Can virtualbox be used to profit from newer kernels? [Or: Can the latest kernel on the guest handle hardware that the host cannot? ]


user42070

In my office I have a linux machine (ubuntu 16.04) and a tablet wacom (one) which I cannot use on this machine. In recent releases, the tablet worked out of the box.

I can't upgrade my system, but I can install a recent distro on virtualbox on my system, which is a distro that handles this tablet out of the box.

My question is, will this allow the virtual machine to use the tablet? Or will the fact that the host kernel can't handle the tablet impeach the guest?

cheers,

PS: I can't just install the wacom driver.

Stephen Kitt

Using VirtualBox, you can pass USB devices to the guest. You can give guest access to your tablet, and the guest kernel will have full access to it regardless of the host kernel's support level.

Related


Can both the host and the guest use the hardware directly?

Green Dragon I'm about to start experimenting with VT-d/PCI passthrough on new upcoming supported hardware, and was wondering if it's possible to use the video/audio hardware on both the host and guest OS, or if passing a piece of hardware to the guest means u

Can both the host and the guest use the hardware directly?

Green Dragon I'm about to start experimenting with VT-d/PCI passthrough on new upcoming supported hardware, and was wondering if it's possible to use the video/audio hardware on both the host and guest OS, or if passing a piece of hardware to the guest means u

The host cannot SSH the guest, but the guest can

Samaras This is a follow-up question from: Getting virtualbox to get a different IP address than my laptop . I ended up using these files /etc/hostson both my laptop (host) running Ubuntu 14.04 and my virtual machine (guest) running Ubuntu 14.04 : 127.0.0.1

The host cannot SSH the guest, but the guest can

Samaras This is a follow-up question from: Getting virtualbox to get a different IP address than my laptop . I ended up using these files /etc/hostson both my laptop (host) running Ubuntu 14.04 and my virtual machine (guest) running Ubuntu 14.04 : 127.0.0.1

VirtualBox host-only network, can only ping from guest to host

Roper I have a Windows 7 VM running on an Ubuntu 15.04 host with the latest Virtual Box 5 version. I have configured host-only networking. The configuration for the host-only adapter is: Adapter IP 192.168.56.1 Subnetmask 255.255.255.0 DHCP enabled

VirtualBox host-only network, can only ping from guest to host

Roper I have a Windows 7 VM running on an Ubuntu 15.04 host with the latest Virtual Box 5 version. I have configured host-only networking. The configuration for the host-only adapter is: Adapter IP 192.168.56.1 Subnetmask 255.255.255.0 DHCP enabled