Shared Folder not working on Windows7 Host & OEL5.6 64Guests

[banerjeesaby]

Hi

I have a Windows 7 Host and 2 Guests.
The VirtualBox version is 4.1.0 r73009
One is the 32 Bit OEL 5.5 Oracle Developer Days VM from Oracle Technology Network.
The Other one is a 64 Bit OEL 5.6 Guest I created.

On the 64 Bit OEL 5.6 Guest, I cannot get the Shared Folders to work even after completing the Guest Additions and rebooting the Guest as well as the Host.
The Problem seems to be from the vboxsf group not being present in the 64Bit OEL 5.6 Guest.
###
32 Bit OEL 5.5 Where it works:
[root@localhost ~]# uname -a
Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.18-194.0.0.0.4.el5 #1 SMP Thu Apr 8 18:20:19 EDT 2010 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
[root@localhost ~]# cat /etc/redhat-release
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.5 (Tikanga)
[root@localhost ~]# cat /etc/group |grep vboxsf <--------------The vboxsf group is present
vboxsf54324:oracle

64 Bit OEL 5.6 Where it does not work:
[root@dg1 ~]# uname -a
Linux dg1.ablugablu.com 2.6.32-100.26.2.el5 #1 SMP Tue Jan 18 20:11:49 EST 2011 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[root@dg1 ~]# cat /etc/redhat-release
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.6 (Tikanga)
[root@dg1 ~]# cat /etc/group |grep vboxsf <------------------The group that allows sharing to happen does not appear to be present
[root@dg1 ~]#

###
Am I missing some basic step. Or there are workarounds available to circumvent this problem.

[Sasquatch]

The group is not required for SF to work. See my howto. What this does show, the missing group, is that the GA did NOT install properly. Are you sure you got the OK at the end, or did it exit due to missing packages? Do you have any vbox modules in the Guest?

[banerjeesaby]

How do I figure out if my Guest Additions got done properly.

Currently getting the following error if I try the following:[I have given the name of my shared folder as "winshare"]
[oracle@dg1 ~]$ ls -lrt /media
total 4
drwxrwxrwx 2 oracle oinstall 4096 Aug 15 07:15 sfolder

[oracle@dg1 ~]$ sudo mount -t vboxsf winshare /media/sfolder
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on winshare,
missing codepage or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so

[oracle@dg1 ~]$ dmesg | tail
sf_read_super_aux err=-71
sf_read_super_aux err=-71
sf_read_super_aux err=-71
sf_read_super_aux err=-71
sf_read_super_aux err=-71
sf_read_super_aux err=-22
sf_read_super_aux err=-22
sf_read_super_aux err=-22
sf_read_super_aux err=-22
sf_read_super_aux err=-22

Not very comfortable with Linux. Trying to follow along to get things working...

[Sasquatch]

Well, that just shows, the GA did not install properly. Reinstall them using my guide and report back. The install will create a log, so that will also show you if it was successful or not.

[banerjeesaby]

[root@dg1 VBOXADDITIONS_4.1.0_73009]# sh VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox 4.1.0 Guest Additions for Linux.........
VirtualBox Guest Additions installer
Removing installed version 4.1.0 of VirtualBox Guest Additions...
Removing existing VirtualBox DKMS kernel modules [ OK ]
Removing existing VirtualBox non-DKMS kernel modules [ OK ]
Building the VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel modules
Building the main Guest Additions module [ OK ]
Building the shared folder support module [ OK ]
Building the OpenGL support module [FAILED]
(Look at /var/log/vboxadd-install.log to find out what went wrong)
Installing the Window System drivers
Installing X.Org 7.1 modules [ OK ]
Setting up the Window System to use the Guest Additions [ OK ]
You may need to restart the hal service and the Window System (or just restart
the guest system) to enable the Guest Additions.

Installing graphics libraries and desktop services componen[ OK ]


Have I hit the following bug?
http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/9307

[Sasquatch]

That would seem to be. Please try the solution there and report back here and in the ticket itself. That way, the devs get more "this fixes it" replies and may have a fix sooner, ready for 4.1.2.

[banerjeesaby]

Yes. As per ticket# 9307

Logged in OEL 5.6 64Bit Guest choosing the 2.6.18-238.el5 kernel. Reinstalled the Guest Additions. No errors.
[oracle@dg1 ~]$ uname -r
2.6.18-238.el5

And my Shared Folders show up fine.

[banerjeesaby]

As detailed in ticket# 9307 the following workaround works:
http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/9307

My Guest Additions got built properly with the following option:
export MAKE='/usr/bin/gmake -i'
./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

Thanks!!!

[MarioB]

I had a similar problem on a guest of type: OTN Developer Day VM (Oracle Linux Server 6.5) and Windows 8.1 host. I have even reinstalled the GuestAdditions but with default user (oracle) I could NOT access the folder in /media/sf_VMShared. To solve this I had to go into the menu System->Administration->Users and Groups and add my user to the vboxsf group.