External USB SSD on virtualbox

[a.sinner.m3]

Hello MX team and users

I have installed MX linux in virtualbox on windows system, I have decided to install the distro on an external USB SSD, but I cannot make it to be seen from virtualbox, am able to see it normally withing windows and was able to format it using disk manager, but on virtualbox with MX OS seems unable to make it visible/mount, using lsblk, fidks -l, or gparted only show the virtual disk created by VB, not even my built in HDD can be seen.
Is there a way to make the distro see/mount that usb ssd?
and if there was a way to make it be available seen will i be able to install MX OS from from the VB?

Thank you so much for your feed backs.

[bassplayer69]

You might want to start with the documentation for Virtual Box by Oracle.

Ex. https://docs.oracle.com/en/virtualizati ... /6.1/user/

[pbear]

There are a few ways to mount a USB drive into a VBox VM. The one best suited to your purpose is to select manually from the Devices menu, at top of screen with the VM booted.

FYI, this procedure works for a live session, unlike guest addition functions (e.g., hard drive access) which only can be added to an installed system.

Speaking of hard drive access, one does that with Shared Folders. Be careful, though. A VM with write-access can render the host unbootable. Use read-only or be damn sure the folder is defined safely.

[a.sinner.m3]

You might want to start with the documentation for Virtual Box by Oracle.

Ex. https://docs.oracle.com/en/virtualizati ... /6.1/user/

I will read the docs for sure, just yesterday got overloaded and trying to make the ssd mounted got me a bit exauhsted.

pbear
"There are a few ways to mount a USB drive into a VBox VM. The one best suited to your purpose is to select manually from the Devices menu, at top of screen with the VM booted."
If by that you mean to add a usb from a list, when you go to usb tab, the usb ssd is not showing with all the usb devices that are plugged in.

"FYI, this procedure works for a live session, unlike guest addition functions (e.g., hard drive access) which only can be added to an installed system."
I believe you mean that i should boot to live session and try install from there! And not actually login to the distro in the virtual disk?

"Speaking of hard drive access, one does that with Shared Folders. Be careful, though. A VM with write-access can render the host unbootable. Use read-only or be damn sure the folder is defined safely."
I will look into that once am home and see how i can make it work.

Thank you bassplayer69 and pbear for your feedback.

[MazeMouse]

Hi,
Enable the usb controller(try usb controller 2.0 it worked in my case) in the settings menu of your vm.
Start your VM , make sure your usb device is plugged into (usb 2.0 port depending on controller) the usb port and select the device with the menus of VB to enable it to the virtual machine.
Fiddle a bit with the settings of the controllers or try different usb ports. Remember that the usb devices needs to be seen my virtual box first to allow it to connect and mounted with the virtual machine.

(I have the latest virtual box+extension pack installed, not sure what the pack adds but vb works nicely)


Alternatively, you could download rufus and use it to make a live usb stick from ISO, just to get a live session goging from wich you could use the mx usb live maker for the SSD.
DolphinOracle's videos on youtube are very informative if you wish to learn more about the live usb features of MX/Antix, it has been a great help to me.

[a.sinner.m3]

Hi,
Enable the usb controller(try usb controller 2.0 it worked in my case) in the settings menu of your vm.
Start your VM , make sure your usb device is plugged into (usb 2.0 port depending on controller) the usb port and select the device with the menus of VB to enable it to the virtual machine.
Fiddle a bit with the settings of the controllers or try different usb ports. Remember that the usb devices needs to be seen my virtual box first to allow it to connect and mounted with the virtual machine.

(I have the latest virtual box+extension pack installed, not sure what the pack adds but vb works nicely)


Alternatively, you could download rufus and use it to make a live usb stick from ISO, just to get a live session goging from wich you could use the mx usb live maker for the SSD.
DolphinOracle's videos on youtube are very informative if you wish to learn more about the live usb features of MX/Antix, it has been a great help to me.

I believe a live usb or dvd is a best way, but it get curious and challenging of why the VB is not detecting any of my internal hdd or external usb ssd, though i think it is for user protection and staying on the safe side of not allowing it so one does not damage his internal/external storage unless he knows what he is doing, i did try to add the usb from usb tab on usb 2 but the list of USB does not see my external usb ssd, i did add the extension pack and yesterday i added an another iso that is licated in the oracle VB directory and installed it from terminal, so am following things step by step, but it is time and energy consuming reading and working things out, what am gonna do is burn the iso to a dvd, unplug my internal hdd, and take it from there since i want to be able to use the usb ssd on multiple computers and i don't want to mess with my bootloader.
thank you for your input.