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← Making an iPhone and iTunes work in an XP Virtualbox machine through ubuntu iTunes 8 running natively in Ubuntu 8.10 with Wine →

Fixing USB on VirtualBox to allow iPhone Sync with an Ubuntu host running Windows XP

November 3rd, 2008 · 75 Comments

An update has been released. Please click this link to see virtualbox-iphone-r8.sh

Updated to virtualbox-iphone-r7.sh on 11/11/2008, 3:25 CST.

  • Removed check for ubuntu, since this will work on far more systems.
  • Improved the check for /etc/fstab with a grep instead of a question.
  • Started package cleanup; it’s not the best yet.
  • Still no exit points :(
  • Still only accepts simple responses (y).
  • Planning to add support for Suse & Fedora soon.

This is a script that will modify the Ubuntu (or other Debian) environment to allow you to sync your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPod in a Windows XP Virtual machine. This fix solves two problems:

1. USB doesn’t work at all because there’s no mount point; edit /etc/fstab to fix it.
2. For the iPhone to sync, MAX_USBFS_BUFFER_SIZE needs to be modified in drivers/usb/core/devio.c

If the script works for you, please comment with your OS and details. If the script fails for you, PLEASE be very specific about what OS you are running and what did or didn’t happen. Comments without details don’t help anyone.

UPDATE: I’m not sure if i pointed out that you will need to re-run this script each time the Kernel is updated. The script now knows what to update and what to leave alone.

These instructions are based on my test environment. You do not have to follow them to the letter! Go ahead and try the script if you know what you’re doing!!!

This fix works on Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex running VirtualBox-2.0 installed through apt-get. It also works on older versions of Ubuntu, and possibly many other distros. Be creative, but be careful.

Install virtualbox-2.0 through through apt-get:

1. edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file and add the following source:
deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian intrepid non-free
(intrepid is not listed on the wiki, but the source is working!)

2. Run “wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/sun_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -”

3. Run “sudo apt-get update”

4. Run “sudo apt-get install virtualbox-2.0″

Restart your computer to make sure the vboxusers group initializes properly.

Run the script:
(be sure to chmod +x and run as root!)

Change the permissions to allow execution (chmod +x virtualbox-iphone.sh) and run it as root.
The script downloads the kernel source, and will take approximately 400 mb and several minutes of processing to run properly.

Restart again to initialize the modified kernel. (not sure if these restarts are necessary, but i’m trying to be safe!)

In the settings tab for the virtual machine, check to be sure that USB is enabled.

When you run windows as a virtual machine, you will have to connect the device, then go to the “Devices” tab in VirtualBox and enable the device in “USB Devices>”

These steps should set the stage for everything to work correctly on Ubuntu 8.10. If you have difficulties, please be VERY specific!

—-

Some people are having trouble with the USB settings.. make yours look like this. Your iphone may already be here, and it may not – i deleted mine to keep people from panicking if they didn’t see theirs.

—-

11/16/2008: I am aware of an issue where version 2.6.27-7 of the kernel goes through “make” while version 2.6.27-8 goes through update-initramfs. I am working on the script to address this. The result is that running the script works fine, but USB doesn’t connect. I think this only happens to people that have updated to 2.6.27-8, which appears to have been pulled back. A possible solution is to run “sudo grub-update” and boot into the 2.6.27-8 kernel, OR (i would do try this) “sudo apt-get remove linux-image-2.6.27-8-generic && sudo apt-get remove linux-headers-2.6.27-8-generic “. I have only confirmed this once (thanks Brandon) and cannot reproduce it because 2.6.27-8 is not available. Please confirm a solution if you have one. This is the relevant output from the virtuabox script…

(i need a good code highligher!)

