Ubuntu 10.04 Guest Shared Folders (Windows Host)

[JonLarson3]

Hi,

I am having trouble accessing my shared folders from VirtualBox 3.2.8 on Ubuntu 10.04. I installed guest additions and made sure I had my folder selected in the settings but I just can not access it. I tried re-installing guest additions as well. Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks

[Perryg]

Have you read Chapter 4.3. Shared folders in your VirtualBox users guide?
This should help too http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewforum.php?f=29

[EgonF]

I have problems to use Shared Folders too.

Host: Windows 7
Two Guests, both of them with Ubuntu 10.04.

Both guests should have full access to the same Shared Folders. One of the guests doesn't mount the Shared Folder. I don't find any difference between the installations/configurations of the guests.

If I look at the logs I find lines about SharedFolders in the log of the guest which can mount Shared Folders:

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00:00:20.547 SharedFolders host service: connected, u32ClientID = 1
00:00:20.548 SharedFolders host service: request to map folder Öffentlich
00:00:20.548 SharedFolders host service: map operation result VINF_SUCCESS.
00:00:20.548     Mapped to handle 0.

The other log doesn't contain messages about SharedFolders.

Where should I look? What should I do?

EgonF

[Sasquatch]

It's probably the name of the shared folder that is the problem. Use the normal alphabet, no umlauts and such things. It's described in my Howto: Use Shared Folders.

[EgonF]

Many thanks Sasquatch,

but the problem is not gone.

I changed names, and now I can find SharedFolders in the log:

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00:00:00.629 Changing the VM state from 'CREATING' to 'CREATED'.
00:00:00.629 SharedFolders host service: adding host mapping.
00:00:00.629     Host path I:\Daten, map name daten, writable 1
00:00:00.629 SharedFolders host service: add mapping result VINF_SUCCESS
00:00:00.629 SharedFolders host service: adding host mapping.
00:00:00.629     Host path C:\neuordner, map name neuordner, writable 1
00:00:00.629 SharedFolders host service: add mapping result VINF_SUCCESS
00:00:00.629 Changing the VM state from 'CREATED' to 'POWERING_ON'.
00:00:00.629 Changing the VM state from 'POWERING_ON' to 'RUNNING'.

But I cannot mount them:

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egon@Cupido-Ubuntu-Einzeln:~$ sudo mount -t vboxsf daten /fremddaten
[sudo] password for egon: 
/sbin/mount.vboxsf: mounting failed with the error: No such device
egon@Cupido-Ubuntu-Einzeln:~$ sudo mount -t vboxsf neuordner /fremddaten
/sbin/mount.vboxsf: mounting failed with the error: No such device
egon@Cupido-Ubuntu-Einzeln:~$ 

I must tell Shared Folders works for me for months - with Umlauts. This changes - I assume - when I installed the last security update for Ubuntu 10.4. But I can't see why this update should affect Shared Folders. But I cannot remember other changes of Ubuntu.

[Perryg]

Looks to me like you need to install the guest additions again. Did you install dkms when you installed the guest and before you installed the guest additions the first time?

[EgonF]

Reinstalled guest addittions.

It works1

(With Umlauts)

[veejuu]

I had the same problem on Windows XP host and Xubuntu guest: after the latest ubuntu update the shared folders that worked fine before, did not work anymore, and manual mounting gave the same error as above. Reinstalling Guest additions did not help. I had to install packages with

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sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-generic dkms

then boot the guest system, then re-install Guest additions, then again boot, and after that all worked fine again. I'm not sure which packages were really needed, if not all, but strange thing is that those were needed only after Xubuntu update.

[Sasquatch]

@veejuu,
The build-essential package isn't installed by default, as is DKMS. The linux-headers should be installed on a default installation. They are all needed to build kernel modules. That's also stated in my GA Howto. Some just forget to install dkms for kernel updates.

[tonysutherland]

Running Ubuntu 10.04 as Guest and Windows 7 as Host.
I am having the same "mount.vboxsf: mounting failed with the error: No such device" error.
My dmesg output states:
[ 5696.842962] vboxdrv: exports duplicate symbol RTMemExecFree (owned by vboxguest)
[ 5764.099801] vboxdrv: exports duplicate symbol RTMemExecFree (owned by vboxguest)
[ 5789.617633] vboxdrv: exports duplicate symbol RTMemExecFree (owned by vboxguest)
apt-get output:
build-essential is already the newest version.
linux-headers-generic is already the newest version.
dkms is already the newest version.
Have re-installed the VBOXADDITIONS_3.2.8_64453 multiple times.
Have tried various combinations of shared folder names (lower case, uppercase, with and without - or _)
All to no avail.
Any assistance?

[Perryg]

Post the mount statement that you are using and the exact share name.

[Sasquatch]

Based on the dmesg output, I'd say you have both VirtualBox and it's Guest Additions installed in the Guest. They don't work nice together, so since it's a VM anyway, ditch the program itself on the Guest.

[tonysutherland]

OK, just to round out this discussion.
I un-installed the Virtualbox-OSE packages listed in Synaptic (ubuntu) (complete with the couple of other associated Virtualbox packages), re-booted and everything worked FINE.
Pretty dumb of me not to realise that the packages in Synaptic would conflict with the Guest Additions (and that apparently one can not run a virtual machine inside a virtual machine).
Except that, in my defence, it is not really that totally obvious - and the error messages really mis-direct. It did take an in-ordinate amount of time to do the research to find the solution to the problem (including reading various parts of the documentation - I just re-read the Guest Additions section of the User Manual and saw nothing in there to indicate this issue, as well as much searching on forums etc - all without any joy).
Appears that the problem has been resolved - and, in addition, the "no such device" problem as well, which involved ensuring that the Guest Additions version aligned with the Virtualbox version and required a re-install after an operating system upgrade (in the guest).
Mind you, I am not complaining about Virtualbox in any way, shape or form. I think it is a marvelous piece of software and I am crossing my fingers that Oracle will leave it be (with its free open source distribution) and not try to ruin it in some manner mis-guided corporate manner.
Thanks for the replies.