How to mount a USB 2.0 Device in QEMU

Add the following line to the command-line before starting the VM.

-device usb-ehci,id=ehci

After you boot up the VM, press control-alt-1 to get to the console.  Type the following.

info usbhost

Look for the device that you want to connect to the host.  It will list a Bus, Addr, Port, and Speed.   If the speed is 480 Mb/s, then you need USB 2.0 to mount it.  Let’s say that the Bus and Port are 2 and 1 respectively.   Then we would type the following command to mount this as a USB 2.0 device.

device_add usb-host,bus=ehci.0,hostbus=2,hostport=1

And that’s it.   Your USB 2.0 device should work!