Building modules, stage 2.
MODPOST 1 modules
CC      /home/user/linux-source-2.6.27/drivers/usb/core/usbcore.mod.o
LD [M]  /home/user/linux-source-2.6.27/drivers/usb/core/usbcore.ko
make: Leaving directory `/usr/src/<strong>linux-headers-2.6.27-7-generic'</strong>
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/<strong>initrd.img-2.6.27-8-generic</strong>
Do you want to get rid of the source and installed files?

—-

I’m working on virtualbox-iphone-v8.sh ; this release is intended to run on both Ubuntu and Fedora 10. I’d like to release it on November 25, 2008 – the same day Fedora 10 (Final) is released.

I’m looking for 5 testers that have a spare development machine and experience with installing operating systems (fedora & ubuntu). Experience with subversion would be a plus, but I’m not sure I want to go that fancy. Email me at huanix@gmail.com

I’m also looking for 5 donations to my paypal account, also huanix@gmail.com before we start testing. It takes a lot of time to do this and there is no substitute for monetary encouragement.

Current Tally (11/22/2008):
Testers: 3/5
Contributors: 4/5

Tags: Intrepid · Linux · iphone · ubuntu

75 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Andres // Nov 3, 2008 at 10:17 pm

    Hi…
    It’s worked for me… I’m using Intrepid, VirtualBox 2.0.4 and itunes 8.1. Thanks for your help.
    I have one questions.
    In my desktop, find a folder named linux-source-2.6.27. What happend with this folder?? Can I erase this folder???.. Thanks for your help.
    Best Regards
    Andres

  • 2 huanix // Nov 3, 2008 at 10:21 pm

    You can delete that folder. I’ll make the next version of the script clean it up. Thanks for the positive feedback – It makes it worth the effort to keep trying!

  • 3 Alistair // Nov 4, 2008 at 5:17 am

    Hi, I just found out about this. I haven’t tried it yet. Theres just one thing, I think it would be a lot better if you didn’t have to download 400MB, maybe you could use what was already there. Just and idea, I will try it and tell you if it works.

  • 4 zeddock // Nov 4, 2008 at 10:27 am

    This worked for me but the usb devices were greyed out even after I checked all of the things mentioned.

    I found I had to do 2 things:
    1. I had to run sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

    2. I had the fstab correct, but later found that my account was not a member of vboxusers! I corrected this by going to System \ Administration \ Users and Groups… Click Unlock at bottom…
    put in password and Authenticate
    Click Manage Groups
    Scroll to bottom and click vboxusers…
    Click properties… (That is the number that must be in fstab, BTW.)
    Check the box for your user account to be a member of vboxusers.. I also added root.

    *Note: it is possible that just #2 was needed, and not #1. But I did both rebooted and it worked.

    PS I did notice that it stared to work without USB 2.0 turned on and then turned it on and it worked with 2.0 also.

    zeddock

  • 5 Boniek // Nov 4, 2008 at 7:08 pm

    Brill! Thanks for this. Been waiting for a solution to get my iphone working without leaving ubuntu!

  • 6 Mike // Nov 5, 2008 at 12:04 am

    I must have missed a step.. :(

    1.) Removed 1.x VirtualBox from my machine.
    2.) Followed steps in your guide.
    3.) Rebooted
    4.) iTunes could not connect to the iPhone because an unknown error occurred.

    I’m running:
    Ubuntu 8.10 (Upgraded from 8.04)
    VirtualBox 2.0.4
    iPhone 3G 2.1 Jailbroken

  • 7 huanix // Nov 5, 2008 at 12:10 am

    Hey, that doesn’t sound like a problem with your iPhone through Virtualbox, it sounds like a genuine problem with the iPhone and iTunes. Are you sure it will work on a native XP installation? Those errors are usually associated with iPhone firmware problems. I would probably restore the image and re-jailbreak.

  • 8 Alistair // Nov 5, 2008 at 1:02 am

    Hey, just saying mine works. Thank you so much. You are awesome.

