SD card readers and VMs - MacOS

nauga

nauga

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I'm running a Win10 VM on a MacOS (Big Sur) host using VirtualBox. Can anyone tell me HITF I get the VM to recognize the SD Card reader? I have no issue with other USB peripherals, just the card reader. There's plenty of "guidance" available online, but as expected much of it conflicts/contradicts and nothing has worked so far. Anyone got any suggestions, preferrably ones they have applied and found to work?

Nauga,
and his house of cards
 
I like to be helpful but I have no clue so I asked chat GPT to answer the question but in the style of a junkie hoping to get a lil sumpin sumpin from you in exchange for the technical support.
That way it would seem less likely that I googled it and more likely that I have had this problem before but then got heavy into meth or something.


Aight, listen up, bro, I’ve been bangin’ my head against the wall with this same crap, but I finally got it sorted, so here’s the deal, step by step, no BS. You help me out after? Cool? Cool.

  1. Make Sure Your Mac’s Playin’ Nice
    First thing—check if your Mac even sees the damn SD card reader. Pop in a card and see if it shows up in Finder or Disk Utility. If it don’t, the problem’s not VirtualBox—it’s your Mac being a diva. Fix that first.
  2. Get VirtualBox to Stop Being Stupid
    • Fire up VirtualBox, click your Windows VM, hit Settings, then USB.
    • Turn on USB support. Pick USB 3.0, ’cause anything less is trash.
    • Add a filter for the SD reader:
      • Plug it in, click that little + button, and pick your SD reader from the list. If it ain’t there, smash something (but not your computer).
  3. Download That Extension Pack Thing
    You can’t do USB stuff without the VirtualBox Extension Pack, man. Google it, download it, install it, restart VirtualBox, then restart the VM. No shortcuts here—just do it.
  4. Drivers Are Probably Screwed
    Once you’re in the VM, open Device Manager (type it in the search bar). Look for your SD reader under "USB controllers" or "Disk drives." Got a yellow triangle? Yeah, that means it’s busted. Right-click it, update the driver, let Windows do its magic. If it still sucks, we’re talkin’ manual install, but let’s not go there unless we have to.
  5. Mac Won’t Let Go of the Card? Eject It!
    If your Mac’s hoggin’ the SD card, VirtualBox can’t grab it. Go into Finder or Disk Utility, hit eject, then plug it back in and try again in the VM. Works 9 outta 10 times, promise.
  6. Plan B: Share the Card as a Folder
    Alright, if VirtualBox just won’t behave, here’s the workaround:
    • In VirtualBox, go to Settings > Shared Folders.
    • Add the SD card’s location (like /Volumes/SDCard) and make sure you check "Auto-mount."
    • Now you can grab it as a shared folder inside Windows. Boom, done.
  7. If All Else Fails, Go Nuclear
    • If it’s an internal reader, you might need to mess with PCI passthrough, but that’s some deep, scary-level stuff.
    • Or, use a USB-over-network tool like VirtualHere to cheat the system. Yeah, it’s dirty, but it works.
Now get that thing workin’, and hey, if you got anything to spare, like, y’know, just hit me up. Good luck, man. Don’t let the tech gods win this one!
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
...I finally got it sorted, so here’s the deal, step by step, no BS.
Click to expand...

They say it be like that but it don't be. Looks like it might be something to do with permissions on the card reader (not the cards themselves) that still block even when running the VM as root. Not sure if host side or VM side. Still digging.

Nauga,
peripherally
 
90% sure it is a host pass thru permissions issue. Mac’s have become spectacularly cantankerous about peripherals and app access. If I gave any further crud, I’d try it out for giggles, but I’m currently ignoring a telemetry api problem so that’s where my focus isn’t.
 
masloki said:
90% sure it is a host pass thru permissions issue. Mac’s have become spectacularly cantankerous about peripherals and app access.
Click to expand...
And there you have it. I changed the raw device permissions to match those of the VM and it works now. That's a new on on me - thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

Nauga,
finally on the axis with access
 
This is an answer to a question you didn't ask, but since moving from my 2012/2015 macbook pros to the M1/M2 airs, I've had a two usb oddities happen in recent memory. In both cases, it involved a storage device that would show up on the bus but not actually mount. One was a usb-a thumb drive that I eventually gave up on. The other was an external ssd that I expected would negotiate/handshake and Just Work with any usb-c cable, but ended up requiring whatever special usb 33 1/3 monster cable.
 
