On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 8:49 AM, Robert P. J. Day <[email protected]> wrote: > > i'm reading section 3.10 in the user manual and i'm still confused > about how USB filters work. do they represent the only devices on the > host that the guest is allowed to see? > > i have a ubuntu (natty narwhal [alpha]) VM, and it has no USB filter > rules set for it at all. so what does that mean in terms of what it's > allowed to see initially in terms of host USB devices? > > now i start that ubuntu VM. it comes up properly, and both the > USB-attached (dell) keyboard and USB-attached mouse function properly. > from this, i would conclude that the VM has access to those two > physical USB devices, yes? except that, in the VM, if i go to > Devices, then USB Devices, i see a list of three devices: > > USB OpticalWheel Mouse [06B0] > SuYin Video WebCam [0500] > Dell USB Keyboard [0105] > > except the first two entries in that list are dark and inactive, > whereas the final entry (keyboard) is active and selectable. > > so what do the filter rules mean? i have no filter rules set up, > the VM can clearly access both the USB keyboard and USB mouse, yet in > the VM in the list of USB devices, only the keyboard appears > selectable. none of this seems consistent. how am i supposed to > interpret all this? thanks.
What I think is going on is that you really don't need usb filters for standard HID (keyboard, mice, possible joysticks, etc) devices as they are already virtualized. You only need to enable filters for devices that you want direct (i.e. raw) access to like hard/flash drives, possibly a USB based TV tuner, webcam, etc. My experience is that when you use a USB device through the USB filter it is no longer available to the host system so I would not recommend doing that with your mouse or keyboard. I've only used the USB filters for usb drives and printers though. You can create empty filters which are essentially the maximum number of devices you can connect to your virtual machine simultaneously. Richard ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lotusphere 2011 Register now for Lotusphere 2011 and learn how to connect the dots, take your collaborative environment to the next level, and enter the era of Social Business. http://p.sf.net/sfu/lotusphere-d2d _______________________________________________ VBox-users-community mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/vbox-users-community
