A Couple of Problems with VirtualBox

[OldeFoxx]

The first problem is that I cannot get any shared folders to show up under VirtualBox Shared Folders under the whole Network when first clicking on My Network. I am using Windows 2000 Pro for the client incidently, and Ubuntu 9.04 as host. This might have been reported previously, but i found no cures for it when I searched.

The second problem is rather strange. I can be running right along on the client side using FireFox and trying to fill out data fields at a site where I am submitting something, and can move from one field to the next, and suddently the keyboard stops being accepted as input. The mouse still works, and certain keys like Caps Lock can turn the indicatore light on and off, but nothing gets to the computer. I can't even use the Right Control key and any other key to signal to VirtualBox. I can elect to shut the client down using the mouse, then VirtualBox responds to the keyboard again. Before getting this far, I tried using the mouse to point to different fields on the site being visited (this is on the client side), and while the cursor would move and indicate that it was in the field, no key entry was accepted. I could not insert, overtype, delete, or do anything at that point.

Now twice when that suddenly happened, my study of the screen showed that the update icon was on the right side of the toolbar. I would indicate that it was okay to do the updates, using the mouse, but the keyboard would still not respond. I could not even use Ctrl+Alt+Del or RCtrl+Del to effect an intervention, and the only thing that would work was the mouse on the Start/Shut Down/Shut Down. In fact, a couple of times I had it where even the mouse did not work, and I had to press the Power Switch on the PC, which immediately popped up the Ubuntu shutdown or log off option pane.

Can't say exactly what it is caused by or how to reproduce it, but it is real aggravating. I mean you might be working on something real important, and you can't even save your work before having to shut down either the client or the host just to get the keyboard back into service.

[Perryg]

Lets deal with the first problem and then work to the next shall we?

Detail what you have done and what you expect to see in regards to the shared (folder). Also what is the mode of network connection? NAT, Bridged,.....Etc.

[OldeFoxx]

It was suggested on another thread that I move up from VirtualBox 1.6.6 to 2.0.8. My reason for backing down from 2.2.2 was that I could not install Windows 2000 Pro or Office 2000 Pro on the client side. There was a suggestion that I could add a delay to the efforts to access a drive, as that might be a possible cause, but I did not read about that possibility until much later, and have not tried it.

The reason I did not try it is that the suggestion just to go to VirtualBox 2.0.8 as it allows installs of Windows 2000 Pro and Office 2000 Pro was that it would also let you work with shared folders. I tried this, and it did work, but only after I ran the new Guest Additions that come with it. So whatever the problem was in 1.6.6, it was apparently related to the Guest Additions 1.6.6. Another suggestion was just to use the GA 1.6.0 in place of 1.6.6, but I could not get my hands on a copy of 1.6.0.

So overall, it looks like 2.0.8 is currently the best choice if you want to install the Windows 2000 or Office 2000 on the client side. I haven't tried this, but I do have it on hearsay. I just got to this point, and do not yet know if there is any issues with 2.0.8 that I need to be concerned with.

I did note a distinction in the way shared folders show up in 2.0.8, in that it shows the root reference there as being vboxsvr, which is then topped by the shared folder reference. I just indicated that I wanted to map a network drive, then went to the folder above vboxsvr, and I got a drive letter assigned to that point. So this does appear to be adequate.

Now my method of uninstalling VirtualBox 1.6.6 was just to issue the command as superuser or root in a terminal console this way:

apt-get remove virtualbox

When that was done, I followed it with this command:

Apt-get autoremove

Then I used FireFox to search for VirtualBox Download, and followed that to find the version of VirtualBox I wanted to work with. As I had proved to myself, a given version of VirtualBox will work with a different version of Ubuntu, so I just grabbed the one designated as 2.0.8, associated with Ubuntu 8.10 LTS, and used it. I could have opened it with "GDebi Package Manager" from the get-go, but figured I would first download it in case of something coming up later. Then I clicked on it and had the package manager do its thing. My VDi is still the same, all the settings for the VDI are still the same, and after I got the guest OS running, I just had to go under Devices and have it rerun the Guest Additions. And this time my shared folders showed up and were accessable. So it isn't too hard if you take it a bit at a time.