How to access USB ports from Docker Container on Mac OS

Question

I have created a Docker container for building and testing my Flutter apps. I want to connect my mobile device to the USB port of my Macbook and run Flutter apps directly on the device from the Docker container. But, I am unable to access the USB ports from the container and receiving this error.

I am using Remote Development extension inside my VS Code for running the container.

The devcontainer.json file is attached below:

{
    "name": "flutter_docker",
    "context": "..",
    "dockerFile": "../Dockerfile",
    "remoteUser": "developer",
    "mounts": [
        "source=/dev/bus/usb,target=/dev/bus/usb,type=bind"
    ],
    "settings": {
        "terminal.integrated.shell.linux": null
    },
    "runArgs": ["--privileged"],
    "extensions": ["dart-code.flutter"],
    "workspaceMount": "source=${localWorkspaceFolder}/workspace,target=/home/developer/workspace,type=bind,consistency=delegated",
    "workspaceFolder": "/home/developer/workspace"
}

Whenever I remove the mounts from the json file, it runs fine without any error.

Removing this line:

"mounts": [
    "source=/dev/bus/usb,target=/dev/bus/usb,type=bind"
],

Dockerfile:

FROM ubuntu:18.04

# Prerequisites
RUN apt update && apt install -y curl git unzip xz-utils zip libglu1-mesa openjdk-8-jdk wget

# Setup new user
RUN useradd -ms /bin/bash developer
USER developer
WORKDIR /home/developer

# Prepare Android directories and system variables
RUN mkdir -p Android/Sdk
ENV ANDROID_SDK_ROOT /home/developer/Android/Sdk
RUN mkdir -p .android && touch .android/repositories.cfg

# Setup Android SDK
RUN wget -O sdk-tools.zip https://dl.google.com/android/repository/sdk-tools-linux-4333796.zip
RUN unzip sdk-tools.zip && rm sdk-tools.zip
RUN mv tools Android/Sdk/tools
RUN cd Android/Sdk/tools/bin && yes | ./sdkmanager --licenses
RUN cd Android/Sdk/tools/bin && ./sdkmanager "build-tools;29.0.2" "patcher;v4" "platform-tools" "platforms;android-29" "sources;android-29"

# Download Flutter SDK
RUN git clone https://github.com/flutter/flutter.git
ENV PATH "$PATH:/home/developer/flutter/bin"

# Run basic check to download Dark SDK
RUN flutter doctor

Answer 1

Currently, there is an open bug in GitHub about USB Passthrough. Also it was mentioned in the Docker FAQs that it is not possible to pass through a USB device:

Unfortunately, it is not possible to pass through a USB device (or a serial port) to a container as it requires support at the hypervisor level.