STM32F412ZG Nucleo - USB host example issue

Hello!

i am playing with the USB HID host example generated from CubeMX -- it builds fine, runs and prints log messages till everything is initalized, and it while in the loop of freertos task, the OTG interrupt never fires -- there is no function call into the OTG IRQ. Nothing happens when i connect a mouse either - not even the mouse sensor light lights up. The mouse and the cable itself are functional.

Is this something to do with vbus sensing? is the STM32F412ZG nucleo board capable of being a USB host? OTG is configured to be host only, PA9 is set to USB_VBUS, OTG clocking uses HSE, and no clocking issue flagged by Cubemx tool..

Thanks in advance!!