I bought a new GPS recently (Garmin nuvi 1350LMT) and wanted to upload new maps to it using Garmin’s MapSource software. However, the software only supports Windows and Mac so I had no choice but to do it on Windows. Since I already have a Windows XP virtual machine running on VirtualBox (which I use for work as our company’s remote access software doesn’t support Linux either) I figured I could probably just allow the VM to access the host’s USB devices.

This is very easy to do on VirtualBox, you just go to your VM’s settings -> USB -> Enable USB/USB 2.0 controllers, which is probably already set by default. To use USB 2.0 you will need to download and install the VirtualBox Extension Pack.

Now the issue I ran into was when I tried to attach the USB device to my VM. The device was detected but the option was grayed out. This turned out to be just insufficient permission. To allow your account to be able to do this simply go to System -> Administration -> Users and Groups. Then select your account, click Advanced Settings, click the User Privileges tab, then check Use VirtualBox virtualization solution. Log out and log back in and you should now be able to attach USB devices to your VM! MapSource was able to detect my nuvi and I was able to send map data to it.