How to make smooth USB access available to Virtualbox vm

[Manish Jain]

On 07/07/16 13:21, Thomas Mueller wrote:
> Excerpt from Manish Jain:
>
>> 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').
> 	
> Micronet makes Fantom external hard drives, multi-TB, USB 3.0, some also with eSATA: see micronet.com
>
> I haven't ordered one yet but have been thinking of it.
>
> If you don't already have eSATA port, it may be possible with a PCI or PCIE card with eSATA port(s).
>
> You could also consider possibilities with NAS as Polytropon suggested.
>
> Tom
>

Thanks for your reply. Even if I could somehow manage to get shared data 
available to the vm (which incidentally can be easily done with Guest 
Additions shared folders), it only addresses part of the problem. There 
is no way I can use my USB scanner and printer. The way Oracle has 
programmed/policied vbox, it makes vbox useful in a very limited way. I 
think the better thing to do - at least for the time being - is to just 
boot the XP physical installation when Windows functionality is needed. 
Luckily, that doesn't happen often now - something like once a week at 
the most.

It's unfortunate that Oracle and a whole bevy of companies use 
open-source technologies to create commercial software that aims to ruin 
the open source spirit. There ought to be legal bars that prevent abuse 
of the open source world.

Please let me know if you manage to make data available to guests via 
eSATA. I might purchase a PCI/PCIE card with an eSATA port if you have 
success. That would mitigate the need for closed-source Guest Additions.


-- 
Regards

Manish Jain