Virtualbox and Garmin GPS USB problems

[Lucidor]

I have Mapsource installed in Virtualbox and a Garmin GPS unit connected via USB for tranferring routes and waypoints. To make the GPS unit visible to the program, I have to manually disable and enable the Garmin USB driver (in My Computer/Device Manager) each time I connect the GPS. If I do that, everything works but ony as long as the GPS stays connected. Next time I connect the unit, I have to go though the same procedure again. And when I boot the guest OS, I have to manually activate the USB device in the USB menu of Virtualbox, despite the fact that the particular unit is added to the configuration filters of Virtualbox.

While this workaround helps me get the job done, it is certainly not convenient. Any advice on how to fix it permanently would be higly appreciated. In short, I would like to have the specific USB device active on boot of the guest OS, and fully functional without having to disable/enable the driver manually.

I'm running Sabayon 3.4a and Virtualbox 1.5.0 with a Windows XP guest OS, MapSource 6.13.2, Garmin Quest 2 GPS and 2.2.1.0 Garmin USB driver.

[WarraWarra]

Only thing I can think of is to contact virtualbox website and get them to tell you how as my usb hd's auto mounts every time so the GPS should as well.

Maybe use the remember connected media option in 1.5.0 and see if it helps.

[Lucidor]

Thank you for the tip, you Sabayon-guys are always helpful!

I followed your advice and had a look at the forum hosted by Virtualbox.org. After some searches I found one more report of an identical problem, although with SuSE 10.2 host and a different Garmin unit. The guy never found the root cause but offered a slightly better workaround. There is a small utility, devcon, that can be downloaded from MS (for free). You can use it to restart devices in the sh... on command line (or is it still called DOS prompt in the MS world?). Anyway, by typing the following line...

devcon restart @usb\vid_091e*

...the USB device is restarted, much like my previous disable/enable in the device manager. But this way I can make a small script to do this when launching MapSource.

Anyway, where did you find that "remember settings" in Virtualbox? I think I looked through all menus but did not see it?

-Lucidor

[WarraWarra]

I have seen in /etc/make.conf you can add the word " garmin " this adds specific support for garmin devices.
apps-misc/gpsdrive

[chsims1]

Anyone here successfully using virtualbox-bin 1.5.6 with a Garmin GPS? My device is not recognized for some reason. USB is working OK though, because I can access my digital camera fine.

I get an error message along the lines of "failed to create a proxy device for the USB device. (Error: VERR_READ_ERROR)"

[GI_James]

Specifically, which garmin do you have? I have had similar issues. However, my Garmin has an sd card, so I just use the SD card to transfer maps.

In last months LinuxJournal, there is an article about using wine to install and use mapsource, but havne't had time to do it yet. That will be my project this weekend.