Shared Folder is not available [solved]

[harald123]

Shared folder not showing up.

- reinstalled Guest Additions several times - verified it runs correctly
- Extension Pack is also there
- Version: 6.1.14r140239 (VirtualBox and Guest Additions)
- in the log file I see this entry related to shared folders:

Shared Folders service loaded

otherwise, no other message , warning or error.
- tried with and without 'permanently mount' and drive letter "E" and "E:"
- re-adding shared folder
-I also ran lsof on the Linux guest, but found nothing with the name of the share or with VirtualBox.

Thanks in advance for any hint .

[multiOS]

Have you made your Linux User a member of the vboxsf Group? - VirtualBox Manual Para. 4.3.2

[harald123]

hi, no I did not.
I have now added it to this group, reboot and confirmed it is a member. (my user is also root if that helps)

The shared folder is still not visible in /media.

sudo gpasswd -a your-user-name vboxsf

in /media there is a folder with my username and some names of older shared folders, but all are empty. None of these has the letter I assigned to the shared folder.
There is though a folder which has the name sf_<sharedfoldername> , the date shown when it was modified is 01.02.2020 and it is empty, even if I gave rights 777 and rebooted.

[fth0]

Please post a zipped copy of the VBox.log file.

BTW, there is no such thing as a drive letter in Linux.

[harald123]

here is a zipped copy of VBox.log

[fth0]

The installation of the VirtualBox Guest Additions (GA) seems to be damaged or incomplete. The majority of expected log messages are missing, including the ones beginning with VMMDev: Guest Log: vboxsf. Reinstall the GA and pay attention to the messages in the terminal that should open during the installation ...

[harald123]

I did reinstall GA, here are the messages in the terminal, I did not see errors or warnings:

harald@harald:/media/harald/VBox_GAs_6.1.14$ /usr/sbin/VBoxService --version
6.1.14r140239
harald@harald:/media/harald/VBox_GAs_6.1.14$ lsmod | grep vboxguest
vboxguest 344064 4
harald@harald:/media/harald/VBox_GAs_6.1.14$ sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
[sudo] Passwort für harald:
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox 6.1.14 Guest Additions for Linux........
VirtualBox Guest Additions installer
Removing installed version 6.1.14 of VirtualBox Guest Additions...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.15.0-20-generic
Copying additional installer modules ...
Installing additional modules ...
VirtualBox Guest Additions: Starting.
VirtualBox Guest Additions: Building the VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel
modules. This may take a while.
VirtualBox Guest Additions: To build modules for other installed kernels, run
VirtualBox Guest Additions: /sbin/rcvboxadd quicksetup <version>
VirtualBox Guest Additions: or
VirtualBox Guest Additions: /sbin/rcvboxadd quicksetup all
VirtualBox Guest Additions: Building the modules for kernel 4.15.0-20-generic.
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.15.0-20-generic
VirtualBox Guest Additions: Running kernel modules will not be replaced until
the system is restarted
harald@harald:/media/harald/VBox_GAs_6.1.14$

Log is attached
Also a screen of how folders look like in the menu and in media folder.

LE: version 6.16 was released, is it possible it works in this version?

[multiOS]

I suggest you try removing/deleting the Shared Drive Mount Points ("P:" and "X:") and see if that makes a difference, as the Shared Folders should then appear in in the VM default location with the appropriate permissions when the User is a member of the vboxsf Group. As fth0 mentioned Linux has no idea what Windows Drive Letter notations mean but can misinterpret your meaning, as both letters and punctuation 'symbols' can have other very different meanings in the Linux Command Line.

By the way: The resources allocated to the VM and those remaining for the host's OS use are very tight, especially for running a 64-bit OS that requires 3D Graphic Acceleration.

00:00:06.713760 Host RAM: 8067MB (7.8GB) total, 2077MB (2.0GB) available

In my experience, a modern 64-bit Mint (Cinnamon) VM, like UBUNTU, really likes/needs 2GB RAM; 128MB Graphics RAM (which is also provided from the Host's physical RAM), plus 2 CPUs to perform efficiently.

Also, your VBox.logs all end prematurely with no proper shutdown sequence information showing. Are you shutting down Mint using the correct OS shutdown procedure?

[harald123]

ok, I will test the actions and get back with feedback.

well the last time I rebooted from the terminal using 'reboot' , as the GA installation asked for a restart.
Btw. would the 6.1.16 version make a difference in shared folders?

[fth0]

I suggest you try removing/deleting the Shared Drive Mount Points ("P:" and "X:") and see if that makes a difference

I just tried the opposite and added a mount point "X" (and also "X:" ) for a shared folder to a Linux guest, and it was simply ignored. BTW, on a Linux ext4 file system, the colon is a regular character, e.g. try mkdir X:.

I did reinstall GA, here are the messages in the terminal, I did not see errors or warnings

Confirmed.

Log is attached

There is something in the VBox.log file that I do not understand: Right after the start of the Linux guest OS, only the vboxguest driver is started, but the VBoxService and vboxsf are started only 23 hours later. After the next reboot, again only the vboxguest driver is started. Perhaps a consequence of the RAM shortage?

[harald123]

I removed the drive letters and I still cannot open them in the Mint guest.
When I try to open sf_Documents it says I do not have permissions. Modification date - 'yesterday'
sf_Daten can be opened, but it is empty. Modification date 01.02.2020.

User is member of vboxsf

less /etc/group | grep vboxsf
vboxsf999:harald

I shut the machine down from the shut down menu and gave it 4GB of RAM. The behavior is the same as above..

[harald123]

I have solved it !
By searching different commands for starting services, I found the VBoxService is in /usr/sbin/VBoxService .
After starting it manually the shared folders are visible and accessible:

Code: Select all

sudo ./usr/sbin/VBoxService
[sudo] Passwort für harald: 
10:49:00.227856 main     VBoxService 6.1.14 r140239 (verbosity: 0) linux.amd64 (Sep  4 2020 09:41:34) release log
10:49:00.227860 main     Log opened 2020-11-04T10:49:00.227846000Z
10:49:00.237201 main     OS Product: Linux
10:49:00.237401 main     OS Release: 4.15.0-20-generic
10:49:00.237542 main     OS Version: #21-Ubuntu SMP Tue Apr 24 06:16:15 UTC 2018
10:49:00.237643 main     Executable: /opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-6.1.14/sbin/VBoxService
10:49:00.237645 main     Process ID: 2119
10:49:00.237646 main     Package type: LINUX_64BITS_GENERIC
10:49:00.238814 main     6.1.14 r140239 started. Verbose level = 0

Thank you fth0 .

I will need now to figure out how to start the service automatically at system start.

[harald123]

could it one the two bugs mentioned here?

Linux guest: Fixed VBoxService crashing in the CPU hot-plug service under certain circumstances during a CPU hot-unplug event (bugs #19902 and #19903)

VirtualBox 6.1.16 released
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=100308&p=486768&hil ... ce#p486768

[harald123]

I have installed the new version, but VBoxService is still not starting at boot. After starting it manually, shared folders are visible.

[fth0]

In the VBox.log file that I commented on earlier, who started the VBoxService after 23 hours?