On Thu, 16 Dec 2010, Richard Shaw wrote:
> 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.
i was thinking it was something along those lines, but i wasn't sure
and that's not spelled out clearly in the User Manual. as someone
who's written a lot of courseware and docs in my time, here's how i
would be looking at it.
if i'm new to vbox and i create a new VM and i'm thinking about USB,
one of my first thoughts would be, "which USB devices will my guest
have access to? especially after i install Guest Additions?"
before i even get into USB filters, i would notice immediately that
both my USB keyboard and USB mouse work equally well both for my guest
and host, so i would (naturally) conclude that this is already being
handled, but it's not clear how.
and i would be slightly more confused since if i run "lsusb" on
my host, i see:
Bus 002 Device 005: ID 04fc:0013 Sunplus Technology Co., Ltd ViewMate Desktop
Mouse CC2201
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 413c:2005 Dell Computer Corp. RT7D50 Keyboard
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 064e:a103 Suyin Corp.
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
but in my VM, if i check under "USB Devices", i see (as before):
USB OpticalWheel Mouse [06B0] [inactive]
SuYin Video WebCam [0500] [inactive]
Dell USB Keyboard [0105] [active]
at this point, i'm not ashamed to admit i'm confused about the
correspondence between the USB devices on my host and the ones that
appear on my guest. and what does it mean to click on the lone active
entry (the keyboard) so that a check mark shows up next to it? and
there's not much point explaining filters until it's clear what's
going on before filters are even created.
is any of that making sense?
rday
--
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Robert P. J. Day Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
http://crashcourse.ca
Twitter: http://twitter.com/rpjday
LinkedIn: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/rpjday
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