  • 9 zeddock // Nov 5, 2008 at 9:08 am

    Not sure if it has anything to do with this but I am getting an error now:
    Unable to mount Apple, Inc. iPhone
    Error initializing camera: -60: Could not lock the device

    zeddock

  • 10 huanix // Nov 5, 2008 at 11:59 am

    That’s an error in Ubuntu, right? It’s because Linux and Windows are fighting for control over the iPhone. You can safely ignore the error, or blacklist the iphone in Ubuntu.

  • 11 Mundi // Nov 5, 2008 at 1:19 pm

    It’s worked for me with a Nokia N70 and Nokia PC Suite…

    Host:
    Ubuntu 7.10
    Kernel 2.6.27-7-generic
    VirtualBox 2.0.4

    Guest:
    Windows XP SP3
    Nokia PC Suite 7.0.8.2

    Thank you a lot

  • 12 Tyler // Nov 6, 2008 at 8:19 am

    Using Intrepid 8.10
    kernel 2.6.27-7
    virtualbox 2.0.4
    iPhone 3g 2.1 Jail Broken

    The script worked initially, and well I might add so thank you for all your hardwork for those of us who would be SOL without it.

    However after some kernel related updates, It stopped working. I reran the script like your tutorial said, and it says usbcore.ko cant’t be stated bc it can’t be found. I have it in the same directory as the script. Am I doing something wrong or is the script now ineffective due to the new updates. Hope you can guide me in the right direction, thanks in advance

  • 13 huanix // Nov 6, 2008 at 8:28 am

    the script only modifies the current kernel. When the kernel updates, you’ll have to run the script again (but don’t modify /etc/fstab again).

    Run the directory from your home folder- it knows where to look for kernel files. I ran the update yesterday and then the script and everything worked fine.. i think by running the script in the driver directory the script may have killed the usb driver (?).

    You can run the kernel rebuild section of the script as many times as you want, but not the /etc/fstab part – it will add an unnecessary line to /etc/fstab each time you run it.

  • 14 Tyler // Nov 6, 2008 at 7:07 pm

    You were completely right about running the script in the same dir as the usb driver. I moved to the driver to the desktop, removed the line initially created by the script in fstab the first time I ran it, then re-ran the script. I am now moving songs to my iPhone as I type this thank you. Thanks again for all your help

  • 15 Eddie // Nov 6, 2008 at 8:19 pm

    Ok I am a newbee so how would I run the script?

    thanks for you help. Great job in figuring this out!!

  • 16 huanix // Nov 6, 2008 at 8:24 pm

    umm… i don’t know how to give much simpler directions without knowing exactly what you’re able to do… i’ll send you a direct email…

  • 17 RichM // Nov 6, 2008 at 10:42 pm

    AWSOME!

    Ubuntu 8.10
    VB 2,04

  • 18 Redman // Nov 8, 2008 at 1:30 am

    worked for me, Thanks a lot. Ubuntu 8.04, Iphone3g, itunes 8.1, vrtualbox 2.0.4

  • 19 ae // Nov 9, 2008 at 1:26 am

    Hi,

    Probably a stupid question, but does my iphone 3g have to be jailbroken for this to work?
    Just don’t want to go through all the steps and realise that’s the case – mine is not jailbroken.

    And thanks for the fix, but I gotta say – the day Apple releases itunes for Ubuntu I will dance naked through the streets.

  • 20 Horus // Nov 9, 2008 at 5:35 am

    Hmm, now i works. I cant say what I did different in my n-th try. The only thing I changed was using the Virtualbox package out of the repository instead of downloading it from virtualbox.org though i think they are the same. Second, i did a “sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup” before rebooting after executing your script. Anymay, now it works !! Thank you so much…

    My System: Ubuntu 8.10 x86_64, VirtualBox 2.0.4, Ipod Touch 2nd generation with Firmware 2.1.1, Itunes 8.0.1.

    P.S. I hope libgpod will work soon on the new Ipods/Iphones to sync them with Amarok again… Itunes sucks :(

  • 21 huanix // Nov 9, 2008 at 7:11 am

    ae:
    No, your iPhone does not have to be jailbroken to make this work.

