virtualbox.org

I am running Ubuntu 8.10 and start up Windows XP in Virtual Box. When Windows XP is running many times I am unable to eject the cd drive. When I shutdown the XP the drive eject just fine. Something in virtual box is hanging up the CD drive. Any idea?

No, Linux locks the drive by default until you safely unmount it.

The only time this happens is when I have XP running with Virtual Box. It even happens when no disc is in the tray. As soon as I shut down XP in virtual box then the drive will eject by using the button.

I am running XP SP3 inside Ubuntu 8.10. As a graphic designer, I'm a slave to adobe and since I have PC hardware, a slave to Windows.
That said, I am in XP A LOT for various reasons with frequent need of using the CD/DVD R drive.
I'm still a linux noob, and am really wanting a way to work this out. Is there any fix at all to allow the DVD drive to act more "normally" from inside Windows?

When Linux detecs that the drive is in use in any matter, it usually prevent the user from ejecting the disc. But if no disc is inserted, it should eject the drive just fine. If you have a disc in the drive and your filebrowser or terminal is inside a folder on the disc, it will lock it due to access to the drive. You can always use the eject command to eject a drive. It will give an error if it fails stating what is wrong (e.g. in use).

With VB, it would be best to unmount it from there, so the Guest will detect the disc change. You should be able to just eject the drive if only the VM is running and accessing it.