USB - Question with Virtual Box - SCANNER

[onepiece]

Hi Folks,

I'm running LM20 on VB 6.1.18 (w/ current GA). The "bare metal" is a HP Envy with VB loaded on Win 10. Machine works flawlessly...almost... I'm missing a part of the USB puzzle when using this set up. I did learn that I can't just plug in a thumb drive without telling Virtual Box about its presence BEFORE I start up Mint. I also learned the long and hard way that I have to make the thumb "drive" part of vboxsf group if I want to do anything other than read the contents. There is some gatekeeping that VB does which either allows or doesn't allow a USB to work.

CURRENT QUESTION...
I've tried to connect a number of scanners to my set up. When I plug the scanner or thumb drive in...the host Win 10 reacts properly...but with Mint... I'm unsuccessful every time. There is no reaction from Mint and the scanner can't be discovered using Document Scanner. Can anyone suggest a solution? Although not sure, I suspect VB is gatekeeping and not allowing my scanner to be discovered.

Thank you.

[tkocou]

A couple of things which you will need to do if you have not done them yet:

1) install the guest extensions for linux inside the VM while it is running.

2) While the VM is not running, in the VM Settings menu -> USB menu, checkmark the Enable USB Controller and select either USB 2.0 or USB 3.0

If you wish to auto-mount a USB device, it must be available from the host before the VM starts up. And you will need to add it to the table in the USB menu.

Otherwise, once the VM is fully up and running, at the top menu bar, click on Devices, move the mouse down to USB, move the mouse to the USB list menu and checkmark the device to be attached to the VM. You can repeat this action for as many devices as you need attached.
Once finished, those USB devices should be visible to the LM guest.