    But… really!? Jailbreak is the coolest thing in the ENTIRE world! I highly recommend it! Let me know if you need some help – it only takes 5 minutes these days.

  • 22 zeddock // Nov 10, 2008 at 9:34 pm

    what benefit is jailbreaking really?

    Zeddock

  • 23 huanix // Nov 10, 2008 at 9:41 pm

    That’s a totally different post.. actually.. i think i did post it… (link at the bottom) – My primary reasons for jailbreak (3) are 1)using ssh, which is a necessity for any geek; 2) Cycorder – an excellent video recorder and 3) PdaNet – turning my cell phone into a wireless access point. There are others.. like when the power went out and i downloaded SNL on the bittorrent with my iPhone. There’s no loss, only gain!!

    http://www.huanix.com/2008/09/26/my-top-3g-iphone-jailbreak-and-non-jailbreak-apps/

  • 24 zee // Nov 11, 2008 at 2:23 am

    Hi.
    Just today (8:00 GMT+1 time) I used your script to fix my USB devices in VirtualBox 2.0.4 (in Ubuntu 8.10) but nothing happened.
    I do have a USB Devices submenu in the Device menu but no device is there.

    zee

  • 25 huanix // Nov 11, 2008 at 5:56 am

    what was the output from the script? if you didn’t save it, it’s okay to run it again. on a random guess, it sounds like the usb kernel module didn’t get rebuilt. this could be because the dependencies and source failed to download (internet connection problems?)

    I’m going to try to finish a new release with exit status reports (to tell you what failed). Come back for virtualbox-iphone-r7.sh later on today.

  • 26 Sharperimage001 // Nov 11, 2008 at 6:42 pm

    Huanix!!!
    The Script Worked GREAT!!!!!!!!
    Running on:

    Dell Inspiron 1520
    Kubuntu 8.10
    Virtual Box 2.0.4
    Ipod Touch 2.1.1

    I was stuck for about two weeks after i bought my ipod and could not synchronize , now its like clockwork , i can convert music, pics , etc and sync to my ipod.

    Thanks again !!!!!!!!

    Great Script!!

  • 27 zee // Nov 12, 2008 at 2:39 am

    @huanix:
    After replacing the OSE edition of VirtualBox with Sun’s own, USB is working as expected and I am able to sync my iPhone.

    Thanky you.

  • 28 triplec110h // Nov 12, 2008 at 2:45 pm

    trying this now, i almost had my iphone working by doing everything manually…but i get the error once i start itunes. most likely the buffer problem. will let you know after it finishes.

    i love how your script already knew i put a line in my fstab for usb. killer!

    not sure how much info helps you but heres my setup
    nforce 680i mobo
    4GB memory
    2x 500GB hard disks, first is 50GB win vista for gaming, 11GB linux swap, the rest ubuntu ext3. 2nd disk is full ext3 for storage
    nvidia 8800 GT 512MB
    soundblaster live! 24-bit

    ubuntu 8.10 clean install
    virtualbox 2.0.4
    xp sp3 all updates 11/12/08
    latest itunes 8.1 or whatever it is
    iphone 3g 16GB, not jailbroken.

  • 29 triplec110h // Nov 12, 2008 at 3:03 pm

    it worked man. thanks a million. linux users and devs need more stuff like this if we want to take over the world! bookmarking your page for future kernel updates when i need this again.

  • 30 zeddock // Nov 12, 2008 at 7:17 pm

    The latest script, (r7) worked for me although I had to uncheck… “bee-dunk”… and re-check “boo-dink” the iPhone in the usb devices icon.

    Also,
    I had to change the user group number from 1000 to 125.

    Also, I got an “Error 52″ in the beginning. (52 was from my memory, not 100% sure that is what it was.)

    zeddock
    zeddock

  • 31 chris // Nov 12, 2008 at 11:46 pm

    How the heck do you blacklist a usb device in Ubuntu? :\ Can’t find that information anywhere!

