Linux Debian Host – Virtualbox 5.X -> Windows 7 Guest + USB 3.0 External Harddisk Hardware -> VERR_PDM_NO_USB_PORTS

If you get this error: “VERR_PDM_NO_USB_PORTS” it might be MISSING DRIVERS ON THE GUEST SIDE! 😀 (do NOT blame Oracle or Virtualbox for that)

this is how one might get one’s USB Devices to be detected by the Windows Guest “USB Pass Through”.

Tested with Host: Virtualbox Version 5.1.6 r110634 (Qt5.3.2), Debian 8.6 “Jessie” Kernel Linux 3.16.0-4-686-pae #1 SMP Debian 3.16.36-1+deb8u1 (2016-09-03) i686 GNU/Linux

Guest: Win 7 Ultimate 32Bit

The Guest has “NO USB PORTS” because it might be missing USB Drivers! 😀

Oracle recommends you to select the USB 3.0 Controller in your VM settings.

1. power off vm

2. go to settings of your vm

3. select usb 3.0 controller (you might need to install host extension for that) and directly also the device you would like to mount on boot. This will create a filter that IMMEDIATELY when the VM is powered on will attach the listed USB Device to your VM. (make shure to plug in AFTER VM has started…)

 

• VirtualBox 5.1.6 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack  All supported platforms
  Support for USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 devices, VirtualBox RDP and PXE boot for Intel cards. See this chapter from the User Manual for an introduction to this Extension Pack. The Extension Pack binaries are released under the VirtualBox Personal Use and Evaluation License (PUEL).
  Please install the extension pack with the same version as your installed version of VirtualBox:
  If you are using VirtualBox 5.0.26, please download the extension pack  here.

 

4. Inside Windows check device manager for missing USB drivers, in my case one needs to install Drivers for Device: 8086 1E31

which you can download here: https://downloadmirror.intel.com/21129/eng/Intel(R)_USB_3.0_eXtensible_Host_Controller_Driver.zip

r-click on that G*** DAMN*** THING -> Update Drivers, navigate to where you unzipped the drivers (i unzipped to C:)

You might have to do this TWICE for every yellow ! you see in the drivers list.

5. either you download directly inside your VM or you make the downloaded drivers accessible like that

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