Windows7 HVM: Cannot Mount or Attach USB Devices

[dfirence]

Hi,

Thank you for this awesome project. My main use-case for Qubes is to be able to virtualize Windows 7 VMs. Everything is working fine except successfully Attaching USB Devices. Unfortunately, this is a show stopper for me :-(

My Software:

1. QUBES R3.1.rc2 64 bit
2. Windows 7 64 Bit SP1 Professional
3. Qubes Windows Tools installed from your testing repo

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My Problem:

1. I cannot see the attached USB or its contents in my Windows7 HVM. I can attach it via CLI and the VM Manager GUI, but I never see the USB device within the Windows OS.

I can attach the USB Device on other VMs like personal, work and access it's contents via Nautilus file manager. I can't see the USB mounted on the Windows 7_x64_SP1 HVM I created

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What I have done:

1. I have used your recommended steps via CLI with QVM-BLOCK. Here's the output when I run.
   (attached to 'windows7' as 'xvdi')
2. I have tried attaching the USB drive from the GUI VM Manager. When I do so, I can see the USB is mounted as:
   (attached to 'windows7' as 'xvdi')

I have followed your Documentation steps here:

• https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/usb/
• https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/qubes-users/ZNKfCxWQB2U

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Your help is greatly appreciated for me to continue on this QUBES Journey :)

[marmarek]

Unfortunately this probably will not work in the near future. This is one of known issues listed here: https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/releases/3.1/release-notes/
Technically the problem is with Xen block frontend driver (PV disk driver), or its integration into Qubes Windows Tools. The result is random BSODs and/or data corruption. So in default installation this driver is disabled. But without this driver, dynamic block devices can't work.
One workaround is to attach such devices before VM startup (VM settings - advanced tab, or qvm-start --hddisk option). But that may mean a lot of VM restarts (to change that device).

[marmarek]

Unfortunately this probably will not work in the near future. This is one of known issues listed here: https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/releases/3.1/release-notes/
Technically the problem is with Xen block frontend driver (PV disk driver), or its integration into Qubes Windows Tools. The result is random BSODs and/or data corruption. So in default installation this driver is disabled. But without this driver, dynamic block devices can't work.
One workaround is to attach such devices before VM startup (VM settings - advanced tab, or qvm-start --hddisk option). But that may mean a lot of VM restarts (to change that device).