  • 32 chris // Nov 13, 2008 at 12:25 pm

    I’m so excited, this is working for me – on one computer for certain, one computer very likely – both Intrepid Ibex.

    I had to restore my iPod touch because I hacked it all to bits with software (which couldn’t be done without a windows computer _connected_ to the internet apparently ). So I tried to do that with virtualbox but it didn’t when it restarted the ipod Touch. However, I was able to restore through a windows box my friend owns – so no worries.

    Ubuntu Ibex 8.10 with VirtualBox 2.0 from virtualbox repos, and windows XP with iTunes 8 – confirmed working.

  • 33 Patrick Moore // Nov 13, 2008 at 10:18 pm

    Unfortunately, it doesn’t work for me. The first version of the script worked fine up until 2.6.27-8-generic.

    After that update, it doesn’t work for me.

    For the record, I am running Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10 running Win XP Pro SP3 in Virtualbox 2.04.

    Would have been awesome if this had of worked!

  • 34 blake // Nov 13, 2008 at 11:46 pm

    does not work for me, i get the same error as original. “…cannot connect to the iPhone because an unknown error occurred…
    –Using Ubuntu 8.4, VirtualBox 2.0

    ima try Ubuntu 8.10, but keep up the excellent work! it is appreciated!!

  • 35 huanix // Nov 14, 2008 at 6:31 am

    @Patrick – hey man, keep trying. The fundamentals of the fix didn’t change, only the packaging for it. If you still have trouble i’d like to see your log file so i can prevent the problem.

  • 36 Patrick Moore // Nov 14, 2008 at 2:13 pm

    Which log file would you need to see?

  • 37 Joe // Nov 14, 2008 at 3:06 pm

    IPhone on Linux. You’ve done a good service man, if i didn’t just lose my job I’d throw you some bucks. and when i get one i probably will so your wife doesn’t kill you.

  • 38 huanix // Nov 14, 2008 at 10:17 pm

    I’ve been working on iTunes in Wine, and it gave me a chance to play with this toy… I panicked when it didn’t work at first- i discovered (and you all probably knew this) that I have to toggle the USB in VirtualBox off and on to get it to recognize. I started saying to myself, “dude, what have you done!? this thing doesn’t work at all!”

  • 39 Jekkil // Nov 15, 2008 at 5:26 pm

    Hi,

    Currently it does not work for me. I think it’s because I should blacklist iphone from ubuntu, but how do I do this ?

    Thanks

  • 40 Jekkil // Nov 15, 2008 at 5:39 pm

    I have found that in menu of virtualbox I can add a usb device. So I have added the iphone (”Apple Inc iPhone”), it installs the device, propose me to get foto from it (I can even see them), but the I open iTunes (8.0.1) but I get an error saying
    iTunes has not succeded to connect to iPhone <> vue to an unknown error (0xE8000035)

    Any idea ?

    I was using the OSE version of virtualbox before, but I have removed it and install you specified in this article. Executed the script too without error.
    What do I miss ?

    Thanks for any help

  • 41 Jekkil // Nov 15, 2008 at 5:47 pm

    Apparently the problem dissapeared when I activate USB 2.0. Was not before and activate it seems to solve the problem.

  • 42 huanix // Nov 15, 2008 at 5:49 pm

    Blacklisting is usually to prevent a kernel driver from loading… when i mentioned blacklisting the iphone, i was referring to the way that ubuntu handles the device; we just want it to mount it to /proc/bus/usb and nothing more (i.e. not open it with fspot or amarok, etc). This is a simple option in the GUI, but i don’t know how to do in bash (yet). Sorry if that was misleading.

    As far as the 0xE8..35 error, i have seen that, but i forgot what causes it – maybe someone else will know.

