[Solved] Share ext3 drive on Ubuntu 9.04 guest

[rob0809]

Hi. I'm running an XP host with an Ubuntu 9.04 share. I have a 1 TB hard drive that is formatted ext3 and has all of my media files on it. The Windows OS and Virtualbox are on a different physical disk. The ext3 disk is for storage only. I would like to mount this ext3 drive on my Ubuntu guest and use Samba to share it with other clients. Is this possible? I'm trying to avoid backing up the data, reformatting the drive in NTFS and restoring the data. Thanks!

[vbox4me2]

Samba will work just fine, you might have to use Bridge mode though.

[rob0809]

I can get Samba and bridge mode working, I can't share the drive because Windows doesn't see it because it is formatted as ext3.

[vbox4me2]

Sharing has nothing to do with the format, ea. FreeNAS uses ext3 and windows can use it just fine. The OS sharing it out has to deal with the format not the one using it via a share.

[rob0809]

But I need to get VirtualBox to see the drive so I can share it. If I run "fdisk -l" from within the Ubuntu guest, I only see the Virtualbox share. Windows doesn't show an ext3 drive unless I use ext2ifs or something like that which I am trying to avoid.

[vbox4me2]

This one then http://www.fs-driver.org/index.html

[baf]

How are you trying to share it?
If you use samba or VirtualBox shared folders then formatting doesn't matter. If you use raw diskaccess or usb-sharing then formatting matters.

[rob0809]

This one then http://www.fs-driver.org/index.html

I was trying to avoid using a wrapper like that. I guess Virtualbox can only see drives that the OS (XP) sees. Thanks for your help.

[rob0809]

How are you trying to share it?
If you use samba or VirtualBox shared folders then formatting doesn't matter. If you use raw diskaccess or usb-sharing then formatting matters.

In order to use Samba Virtualbox needs to be able to see the drive in order for the guest OS (Ubuntu) to see it. Virtualbox can't see it because the host OS (XP) doesn't see it unless I use some kind of wrapper program like ext2ifs which I was trying to avoid using. I was hoping Virtualbox had something built in. Thanks for your help.

[baf]

Well I missed that you were on a windows host. One way to do it is by using raw disk access. Check the manual for createrawvmdk. But read and heed the warnings. With that you can use a partition in a guest directly.

[rob0809]

I'll take a look at it. Thanks!

[rob0809]

Thanks for everyone's help. Using createrawvmdk was the way to go. I used the guide at the link below and I was able to share my ext3 disk. I'm now running Samba in my Ubuntu guest using that disk.

http://agnipulse.com/2009/07/boot-your- ... irtualbox/