USB ports are one of the most important parts of computers, since they are those that allow connection with other external devices such as cell phones, pen drives, among others. Because it is such a vital part of the computer, today you will learn to activate or enable USB port in VirtualBox virtual machine.
And is that, if you want to use the great tool that is Virtualbox fully, it is necessary to enable the USB ports manually (especially since you can even start a virtual machine from a USB drive). The steps to follow to achieve this are very simple, but not everyone knows how to do it, so a guide is necessary.
Install virtual box extension pack
Before you start to activate or enable USB port in VirtualBox virtual machine, you must first download and install the latest version of the extension pack, which brings USB support (you must also have the free Virtual Box latest version already installed).
To achieve this you just have to search for Google VirtualBox extension pack 6.0.10 and when you find the link where it says “All platforms”, after downloaded it will automatically be on your computer.
Open the program and go to the options bar at the top, from there choose “File” and when the drop-down is active, click on the ” Preferences ” option .
This in turn will open a new window where you have to first click on the section called ” Extensions ” and then the icon that is inside it that has the green + sign.
When you have clicked on it, you should look for the package you downloaded and select it, so that a pop-up window will open where you must confirm its activation by clicking ” Install ” and then “OK.”
Finally, you will have to write your sudo password, so that finally the package is installed correctly and there is no problem with it.
Enabling USB access for users
In order to activate or enable USB port in VirtualBox virtual machine, you will first need to give permissions to the users you want to have access to the ports.
These must necessarily belong to the vboxusers group, which is created automatically when the Virtualbox program is installed on GNU / Linux.
Users can be joined or added to the group by entering the following command to the terminal: sudo usermod -aG vboxusers USER_NAME. Obviously the part where it says username you must change it to the one you use. To save the changes log out and start again.
Enable or enable USB port in VirtualBox virtual machine
Now, it’s time for you to learn how to enable USB support in your virtual machine. Firstly, open the program and right-click on the machine to which support will be enabled, why will there be a drop-down menu where you must then click on the ” Configuration ” option .
In the section that will appear, select ” USB “, here you can see the devices that are available and also add new ones. To do the latter, click on the icon with the green + sign.
Choose the one you want and then start the virtual machine so that you have access to the data of the device in question (this will appear in the main Linux menu).
You can add more than one USB port, you just have to repeat the process and voila, you can also do it with any of the virtual machines so there should be no problem.
With the latter, you already know how to activate or enable USB port in VirtualBox virtual machine correctly, now you just have to go find the extension (if you don’t have it) and follow each step to finally use the USB you want.
Remember that there is no limit to virtual machines, so look for more tutorials and learn about this technology that is changing the world quickly. The first thing that is recommended that you look for is how to start, turn off and save the state of virtual machines and how to configure and connect virtual machines by Wifi or external network, and then what you want to learn is in your hands.