GeorgeC said:
This is an answer to a question you didn't ask, but since moving from my 2012/2015 macbook pros to the M1/M2 airs, I've had a two usb oddities happen in recent memory. In both cases, it involved a storage device that would show up on the bus but not actually mount. One was a usb-a thumb drive that I eventually gave up on. The other was an external ssd that I expected would negotiate/handshake and Just Work with any usb-c cable, but ended up requiring whatever special usb 33 1/3 monster cable.
Click to expand...
The most important thing to know about USB-C is this: NOTHING "Just Works with any USB-C cable". With the *possible* exception of charging at the slowest possible speed. Everything else needs a cable that supports it. The end of the cable fitting in both ends of what you're trying to connect is pretty meaningless at this point, unfortunately.
 
masloki said:
90% sure it is a host pass thru permissions issue. Mac’s have become spectacularly cantankerous about peripherals and app access. If I gave any further crud, I’d try it out for giggles, but I’m currently ignoring a telemetry api problem so that’s where my focus isn’t.
Click to expand...
Macs are running a version of Unix under the covers.

Between the issues of unix permissions (here), device management, and Mac's drive mounting, there are many points of potential failure.

MMDUU - Mere Mortals Don't Use Unix.
 
Wow, and I thought Cantonese was a hard language to learn.
 
bflynn said:
Macs are running a version of Unix under the covers.

Between the issues of unix permissions (here), device management, and Mac's drive mounting, there are many points of potential failure.

MMDUU - Mere Mortals Don't Use Unix.
Click to expand...
To say that using a Mac is "using Unix" is quite a stretch. Yes, it's got Unix underpinnings, but it's completely hidden from the user unless you specifically go looking for it, and it's a very, um, "extended" version of Unix - The last time it was just Unix was 1985.
 
Putting a pretty face on Unix is still Unix.
 
bflynn said:
Putting a pretty face on Unix is still Unix.
Click to expand...
If you were talking about some sort of xwindows implementation or any of the other front ends that have appeared on top of various distros over the years, I'd agree. But Mac OS is not just "Unix with a pretty face", it's an entire attractive body and face that happens to have a Unix skeleton.
 
As far as I know, you need to add an SD card reader to VirtualBox via "USB Device Filters" in the VM settings.
 
I used to run a mac in the office with parallels. One day it jsut stopped recognizing the USB ports. Rather than troubleshoot it (I nee dthe computer DAILY) I fired the mac and have been running high end Thinkpads ever since. Then I tried VM ware. Same problem. It's just not worth it. sigh.
 
bbchien said:
I used to run a mac in the office with parallels. One day it jsut stopped recognizing the USB ports. Rather than troubleshoot it (I nee dthe computer DAILY) I fired the mac and have been running high end Thinkpads ever since. Then I tried VM ware. Same problem. It's just not worth it. sigh.
Click to expand...
Sorry it didn’t work out for you. I went the other way, Windows to Mac about 6-7 years ago and have had far fewer issues. I expect the difference is the use case. I use the one in question to keep airplane records and documentation and to manage a Linux-based data acquisition and processing system. I need one windows-only application very infrequently and one windows-only tool less often than that. It’s the latter that requires an SD card, which is now working fine, thanks to @masloki.

Nauga,
the runway modeler
 
There are times where @bbchien is right. I'm a die-hard Mac guy, but on our old KLN 89B we had an utterly ridiculous mess to update it: A Mac with a VM running Windows 1492 (I don't remember the version, but it was ancient - 98 I think) that was old enough to run the crummy King update software, plugged into a Keyspan USB-to-Serial adapter and then another adapter that went to the helicopter headset plug in the panel that the 89B used for updates.

At some point it stopped working, and it was such a kluge I couldn't even figure out which part of it wasn't working. So we gave up, went to the university surplus store, and bought a laptop old enough to run Windows 1492 that had both a USB port and a serial port. The battery didn't work at all of course, so we had to run an extension cord into the cabin, bring a thumb drive with the files from home, and load it that way. Sloooooooow but it at least worked, so much as anything King works in a year starting with 2.
 
GeorgeC said:
The other was an external ssd that I expected would negotiate/handshake and Just Work with any usb-c cable, but ended up requiring whatever special usb 33 1/3 monster cable.
Click to expand...
USB cables don't always have the data pins connected, so sometimes you'll find cables that are only good for charging.

USB-C is even worse, because it uses the exact same connector as Thunderbolt 3/4/5. So, you can get cables with the same connector that only support charging, support fast (USB-C PD) charging, only support USB-C data, only support Thunderbolt data, or support various combinations of the above. It's going to be a Really Fun Time (tm) to troubleshoot these things as they become more and more common.
 
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