Folder sharing - Mac - OS X Host / Guest

[Axeros]

I'm running Snow Leopard as a VirtualBox guest vm from OS X Mavericks on my Mac. It works fine for my purposes, which is to use my Epson scanner for which Epson currently has no Mavericks drivers. The only problem I have is sharing files - I cannot figure out how to access the shared folder from Mac OS X guest system, or even if it is supported. At the moment I have to copy files on to a USB drive from the guest, then access them from the host. It works, but isn't elegant. Can someone please clarify file sharing for me on this setup? (If this is clearly documented somewhere, my apologies, I couldn't find it).

[rpmurray]

Do it the same way you'd share files on two physical Macs. Turn on file sharing on the host (System Preferences) and share a folder. On the guest, in the Finder, under the Go menu choose Connect to Server and connect to the shared folder on the host.

[mpack]

To be clear: there are no official Guest Additions for OS X guests, hence no GA shared folders (the simple kind configured in VM settings), therefore you must use normal network shared folders.

[Axeros]

Do it the same way you'd share files on two physical Macs. Turn on file sharing on the host (System Preferences) and share a folder. On the guest, in the Finder, under the Go menu choose Connect to Server and connect to the shared folder on the host.

Great, thanks, that works fine.

[Axeros]

To be clear: there are no official Guest Additions for OS X guests, hence no GA shared folders (the simple kind configured in VM settings), therefore you must use normal network shared folders.

Thanks, I appreciate the clarification.

[GBro]

How did you get the SL Server guest working ? I have a late 2009 iMac running 10.8.5. I've never succeeded in getting SL Server to install and work in a VM so, any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Garry

[Axeros]

I'm just using the standard Snow Leopard, not the server version. I installed it a couple of years ago when I first setup VirtualBox on my Mac (I was mainly interested in a WinXP vm). I don't remember having any problems as such installing a Snow Leopard vm. There wasn't much real reason for me to use it until Epson failed to supply Mavericks drivers. It runs just fine.

[temach]

Hello, sort of a noob question,

How do you find the IP address of your host if I want to connect to it? I understand what you mean by Finder -> Connect to Server but how can I figure out the number that goes there?

frustrating.

[socratis]

First of all, I would open the connection from the Host to the VM, not the other way around (security reasons).

Second, there are two ways that you can find your VMs IP address:
1) From the System Preferences -> Network -> (select the interface you're interested in) -> Advanced... -> TCP/IP -> IPv4 address.
2) From the terminal, type "ifconfig" and look at the interface that you're interested in.

[temach]

thanks,
Something still does not work though. I turn on "file sharing" on both host and guest (just in case), then on host I go Finder -> Go -> Connect to Server. And enter this: "afp://10.0.2.15" which looks like it should do the trick. But instead it complains that there is no such server or that it is unavailable.
I have my host wifi off, if that matters.

I got it to work once yesterday. But I connected the host to an external router, and connected from VM to the host. So very different. And I used an external network.

[socratis]

OK, I see. You are using the "NAT" mode which does NOT allow for host-guest communication, only internet access. If you want to talk between the two, either change the mode to "Host-only" (address will be 192.168.56.# by default), or if you want to access the internet from your guest and have a DHCP server in your network, change it to Bridged. Finally a third option would be to have two network cards in your guest. #1 in NAT mode and #2 in Host-only mode.