Making an optical drive accessible to a guest OS running in VirtualBox
I needed to make an
optical disc drive accessible to a Windows virtual
machine (VM) running in VirtualBox
on an Ubuntu
Linux system. The drive was attached to the host operating system
(OS) via a USB
connection. One way to make a USB optical drive connected to a Linux
host available to a Windows VM is to pass through the host optical
drive. With the VM running, I could select Devices and then
the optical drive connected to the host operating system, "Host Drive
PIONEER BD-RW BDR-XS07U (sr0)". Since I had seen a recommendation to
use a USB passthrough method instead, though, as while passing through
the host optical drive works well for ordinary CD/DVD access, unusual
discs or software that communicates directly with the hardware are less
likely to be problematic if one uses the USB passthrough method, instead,
I chose the USB passthrough option. To do so, I verified that the logged
in user account was in the vboxusers
group by issuing the command grep vboxusers /etc/group in
a terminal
window. If it isn't, you can add the account to that group using
sudo usermod -aG vboxusers $USER. I also verified that
the USB 3.0 Controller option was enabled by selecting the Windows 10
VM in VirtualBox and clicking on Settings and then selecting
USB. I then made the Pioneer Blu-ray drive accessible inside
the Windows VM by clicking on Devices at the top of the running
Windows VM window and then selecting Pioneer Corporation Pioneer
Blu-ray Drive [0100]. I then was able to see the blu-ray drive in
the Windows File
Explorer.
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Copying and pasting from a VirtualBox VM to the host operating system
If you wish to be able to be able to copy text from within a
virtual machine (VM)
running on
VirtualBox
to the host
operating
system (OS) clipboard, e.g., from a Microsoft Windows guest VM to a Linux
host, take the following steps:
- Shut down the VM
-
With the VM selected, click on Settings, then General,
then select Features. Change the Shared Clipboard setting from
Disabled to Bidirectional then click on OK.
-
Start the VM.
-
In the running VM, click on Devices then select Shared Clipboard
. Make sure it is set to Bidirectional.
-
Select Devices then Insert GUest Additions CD image....
-
When you see the "VirtualBox - Question" window with the message "Do you
wish to download this disk image file fromt he Internet?", click on
Download.
-
If you see a window asking you to confirm the VirtualBox Guest Additions
disk image file followed by the URL for the download, e.g.,
https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/7.2.6/VBoxGuestAdditions_7.2.6.iso,
click on Download.
-
You should then see a window informing you that the VirtualBox Guest
Additions disk image file has been successfully downloaded and saved
locally. The download location is
~/.config/VirtualBox/VBoxGuestAdditions_x.y.z where
x.y.z is the version of the ISO file, e.g.
VBoxGuestAdditions_7.2.6.iso. You will be asked "Do you
wish to continue with Guest Additions installation?" Click on Continue.
-
Open the Windows File Explorer, then navigate to "CD Drive (D:) VirtualBox
Guest Additions" in the left pane and with it selected, in the right pane,
right-click on VBoxWindowsAdditions and select "Run as administrator". When
asked if you wish to allow the program to make changes", click on "Yes".
-
You will then see a "Welcome to the Oracle VirtualBox Guest Additions Setup"
window which will inform you "It is recommended that you close all other
applications before starting Setup. This will make it possible to update
relevant system files without haviging to reboot your computer." Close
any applications you are running in the Windows VM and then click on
Next.
-
At the next window you can "Choose Install Location". Unless you need
to change the location, just click on Next.
-
The next window is one where you can "Choose Components". You can click on
Install to proceed with the default options. The space required is
675.0 KB.
-
At the next window you will be informed "Your computer must be restarted in
order to complete the installation of Oracle VirtualBox Guest Additions..."
and asked "Do you want to reboot now?" You can click on Finish to
immediately reboot. Once you have rebooted, you should be able to copy and
paste between the host and guest operating systems.
You should also see the "VirtualBox Guest Additions Service" and
"VirtualBox Guest Additions Tray Application" processes running if you
bring up the Windows Task Manager.
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