  • 43 huanix // Nov 15, 2008 at 7:16 pm

    I’m working on virtualbox-iphone-v8.sh ; this release is intended to run on both Ubuntu and Fedora 10. I’d like to release it on November 25, 2008 – the same day Fedora 10 (Final) is released.

    I’m looking for 5 testers that have a spare development machine and experience with installing operating systems (fedora & ubuntu). Experience with subversion would be a plus, but I’m not sure I want to go that fancy. Email me at huanix@gmail.com

    I’m also looking for 5 donations to my paypal account, also huanix@gmail.com before we start testing. It takes a lot of time to do this and there is no substitute for monetary encouragement.

    Current Tally –> I moved this to the bottom of the original post!

  • 44 Jekkil // Nov 16, 2008 at 4:26 am

    I would defintively donate you something to help you continue making iphone synch (using wine or virtualbox).
    But where is the donate button ?

  • 45 Beppe // Nov 16, 2008 at 5:44 am

    Thanks for the script, I’ve been searcing for a long time to make Iphone run in vbox!
    But actually I’ve run it, and now I can’t see any USB device in ubuntu.
    Vbox returns (when loaded):

    Could not load the Host USB Proxy Service (VERR_FILE_NOT_FOUND). The service might be not installed on the host computer.

    Codice&nbspd’uscita:
    NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0×00004005)
    Componente:
    Host
    Interfaccia:
    IHost {489fb370-c227-4d43-9761-ceb28484fd9f}
    Chiamante:
    IMachine {1e509de4-d96c-4f44-8b94-860194f710ac}

    I’ve a lap-top: Acer TravelMate6292
    Kubuntu 8.10 (upgraded from 8.04).
    I’m sorry, but can anyone help me?
    thanks!!

  • 46 Beppe // Nov 16, 2008 at 7:32 am

    I’ve just solved the problem:
    I was running the kernel 2.6.27-8-generic (that is probably unstable?!).
    I’ve tried to use the script with the kernel 2.6.27-7, and it works!!!

    thanks a lot!!
    Beppe

  • 47 huanix // Nov 16, 2008 at 8:02 am

    @Jekkil – hmm.. i never thought of a donation button.. i guess i could add one. i never wanted to sound like a beggar, but i’m taking away from the things i SHOULD be doing to share this with people. I’ll add a button soon – for now, you can go to http://www.paypal.com and send a donation to huanix@gmail.com

  • 48 huanix // Nov 16, 2008 at 8:07 am

    @Beppe – I’m surprised it didn’t work for you on 2.6.27-8. I’m trying to decide what would make it do that.. I’m assuming you restarted? I think I’ll build 2.6.27-8 and see what i see. To this point everyone that [I've verified] has followed the steps properly has experienced success. I will continue to simplify it as much as I can!

  • 49 huanix // Nov 16, 2008 at 10:07 am

    @Jekkil – eh? what do you think of my snazzy paypal button? thanks for the idea – not sure how i missed that one. My wife just looked at the blog and says i ought to get rid of the stupid pic and go “professional” .. ehk!

  • 50 BLWedge09 // Nov 16, 2008 at 6:14 pm

    I’m running Ubuntu Intrepid (kernel 2.6.27-7 generic), Virtualbox 2.0.4, Windows XP Pro (Svc. Pack 3), itunes 8.0.1.11 with a 2G 8GB iphone. Windows says it successfully installed the iphone driver and it also opens the camera and scanner wizard (I am able to browse photos). However, itunes says it can’t connect to the iphone because of an unknown error. Any ideas what to try here? BTW, the iphone is on software version 2.1(5F136). Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

  • 51 huanix // Nov 16, 2008 at 7:05 pm

    on the settings tab in virtualbox under USB, there is a checkbox that says “Enable USB 2.0 (EHCI) Controller”, is that checked? it should be. Unchecking that box replicates your problem on my test machine.

  • 52 Jekkil // Nov 17, 2008 at 3:50 am

    Huanix, better with that button :-)
    Check your mail for the donation and continue like this !

