guest through localhost FTP, localhost SAMBA, or
>>> another means of virtual network?
>>>
>>> It sounds so stupid - it could actually work! ;-)
>>>
>> Sounds a bit far-fetched and would anyway need to be implemented all
>> over again every time I install FreeBSD.
>>
>> Just wondering if this is possible - I remember there was an application
>> (Nero, I think) - which made it possible to copy/paste to CD/DVD RW from
>> Explorer itself, without the need to actually burn it via a CD/DVD
>> frontend. Is there any way I can use a CD/DVD just as a part of the
>> regular filesystem ? If that is possible, the need for USB support in
>> vbox would largely be mitigated.
>>
>> Is there any other non-USB device which can fill in the need to make
>> shared data available to the guest machine ? IOMEGA floppies I think are
>> no longer used, but if there is something which provides seamless
>> access, I would not mind buying some hardware to solve the problem for
>> good (considering the magnitude of the problem, make that 'for very
>> good').
>>
>> Thanks for any tips.
> Perhaps this is worth a try.
>
> http://linux.bytesex.org/misc/webfs.html

I reconsidered my position. With the USB situation as it is, there is no 
way I can make the Windows XP vm do anything meaningful. It seems 
ridiculous that VirtualBox passes on my APC UPS to the vm, but the 
scanner and printer are not even available for filtering. The pen drive 
filter is available, but the goddamn thing won't work in the vm. 
VirtualBox is a pathetic piece of software, in my opinion. I am very 
glad that I did not get rid of my Windows XP installation - otherwise I 
would have been left on very marshy grounds if and when I needed Redmond 
services.

-- 
Regards

Manish Jain