Hi folks,
I read about vmware of one kind or another in one of the Linux newsgroups. I chose Suns VBox because someone said it was the easiest to use. As I don't have a real need for using VBox it has been an experience in a learning way. I'm running it from within LinuxMint as Mint is on a 150 gig hard drive. The only problem I have is that of the four guests in the box none of them see my USB flash drives however the printer is seen and in at least one of the guests that I tried the printer in it set up OK. I followed the directions for getting USB recognised by VBox and the program knows they are there but doesn't pass the information on to the guest programs. Anyone have a suggestion about how I can fix this problem. Sorry, but I haven't googled it yet.

Little Al

The usual way to set up USB devices in VBox:

1. Open VBox.
2. Plug in your USB device.
3. Select (not open) a guest operating system.
4. Go to "Settings" then "USB". Enable the Controllers.
5. Still in the Settings, USB screen, click on the USB icon with the + symbol and select the device from the drop-down list.

After that your USB device will be registered for that particular guest operating system and will be accessible. To make a USB device accessible to any of the other operating systems you have installed follow the same procedure for each system.

The printer is USB-attached?
What are you seeing that leads you to these conclusions?

Another question:

What version of VBox are u using? And what is your Host OS?

When allowing usb on the VBOX control panel, make sure to just enable. Do not add devices in the panel. Then follow the previous instructions for enabling on the Guest. You can either install the Guest Additions through the virtual CD or through the Devices menu on the Guest (Host + D is the shortcut). I would suggest installing 3.0.8 VirtualBox.

what guest? are the VBOX additions installed?

I followed your advice about installing Guest Additions, first tried it in Knoppix which didn't accept it but closed Knoppix and opened PC/OS and it installed without problem. I still have no access to the USB flash drives but it does see the USB printer and I used it to print some info. I would much rather copy and past but without the flash drives I have no place to put the document.

Thanks Wolfhere,
Little Al

as a workaround you may mount the usb on the host,
go to Virtualbox, settings, shared_folder and set the mount point as a shared folder (say ~/My_Share.

on host:
$ mkdir /home/user_name/My_share
# su
# mount /dev/sdb1 /home/user_name/My_Share
exit root and boot the guest:
on guest
#su
# mkdir /media/shared_folder
# mount -t vboxsf My_Share /media/shared_folder

after shuting down the gues umount the stick:
# umount /home/user_name/My_Share.

as said: a workaround, i read it over here and just checked. it works (but i had to mount it in my home-folder).

You may choose the name in your home and the name in the guest as you like, but they must be different.
greetings