Installing Virtualbox 1.6.2 on Ubuntu 8.04 ( Hardy )

Apparently Virtualbox has made a good improvement after being taken by Sun. However it is still not mature enough to work out of the box when it is installed on Ubuntu 8.04 in the first place. A little hacking is still required. First of all, download the full version from the website of Virtualbox (instead of install the open source version directly from the repository). Install it in a way you like. And hope it works. If it doesn't, carry on reading this. You need to add your current user to a group named vboxusers, again, in your favorite way. If you don't have one, try this one. Check if the group exists:

sudo grep vboxusers /etc/group

If nothing shows up, add it:

sudo addgroup vboxusers

Now add the user to the group:

usermod -a -G vboxusers $USER

Now you should at least be able to open Virtualbox properly and install an operating system on it. Let's take Windows XP for an example here, make sure you installed Guest Additions (Devices-Install Guest Additions). The next step is to authorize the user to use USB. Edit /etc/init.d/mountdevsubfs.sh with your best editor, make sure the following lines are uncommented

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

Create a new group and add the current user to it:

sudo addgroup usbfs sudo usermod -a -G usbfs $USER

Then edit /etc/udev/rules.d/40-permissions.rules Find

LABEL=”usb_serial_start” ATTRS{idVendor}==”0403″, ATTRS{idProduct}==”6001″, \ , MODE=”0660″, GROUP=”dialout” LABEL=”usb_serial_end”

Add GROUP="usbfs" to it, like this:

LABEL=”usb_serial_start” ATTRS{idVendor}==”0403″, ATTRS{idProduct}==”6001″, \ GROUP="usbfs", MODE=”0660″, GROUP=”dialout” LABEL=”usb_serial_end”

Save the file. Find out the group id:

grep usbfs /etc/group

Remember the number within it, for example on this machine, I get the result

vboxusers:x:1003:name

Thus

1003

is the id. Open /etc/fstab, add the following line to the end:

none /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=1003,devmode=664 0 0

Reboot the host system. And then you should be able to enjoy the VM with available USB support.