How to set up WiFi USB Passthrough - kdaisho/Blog GitHub Wiki

Troubleshooting (Jan 18, 2025)

  • A few days earlier, after successful installation, I was able to see wlan0 traffics. But today iwconfig stopped printing wlan0 option.
  • I checked the settings for VirutalBox. It recognizes USB so extension pack is working fine. So I started VM again then I checked both USB 2.0 and 3.0 with all combination possible with actual USB port, 3 (new) or 2 (old), both didn't work. I don't see wlan0.
  • Solution was to add the Wifi adapter again even though the same one is already in the list with the checkbox is checked. You can add the same device again and you'll see two identical devices in the list (Ralink 802.11 n WLAN [0101]). I think the newly added one is doing the job. The device is using USB 2.0 (old) one, but VM configuration for USB shows USB 3.0 is selected (radio button). This makes me nuts.

VirtualBox doesn't recognize USB

!!! These actions must be done from the host machine, not in your VM !!!

  1. Download VirtualBox Extension Pack from Oracle website
  2. Install it
  3. On host machine, run to make sure if it's installed
VBoxManage list extpacks
  1. Check USB permissions:
  • Confirm your user is in the vboxusers group:
groups $USER
  1. If vboxusers is missing, add your user:
sudo usermod -aG vboxusers $USER
  1. Ensure the USB subsystem is functioning:
sudo dmesg | grep -i usb

VBoxManage list usbhost

groups $USER

sudo usermod -aG vboxusers $USER

Run id command. You should see vboxusers in the list.

id

If you don't see that, you may restart your computer and try id again.

Restarting host machine...

Now id prints vboxusers.

Go to VirtualBox Manager, Settings > USB

I see a list of devices from USB 2.0 and USB 3.0.

Now launch the virtual machine while USB Wifi dongle is connected.

Then run:

iwconfig

And you'll see wlan0.

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry short  long limit:2   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off