Could not share folders on Win XP Host & Guest. VB 1.6.4

[skc]

Hello

Host & Guest : Windows XP Pro SP2
Single PC connected to external DSL modem/router
2 SATA Drives

I installed VB 1.6.4. First time (no previous version)
Also installed VB Guest Additions inside the guest

One VM only.
Administrator user.
All fairly standard setup:
- Enable : IO APIC, VT-x/AMD-V
- Disabled SATA Controller (Enabling made no difference)
- Network Adapter 0 : Enabled, PCnet-FAST III (Am79C973), NAT, Cable Connected

Could not share folder (transient or permanent)
I used the GUI and also tried VboxManage and 'Net' commands in the host and guest.
In the guest, windows explorer, under “My Networking Places” > “Entire Network” > “VirtualBox Shared Folders”, there is Nothing. I understand that the shared folders would show up there. I read the instructions carefully and followed it using the GUI and the command line but Nothing appeared under VirtualBox Shared Folders.

Also something strange happened. The VM did crash at least once for no apparent reason. I Removed the folder sharing in the GUI. After sometime, I renamed the folder that was supposed to be shared in the host to something else. After starting VB, the left panel had a red 'X' on the VM and the right one had a message requesting to Delete the VM because a shared folder name 'xxxxx' was not found in the host!. VB refused to start the VM and only offered to Delete it!. After some investigation, I found that the VM's xml file in (C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\.VirtualBox\Machines..) had a line with a reference to that non-existing shared folder. So I deleted that line. Then VB started the VM normally.
VB should never refuse to run the VM and offer to delete it just becasue it couldn't find a shared folder, it should just give a warning only and continue with loading the VM.

Any help appreciated

TIA

[TerryE]

Default Firewall settings ?

[skc]

In the guest, windows firewall is disabled. No software installed (except VB Guest Additions) or components added to windows.
In the host, I have Outpost FW and KAV. I turned off my modem and shut down the FW and KAV. Did the same testing with rebooting the VM and the host but same results.

[skc]

Hello

I got Internet and USB working in the VM after little struggle.

BTW, I installed VirtualPC2007SP1. Its folder sharing and internet worked instantly. Which means no problems in my side I hope. It supports a lousy 8 mb VRAM. No USB. And VB and VPC wont run together.

I still cant get folder sharing working in VB. I tried un&re installing the Guest Additions but no luck.

Any help please ?

[TerryE]

I keep emphasising that in my view the current cludgy Network implementation is the weakest area of VBox compared to alternative VM offerings.

[emn8w8]

Hi,

I encountered the same problem while using VirtualBox 1.6.4: XP as guest (on Linux host system) refused to make a connection to it's shared folder(s). Quick & dirty workaround:
Uninstall VBoxGuestAdditions 1.6.4 and install VBoxGuestAdditions 1.6.2. This solved the problem (at last for me)

Best regards, Erik

[skc]

Thanks! It works!

1.6.2 Does work while 1.6.4 Doesnt !

Another idea I made: I uninstalled 1.6.4 (actually reverted to a clean snapshot) then installed 1.6.2 then installed 1.6.4 on top of it!

I tested that one time with rebooting (after 1.6.2) and another time without rebooting the VM. They both worked. I prefer without rebooting.

"Add or Remove Programs" says 1.6.4 is installed. I checked the installed files in the VM and they have the same date as the files in 1.6.4 iso

Here is the link for it in case someone else needs it (it took me a while to find it in the forum) :
Download http://www.virtualbox.org/download/1.6. ... _1.6.2.iso
or http://www.virtualbox.org/download

Thanks and Really Appreciate it. God bless you.

[emn8w8]

YW...and don't mention it...
Glad I could help..
VirtualBox is a major Work In Progress...and sometimes little things go wrong...

[Frank Mehnert]

We are really trying hard to reproduce this problem but have no success so far. Please could you add comments to http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/1915? Actually your guest configuration might be important: Which guest Windows language is that? Do you have any special software installed inside the guest (virus scanner, registry tuner, ...)? Is you WinSP3 fully patched?

[emn8w8]

Sure, no problem...
I see I i'm a bit off-topic here, since it happened on a Linux host with a Windows guest.
And don't work too hard on this subject; since it can be easily corrected it's no big issue to me..

Thanks and best regards,
Erik

[smartcat99s]

I encountered this issue with a Linux host (2.6.25 and 2.6.27-rc2/3) after upgrading my 1.5.6 VM to 1.6.4 and letting the installer uninstall the 1.5.x VM tools.

Completely uninstalling and reinstalling the additions worked for me.
Installing 1.6.2 additions on top of 1.6.4 additions did not work though

Guest Config:
XP Pro SP3 (English)
avast! Home
VS2008 installed
VT disabled
1GB ram, 20GB IDE drive, ALSA sound, no APIC

[jayy]

Hi

I have the same problem as the first post - I just installed Virtual Box 1.6.4 on Windows Vista SP1 and then installed XP pro on the VM - everything was pretty much default settings. I installed guest additions and no shared folder showed up even though I had designated one. I uninstalled guest additions and installed guest additions 1.6.2 as suggested in one of the posts but still no shared folder showed up! I've tried adding and deleting various shared folders, lots of reboots etc but still nothing.

If anyone could suggest why this is happening or how I can fix it I'd really appreciate it!

Thanks,
J

[Bundy]

I had the same problem - I couldn't share folders or use network. Installing 1.6.2 solved problems. Both XP sp2 (host/guest).

[boxuser2009]

Thanks! It works!

1.6.2 Does work while 1.6.4 Doesnt !

Another idea I made: I uninstalled 1.6.4 (actually reverted to a clean snapshot) then installed 1.6.2 then installed 1.6.4 on top of it!

I tested that one time with rebooting (after 1.6.2) and another time without rebooting the VM. They both worked. I prefer without rebooting.

"Add or Remove Programs" says 1.6.4 is installed. I checked the installed files in the VM and they have the same date as the files in 1.6.4 iso

Here is the link for it in case someone else needs it (it took me a while to find it in the forum) :
Download http://www.virtualbox.org/download/1.6. ... _1.6.2.iso
or http://www.virtualbox.org/download

Thanks and Really Appreciate it. God bless you.

yes, it solved thanks

[jayy]

I still can't get this to work. Any suggestions? Could Vista Ultimate being the host OS have anything to do with it?

Do I need to set or change any permissions in windows?

Thanks in advance.

J