  • 53 huanix // Nov 17, 2008 at 8:17 am

    Thanks Jekkil!

  • 54 chris // Nov 17, 2008 at 12:37 pm

    Dude, you are awesome. Is there another way to donate though? I’m paranoid about paypal.

  • 55 huanix // Nov 17, 2008 at 12:42 pm

    @chris – Why so paranoid about paypal? I don’t have other methods in mind, but you’re welcome to try – judging by the way you proposed to your girlfriend, you’re a very creative fellow. (that’s my way of saying that i enjoyed checking out your blog)

  • 56 jan // Nov 18, 2008 at 7:50 am

    Hi,

    thank u very much for that script, it works perfectly for me (ubuntu 8.10).

    But i have one question: Since it changes the kernel, do i have to fear any problems with my ubuntu?

  • 57 huanix // Nov 18, 2008 at 1:20 pm

    No worries about kernel problems. The modification is to one specific field that only relates to USB. You’ll never notice it.

  • 58 jan // Nov 18, 2008 at 2:26 pm

    Thx a lot!
    Now i can finally get rid of my dual-boot system :-)
    itunes was the only reason i had to install windows

  • 59 Mafra // Nov 18, 2008 at 2:49 pm

    Thank you! Its work! I have Ubuntu 8.10 and an iPod Touch 2.1.

  • 60 Chris // Nov 18, 2008 at 6:43 pm

    Nice work! I’d love to know how you figured out that this change would get the phone working! :o )

    There are a few minor issues with the script– I could send you some patches if you want, though I’m sure you’ll want to work over any changes I’ve made to make them consistent with your work.

    The minor issues are: the script mods fstab to mount USB devices under the group ID “1000″. That group ID is the user-only group ID for the first user created on many distros (like mine– I’m on Ubuntu). But it’s not guaranteed on all distros, and even for those that do use 1000, it only works for single-user systems. It’s better to lookup the group ID for the ‘vboxusers’ group, and use it. (I have that mod for you). Then of course, you need to check to see whether the user is actually *in* the vboxusers group– that’s also in my mods.

    Let me know if you’d like me to send you some diffs…

    Cheers! and THANKS!!
    Chris

  • 61 Chris // Nov 18, 2008 at 7:25 pm

    By the way, I should have mentioned that the crucial thing (the buffer size change) worked like a charm for me with this configuration:

    Dell Latitude D630
    Ubuntu 8.04.1 (Hardy Heron) x86_64
    Sun VirtualBox 2.0.4
    Guest OS: Windows XP Pro, SP3
    iTunes 8.0.1.11
    iPhone w/2.1 software, not jailbroken

    I haven’t actually *synched* the phone yet, but iTunes shows the phone and all its contents. :o )

    Thanks again,
    Chris

  • 62 huanix // Nov 18, 2008 at 7:52 pm

    wow chris, i totally appreciate your support and I would gladly integrate any patches that work for the script. My issue right now is the pressure of a lot of other responsibilities that should be resolved soon. Do send what you’ve got!!

  • 63 HuXu // Nov 20, 2008 at 11:34 am

    Ok so I ran the script and no usb devices are detected, USB drive and iPod dont show up.

    I am a part of the vboxusers group
    Intrepid Ibex (fully updated)
    VirtualBox 2.0.4
    iPod Touch 2.1

    I ran your script and it didnt result in any errors.

    This is my fstab

    # /etc/fstab: static file system information.
    #
    #
    proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
    # /dev/sda5
    UUID=ca08636a-fdc8-4e6f-bc2c-efc324be1ed0 / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
    /dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

  • 64 huanix // Nov 20, 2008 at 8:55 pm

    It appears that the script was not executed properly. I don’t see that your /etc/fstab was modified. Did you press “y” at all of the prompts? A current limitation is that simply pressing “Enter” will cause the script to exit without errors and without making changes.

