[Bug]: USB device fails to attach to headless VM on Apple Silicon/macOS 26.4.1...

[vonmillhausen]

Version

7.2.6

Host OS Type

macOS

Host OS name + version

macOS 26.4.1

Host Architecture

ARM

Guest OS Type

macOS

Guest Architecture

ARM

Guest OS name + version

Home Assistant OS 17.2

Component

USB and Serial Ports

What happened?

When running the VM in headless mode (VBoxManage startvm "Home Assistant" --type headless), a USB device (a Conbee II Zigbee controller) plugged into the Mac required for functionality within the VM fails to attach to the VM. When running the exact same VM via the GUI, the USB device attaches without issue.

How can we reproduce this?

I've produced this issue in two ways:

Method 1 - Preconfigured Filter

1. Using the GUI, create a filter to attach the USB device to the VM
2. Start the VM via the GUI, verify the USB device appears properly
3. Shut down the VM, quit the GUI
4. Open up Terminal
5. Run VBoxManage startvm "VM Name" --type headless
6. Observe that the USB device configured in the filter fails to attach

Method 2 - Manually Attaching The USB Device

1. Ensure your VM does not have any USB filters configured
2. Without the GUI running, start the VM in headless mode (VBoxManage startvm "VM Name" --type headless)
3. Identify the details of the USB device connected to the host via VBoxManage list usbhost
4. Attempt to attach the USB device using the details to the running VM (VBoxManage controlvm "VM Name" usbattach <USB Device Details>)
5. Receive error message, and observe USB device fails to attach to the VM:

VBoxManage: error: Code NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005) - Operation failed (extended info not available)
VBoxManage: error: Context: "AttachUSBDevice(usbId.raw(), captureFilename.raw())" at line 1442 of file VBoxManageControlVM.cpp

See also the attached log for the log of a startup of the VM with a USB device filter that was configured via the GUI; as stated above, filter works perfectly when the VM is started via the GUI, but always fails when the VM is started via VBoxManage from the terminal.

Home Assistant-2026-04-15-20-53-47.log

Did you upload all of your necessary log files, screenshots, etc.?

• Yes, I've uploaded all pertinent files to this issue.

[AlexanderEichner]

The VBox.log shows that getting permission for USB capturing from the user fails for VBoxHeadless:

00:00:01.134649 USB: Failed to get authorization for device 'p=0x0030;v=0x1cf1;s=0x0000002f5e98f5b5;l=0x02100000', capturing the device might not work: irc=0xe00002eb
00:00:01.136664 USB: Interface 0x0 on device 'p=0x0030;v=0x1cf1;s=0x0000002f5e98f5b5;l=0x02100000' is being used by another process. (prot=0x1 class=0x2)
00:00:01.136945 usbProxyConstruct: Failed to open 'p=0x0030;v=0x1cf1;s=0x0000002f5e98f5b5;l=0x02100000', rc=VERR_SHARING_VIOLATION

Do you get a dialog asking for permission to passthrough the USB device?

[vonmillhausen]

Nope, no dialogs - it just silently works via the GUI, and silently fails via Terminal (well, silent if you just start up the VM with the filter defined; you get the specific error message I mentioned if you try to manually usbattach the device)