socratis wrote:Like you were on the radio and you were describing a football game!
Would that be "GOAL!" or would that be "TOUCHDOWN!"?
Okay, so I guess you've never seen anything like this before, so you need abundant details. Here goes...
I cautiously went step-by-step.
- Host: Windows 10 v 1803
- Guest: Linux Mint v 18
I used VBox to create 'Palemoon portable (Linux).vhd'.
- I mounted it in Windows in order to partition (single part.) & format it (NTFS) -- at that time, it would mount in Windows.
- I created a USB device in the VM and attached 'Palemoon portable (Linux).vhd' to it.
- I booted the VM and found the VHD mounted to '/media/mark/88c55591-ccd9-422c-8d91-0d23bc2bc353'
- I unmounted it in the Linux guest and formatted it (ext4) using 'gparted'.
- I mounted it to '/media/mark/88c55591-ccd9-422c-8d91-0d23bc2bc353' and untarred Palemoon v 28.5.0 into it.
- I ran the newly installed Palemoon -- all was joy.
- I used that setup for about a week.
Then, I updated Palemoon to v 28.5.2, which had just been released.
- The Linux mount point was unaffected, but I couldn't run the new Palemoon. (Only in the last 2 hours have I been able to run the new Palemoon, but I think that's irrelevant. -- it turned out that when I untarred the new Palemoon, I should have wiped out the old one, first, not simply relied on overwriting during the untarring.)
- Now, I can't mount 'Palemoon portable (Linux).vhd' in Windows, but that's probably due to it being formatted in ext4, though I do find that hard to believe.
As an experiement, I created 'test.vhd' in Windows, formatted NTFS.
- 'test.vhd' will not be recognized by VBox. VBox refuses to list it. But, hang on...
- ...I only discovered the Virtual Media Manager this afternoon (er... yesterday afternoon, as it's now after midnight, US EST time zone).
- I just successfully got Virtual Media Manager to 'see' 'test.vhd'.
- My appolgies. 'test.vhd' is in the same directory with 'Mint.vdi'. I didn't know I needed to hit the [+] button to get Virtual Media Manager to 'see' it.
Since I'm currently in the Linux VM, I'll need to quit it in order to attach 'test.vhd' to it so that I can then run the Linux VM to see whether the guest will 'see' the Windows-created VHD (that is, 'test.vhd'). So, I'm quitting it right now and will be back in a few minutes with the results. While I'm gone, I'll also see whether the VBox VHD can be mounted in Windows (...it couldn't previously, but who knows?...) Please stay tuned to this station...
[a few minutes later]
I'm back.
- The Linux guest was able to 'see' 'test.vhd' (which had a surprising mount point -- more on this a bit lower in this message).
- And I was able to mount both 'Palemoon portable (Linux).vhd' (the VBox-created VHD) & 'test.vhd' (the Windows-created VHD) in Windows.
- Why Windows would not previously mount 'Palemoon portable (Linux).vhd' is a mystery ...but it does, now.
My excuse for not being able to get VBox to 'see' 'test.vhd' is that the Virtual Media Manager is new, and it's not in the Tools section, so I didn't know it existed -- it's in the 'File' menu, which I never open.
About the 'test.vhd' mount point in the Linux guest:
'test.vhd' automounted in the guest here: '/media/mark/New Volume/', whereas 'Palemoon portable (Linux).vhd' is automounted here: '/media/mark/88c55591-ccd9-422c-8d91-0d23bc2bc353/'. Why are they so different? Well, I did a text search of my C: drive and found the string "88c55591-ccd9-422c-8d91-0d23bc2bc353" embedded in 'Mint.vdi' and in 'Palemoon portable (Linux).vhd'. So, I assume that VBox sends a message to the Guest Additions that supplies the name of the mount point. That answers another of my questions, which was: Where did the directory name, '88c55591-ccd9-422c-8d91-0d23bc2bc353', come from. It came from VBox (not Linux) via the slow speed channel that it maintains with the Guest Additions. Of course, that doesn't explain why the mount point for the Windows-created VHD is so simple ('New Volume') whereas the mount point for the VBox-created VHD is so obscure ('88c55591-ccd9-422c-8d91-0d23bc2bc353').
None of this stuff that I've written here is in the User Manual. It should be.
My appolgies for all this. I hope you understand why I've made my mistakes and will show compassion. I lost a whole day on this, so I'm a loser.
Since the mount points are specified somewhere in the VM ('Mint.vdi'), I just can't willy-nilly change the directory name in Linux. Is there some way to specify new names for those mount points within VBox or within the Virtual Media Manager? I couldn't find a way.
Thank you for your attention and for your help, socratis. All seems joyful now.
...Nice added formatting, socratis. Regarding renaming the mount points, I reread one of your posts in another thread. You mention 'Shared Folder preferences'. I don't see how shared folders apply to this issue, but I'll look there. Thanks!