Can't find USB when trying to install Windows 10 on VirtualBox

English Virtualization
1

Greetings, openSUSE experts:

I’m trying to install Windows 10 in a VM using VirtualBox 5.0.24, which I installed as part of my upgrade to LEAP. The installation medium is a USB thumb drive, which I purchased at a local electronics store (i.e. a “legit” version of Win 10).

I created a VDI image with 8GB memory and 75GB storage; I have the Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack 5.0.26 (yes, I know it’s not 5.0.24) installed as per the VM’s preferences, and then I went Devices > Insert Guest Additions CD Image. Finally, I did the following:

sudo cp -v /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/60-vboxdrv.rules /etc/udev/rules.d

and then I un-commented the “SUBSYSTEM” lines in /etc/udev/rules.d/60-vboxdrv.rules (followed by a reboot). When I then navigate Devices > USB I can see the entry** KDI-MSFT Windows 10 [0110]** but it’s not available when I go into the VM’s system settings to bump it to the top of the boot order.

Does anyone have a hint as to what I’m missing?

Thanks!

Bill

2

Hi, I never tried to start W10 like that, but as a general rule W10 boots in EFI mode, so make sure that your Virtual Machine has System > Enable EFI set.
Then you need to add a “Device filter” in the USB menu for your pendrive.
Then you might need to edit the EFI menu at startup to have the USB pendrive first in the boot order.

3

There is no such rule. It boots in whatever mode firmware does it.

4

Nice to know, never had to boot a W10 key in a legacy system so far.

5

FYI I tried booting Tumbleweed from an USB drive in Oracle VirtualBox 5.1.2 (I don’t have 5.0.x installed currently) and was successful with EFI enabled, while I had no option to boot from USB in the ordinary “BIOS” or legacy mode.
Booting from USB in legacy mode is not even mentioned in the user manual.

6

According to Virtualbox documentation, booting from USB is not supported
https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch03.html#settings-motherboard

So,
I’d recommend you use any of several “Make ISO” apps to convert the contents of your USB key to an ISO file, and then point to it with your virtual CDROM when you create your Guest.

TSU

7

… at least with Windows guests; quoting from VBox user manual, ch. 3.12:

Note that the VirtualBox EFI support is experimental and will be enhanced as EFI matures and
becomes more widespread. While Mac OS X and Linux guests are known to work fine, Windows
guests are currently unable to boot with the VirtualBox EFI implementation.

8

TSU said:*According to Virtualbox documentation, booting from USB is not supported
https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch…gs-motherboard

So,
I’d recommend you use any of several “Make ISO” apps to convert the contents of your USB key to an ISO file, and then point to it with your virtual CDROM when you create your Guest.*

Well, rats - that explains a lot. I’ll make an ISO and report the results back to the group.

Thank you so much!

Bill

9

Booting from USB as a boot option is a completely separate issue than whether EFI is supported, is apparently a limitation of the VBox BIOS/EFI.

There are posted attempts configuring the USB device as raw storage instead of as a USB device which would make the USB contents boot like a regular hard drive, but I didn’t see any successes installing to another virtual storage.

TSU