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VirtualBox USB Proxy Service on Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon

8 Comments

When accessing the settings dialog in VirtualBox on Ubuntu/Kubuntu 7.10 Gusty Gibbon, I would get the error, “Could not load the Host USB Proxy Service (VERR_FILE_NOT_FOUND). The service might be not installed on the host computer.” I found a variety of fixes from different forums and blogs so here’s a consolidated guide to resolve the issue based on my installation of VirtualBox 1.5.6 on Kubuntu 7.10.

  1. Open the file /etc/init.d/mountdevsubfs.sh with your favorite text editor (be sure to use sudo or open as root so that you have write permission).
  2. Look for the following comment:# Magic to make /proc/bus/usb work
  3. Remove the hash mark, #, from the four commands (mkdir, domount, ln, mount) following that comment. The result should look like the following:#
    # Magic to make /proc/bus/usb work
    #
    mkdir -p /dev/bus/usb/.usbfs
    domount usbfs “” /dev/bus/usb/.usbfs -obusmode=0700,devmode=0600,listmode=0644
    ln -s .usbfs/devices /dev/bus/usb/devices
    mount –rbind /dev/bus/usb /proc/bus/usb
  4. Save the file and run it with sudo (or as root) appending the parameter “start” to the end:sudo /etc/init.d/mountdevsubfs.sh start
  5. Next, create a new user group called usbusers. On Kubuntu, you can do this with the User Management tool in the KDE Control Center.
  6. Add your username, and anyone else who uses VirtualBox on the computer, to the usbusers group. Save the changes.
  7. Open the file /etc/udev/rules.d/40-permissions.rules (again, using sudo or as root). 
  8. Change the following lines:# USB devices (usbfs replacement)
    SUBSYSTEM==”usb_device”, MODE=”0664″

    to

    # USB devices (usbfs replacement)
    SUBSYSTEM==”usb_device”, GROUP=”usbusers”, MODE=”0664″

  9. Save the file.

Now it should work fine and you don’t even have to reboot.

8 thoughts on “VirtualBox USB Proxy Service on Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon”

  5. i still have the problem. I am using ubuntu 8.04 instead. The file /etc/udev/rules.d/40-permissions.rules
    does not have any SUBSYSTEM==»usb_device», MODE=»0664»

    please help me

    bobspp

  6. I too had this issue in Hardy… here is what I did to solve it thanks to this site 😉

    # USB serial converters
    SUBSYSTEM==”usb_device”, GOTO=”usb_serial_start”
    SUBSYSTEM==”usb”, ENV{DEVTYPE}==”usb_device”, GOTO=”usb_serial_start”
    GOTO=”usb_serial_end”
    LABEL=”usb_serial_start”
    SUBSYSTEM==”usb_device”, GROUP=”vboxusers”, MODE=”0664″
    ATTRS{idVendor}==”0403″, ATTRS{idProduct}==”6001″,
    MODE=”0660″, GROUP=”dialout”
    LABEL=”usb_serial_end”

  7. In Ubuntu 8.04 (Gutsy Gibbon), I found the USB Devices permissions are in 40-basic-permissions.rules now.

  8. @falsehope: Thanks for the additional info.

    @napalmgod: Thanks for the tip for 8.04.