How can I use a USB/COM port inside of a VSCode development container?

Question

From inside of a development container for VSCode (Debian Linux) I'd like to use a COM port for communication via an USB device connnected to the Windows host machine (via WSL2). How can I make the COM port available insie of the container?

EDIT:

For WSL2 there is no official support yet.

As of right now WSL 2 does not include serial support, or USB device support.

A corresponding feature request is tracked on GitHub.

Answer 1

July 2021: As of right now WSL 2 does not include serial support, or USB device support.

Update November 2021: the same FAQ states:

Skanda Hazarika reports:

You can now connect USB devices in Windows Subsystem for Linux under Windows 11

If you’re an active user of Windows Subsystem for Linux and want to access USB devices right from the Linux instance running under WSL, then you’ll be happy to know that there has been a significant progress in this front.

Thanks to Microsoft’s contributions to the open-source dorssel/usbipd-win project, you can now enjoy USB passthrough access in WSL.
It means end users can perform tasks like flashing Android devices under Windows Subsystem for Linux, which are otherwise not supported by the Linux subsystem.

The usbipd-win project is all about creating a solution for sharing locally connected USB devices to other machines, including Hyper-V guests and WSL2. However, the official WSL2 Linux kernel used to lack support for the USB/IP protocol, requiring users to build the kernel themselves.

Since WSL kernel version 5.10.60.1, the required parameters are configured out of the box, so no manual recompilation is needed.
Microsoft has also contributed a command line interface to the project to both enable a USB device for sharing on Windows and seamlessly attach it from within WSL.

So if you have:

• migrated/upgraded to Windows 11
• applied all WSL updates (through the Windows Store)

Then, your VSCode should be able to access mounted USB drives through WSL.