VirtualBox VMs no longer can handle USB3?

Clean installation of VirtualBox (version 6.1.32 r149290) causes previously working VMs to fail initialising, with “Failed to construct device ‘usb-xhci’ instance #0 (VERR_PDM_DEVHLP_VERSION_MISMATCH).” The problem is cured by changing VM settings from USB3 to USB1. The problem is obviously to do with the extension pack. But…

The default extensions pack provided is 6.3.1.30r148432, but trying to install the up-to-date 6.1.32r149290 one downloaded from Oracle, fails with the dreaded error code “NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)”.

Same error comes up if I just try to uninstall the current extension pack.

Anybody else seeing this problem? Any ideas how to fix it?

Hi@mla
You have a mismatch of versions, that’s why you get the error. VB 6.1.32 vs extension pack 6.1.30.
I recommend you to download the package virtualbox-ext-oracle from AUR which comes in version 6.1.32. To do so you need to activate AUR in pamac manager (Add/Remove software).
After installing you will be able to use USB 3.

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Maybe try re-running the vboxdrv setup with sudo?

EDIT: Haven’t used VirtualBox in an Arch / Manjaro environment since a long time ago. Not sure if the commands / binaries changed in name and syntax.

Edit the settings for VM and set USB to 1.1.

Check your VM.

Then install the matching version of the Oracle extensions package.

Use the following topic as a guide.

Sorry, no good. The problem was that 6.1.10 extension pack that could not be removed.

I say “was”, because I’ve just found the solution. The trouble stemmed from the fact that uninstalling all virtualbox packages failed to remove /lib/virtualbox/ hierarchy – presumably because there was some older junk hanging around. Having finally discovered the fact, I zapped the lot and reinstalled VirtualBox again (explicitly declining guest extensions). It still showed 6.1.30 extension pack installed, however!, now I could get rid of it and install the 6.1.32 pack (be it downloaded from Oracle or from AUR). And all is well!

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