Feature request: usb 2.0 ehci support

[Benjamin Kay]

It would be nice if VirtualBox emulated a usb 2.0/ehci host controller on the guest operating system at near-native bandwidth. Usb support in VirtualBox has been a huge boon to users already, and high-speed usb support would allow the use of usb cameras, microphones, video-capture devices, and other high-bandwidth devices inside the guest.

Currently VMware Workstation >= 6.0 and Player >= 2.0 are the only x86 virtualization softwares I know of to claim to support ehci, although they seem to support it better under a Windows host than a Linux one. It seems someone was working on an ehci patch for Qemu at some point, but that it was never finished; see this thread: ​http://marc.info/?l=qemu-devel&m=117483468018061&w=2

Is ehci support on the roadmap for VirtualBox 1.6.0? For 1.7.0? At all? Just curious to know.

[Sander van Leeuwen]

It is, but usb 2.0 devices already work. Just try an MSD and you'll see the throughput is already more than possible according to the 1.x specs.

[Benjamin Kay]

True, but the thoroughput still isn't anywhere near 480 Mbps. Just as importantly, drivers checking for ehci support or attempting to reserve bandwidth (as any high-speed device driver worth its salt will do) will fail because no ehci hub is present and the (reported) available bandwidth will be < 12 Mbps.

Still, its nice to know usb 2.0/ehci is on the roadmap!