  • 65 HuXu // Nov 21, 2008 at 4:21 pm

    I did press y at all the prompts, i dunno if i accidently hit enter or not, but im gonna run it again and see how it goes…

  • 66 HuXu // Nov 21, 2008 at 4:36 pm

    And it worked when i added it manually. So i guess i would suggest check your script on the conditional for the fstab editing part, because i see its there but as you can see my fstab it didnt work on it.

    but other than that THANK YOU!!! THIS IS AWESOME!!!!

  • 67 BLWedge09 // Nov 23, 2008 at 10:39 pm

    Just a word of advice from someone who now has experience with this… Don’t attempt to update the iphone software this way. Once the phone goes into recovery mode (itunes logo on the screen) ubuntu unmounts it (or thinks you have disconnected it) making it impossible to update the software. The phone will be stuck in recovery mode until you can connect it to another pc with itunes (not in a vm). Luckily, I was able to copy all of my itunes data, including the phone backup and library, over to my work XP laptop, set up the same shared drive I had in the VM and restore from a backup I made. Phew! I was worried there for a few minutes…

  • 68 huanix // Nov 24, 2008 at 5:49 am

    @BLWedge09 – I actually had a very different experience. The phone did go into recovery mode and I right clicked on the USB icon in VirtualBox and connected the device in recovery mode. Even wrote a post about it: http://www.huanix.com/2008/11/23/you-can-upgrade-and-restore-apple-iphone-firmware-in-a-virtualbox-machine/

  • 69 lucas // Dec 27, 2008 at 6:20 pm

    I was having the same problem with some earlier version of VirtualBox. I just installed
    VirtualBox 2.0.6 from the repository as you instructed on Ubuntu 8.10 on a Lenovo SL300 and am running Windows XP SP3 and all worked without having to run your script at all.
    Sweet!
    And thanks!

  • 70 boban // Jan 25, 2009 at 9:29 am

    hi, after rebooting I just tried to start Virtualbox and it says
    critical error:
    could not load the settings file ‘/home/boban/.VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml’
    Cannot convert settings from version ‘1.6-linux’.
    The source version is not supported.

    Fehlercode:
    NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0×80004005)
    Komponente:
    VirtualBox
    Interface:
    IVirtualBox {557a07bc-e6ae-4520-a361-4a8493199137}

    can you help?

  • 71 Matt // Feb 14, 2009 at 11:55 am

    boban: To fix this error, delete the folder .VirtualBox in your home directory and then restart VB. Worked for me.

  • 72 Chaanakya // Feb 16, 2009 at 2:37 pm

    I had this problem once. I just deleted that file and all was well. Did you have virtualbox installed, upgrade, and reinstall? I downgraded from Intrepid to Hardy, and I had this problem, but once I deleted that file, everything worked fine.

  • 73 Magoraf // Jun 22, 2009 at 12:20 pm

    Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty
    Kernel 2.6.28
    Virtualbox 2.1.4

    I have the following problem during the script execution :

    strip: ‘usbcore.ko’: No such file

    I have already used this script several times with the previous version of Ubuntu (8.10 Intrepid), but since I updated to the new version/kernel, it doesn’t work anymore :-(
    Please HELP!

  • 74 Faeryan // Jul 2, 2009 at 6:03 am

    I just stumbled upon this when reading someone’s blog.
    I’m running a VirtualBox 2.2.4 r47978 (or 2.24, not sure about that cause of the font) and on it a Windows 7 free trial version and I can sync my iPhone with it no problems.

    I was wondering whether it’s my Ubuntu kernel (2.6.26.11) or the version of my VirtualBox or even Windows 7 that did it for me.

  • 75 Faeryan // Jul 2, 2009 at 6:05 am

    Oops.. The kernel I was using was of course 2.6.27.11, not 2.6.26.11 as I told earlier.

    I’ve upgraded to Jaunty and kernel 2.6.28.13 after my last iPhone connect so I’m not sure if it works with my current kernel.

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Wiki: Sync in Linux