From: nospam@needed.invalid   
      
   On 2/23/2024 10:44 PM, bad sector wrote:   
   > On 2/23/24 18:39, David W. Hodgins wrote:   
   >> On Fri, 23 Feb 2024 17:33:22 -0500, bad sector    
   wrote:   
   >>> I think I would not even have been able to install   
   >>> a win10 guest if I were not in group vboxusers. Even   
   >>> the installer warns about that so I've been careful   
   >>> to comply. What does vbox log, is there any way to   
   >>> find and id the snag that prevents usb passthrough?   
   >>   
   >> Double check the settings for the guest to ensure it has usb 2 or 3 enabled   
   >> matching what the host sees. Usb 2 is for ohci/ehci, while 3 is for xhci.   
   >   
   > The gx-100 was made in 2022-2023 so I presume it's all usb-3. My   
   Crosshair-IV Formula mobo has 2 usb3 and 6 usb3 ports, both types are enabl;ed   
   in BIOS.  If I plug the gx-100 into a blue usb-3 port then lsusb will NOT   
   show it. Go figure. If I plug it    
   into a usb-2 port then it shows up.   
   >   
   > The vBox host usb setup is a bit crooked but if I select usb-2 then it will   
   autodetect the device and auto-fill the the id numbers. Here the device should   
   NOT show up in the filter with usb-3 seleted because the host cannot see it   
   then. Anyway, I    
   select usb-2 and the filter is enabled though I don't see the point of this   
   filter at all, all detected usb devices show up under the guest window   
   regardless of what's in this filter, including the gx-100 if usb-2 is selected   
   in the host.   
   >   
   > If I set 3 in host then the guest w10 Device-Manager last entry also shows   
   USB 3, if I set 2 in the host then Device-Manager shows 2. The very few times   
   I got it to work I never had to tinker in the guest Device-Manager. If I set   
   usb-2 in the host,    
   filter or no filter, then the gx-100 shows up in the strip just below the w10   
   window BUT GHOSTED and the bubble for it shows all the right numbers plus that   
   it is "unavailable".   
   >   
      
   Not every peripheral is USB3. Even if made today, there are still lots   
   of USB2 peripherals.   
      
   USB3 has 9 contacts. A row of 4. A row of 5.   
      
   The row of five, is a differential high speed interface.   
   This is similar to how PCI Express works or SATA works. The   
   ground in the center, would be for crosstalk. The SATA one   
   has three GND, with the seven pin interfacing having GND   
   on the outside of the set of five in my picture.   
      
      TX+ TX- GND RX+ RX-   
      
   Those are low amplitude signals, like 1 volt amplitude.   
      
   Versus USB2 which is a 5V logic. VBUS is 5V. The D+ and D-   
   are higher amplitude signals, and run half-duplex (either   
   transmit, or receive, but not both).   
      
      VBUS  D+ D-  GND   
      
   You'll notice the USB3 five pins, cannot work without a power   
   source, and VBUS is the power source for the logic (even if the   
   logic is USB3).   
      
   *******   
      
   Motherboards come two ways.   
      
   If a motherboard is manufactured today, virtually all the logic   
   blocks for USB, are USB3 blocks and XHCI driver standard. To make   
   a USB2 connector on such motherboards, they just connect the four   
   pins of a USB3 block. This then, becomes USB2 with XHCI driver.   
      
   Older motherboards (ten years ago), the USB2 ports were conventional   
   OHCI/EHCI, while the USB3 ports were XHCI and sometimes produced by   
   an add-on chip, instead of via the Southbridge. Such ports are   
   "genuine articles", no screwing around. And the USB2 "should just work"   
   on a ten year old motherboard.   
      
   To add genuine USB2 to a motherboard, via add-on card, is tough now.   
   New motherboards typically do not have PCI slots. The ten year   
   old machine has a PCI slot. Genuine USB2 addon cards (like a NEC chip)   
   were PCI chips. Rather than PCI Express ones.   
      
   While you could connect a USB2 to PCI, to a PCI to PCIe bridge chip,   
   companies stopped doing that, after the bridge company got bought   
   out, and the pirate ship that bought them, raised the prices. This   
   immediately sunk the add-on legacy card business for PCIe. It was   
   on thin ice to begin with, and raising the bridge price, everyone   
   just exited the market. At the same time, motherboards stopped   
   being made with four bifurcation chips between two x16 connectors   
   for PCI Express, as back then, you could have x16, x0 or x8, x8   
   for motherboard wiring, and four DIP addon chips handled the routing.   
   The pirate company raised the price on those too, so those had   
   to go out the window. Now, motherboards have an x16 slot and an x4   
   slot and zero bifurcation chips.   
      
   *******   
      
   In VirtualBox, the logs are in the storage area for the VM container,   
   in a folder called "Logs". So if I had a Ubuntu VM and a Mint VM,   
   then the Ubuntu folder has a "VBox.log" in its Logs folder and   
   the Mint folder has a "VBox.log" in its Logs folder.   
      
   I sometimes move the entire folder for storage elsewhere. Which   
   means I am responsible for finding the VBox.log when I need it.   
   (It's inside a ZIP I make of the folder.)   
      
   It's worth a look, that log, but no guarantees as to what is going on.   
      
      Paul   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)