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After installing the Guest Additions and defining shared folder 'vbshare' on Ubuntu 11.04 host (Natty Narwhal, Linux 2.6.38-11-generic ) mounting fails in Debian 6 guest:

root@debian:/home/dokondr# mount -t vboxsf vbshare /home/dokondr/host
/sbin/mount.vboxsf: mounting failed with the error: Invalid argument

Please help to solve this.

Read and follow my guide first, then report any errors you may have. See signature for link.

Sasquatch wrote:Read and follow my guide first, then report any errors you may have. See signature for link.

Sorry, but I am totally lost. I get this "Invalid argument" mounting error in spite of the fact that I have followed you guide exactly:

HOWTO: Use Shared Folders

Postby Sasquatch » 27. Mar 2009, 20:14
After installing the Guest Additions, you can use the Shared Folders Functionality. To access them, you have to define at least one in the VM settings. Open the VM Settings and go to Shared Folders. You can define them there. Click on the Add button and browse for a folder you want to share. Make sure that the name of the share doesn't contain any illegal characters like white spaces. Keep the name as simple as possible. In this howto, I will use the name share.

Now that you have defined a SF, it's time to mount it. Boot the Guest and open a terminal. Create a folder where you will mount it on. E.g. in your home folder. I will use ~/host for the mount point.
Now mount it with the following command:

Code: Select all Expand view
sudo mount -t vboxsf share ~/host

After installing the Guest Additions and defining shared folder 'vbshare' on Ubuntu 11.04 host (Natty Narwhal, Linux 2.6.38-11-generic ) mounting fails in Debian 6 guest:

root@debian:/home/dokondr# mount -t vboxsf vbshare /home/dokondr/host
/sbin/mount.vboxsf: mounting failed with the error: Invalid argument

Guest Additions are properly installed and working? The error sounds like it isn't.

Sasquatch wrote:Guest Additions are properly installed and working? The error sounds like it isn't.

Yes, Guest Additions installed only to the extent that X11 Display works properly. I can not install Linux kernel headers:

dokondr@debian:~$ uname -r
2.6.32-5-amd64
dokondr@debian:~$ su
Password:
root@debian:/home/dokondr# apt-get install linux-headers-686-pae
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package linux-headers-686-pae
root@debian:/home/dokondr# apt-get install linux-headers-486
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package linux-headers-486
root@debian:/home/dokondr# apt-get install linux-headers-amd64
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package linux-headers-amd64
root@debian:/home/dokondr# apt-get install linux-headers-i386
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package linux-headers-i386
root@debian:/home/dokondr#

Yet on MacOsX this does not prevent mounting shared folder and X11 Display tuning
(see my other message:
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=47487&p=214927#p214927
)

You never did an apt-get update? 'Cause at least the meta-package linux-headers-amd64 and linux-image-amd64 should exist. I have noted in my howto to update the Guest prior to GA installation and that involves an apt-get update and apt-get upgrade.
Without kernel-headers, you can't build the GA. Only way I can think of that you got X11 going, is because the GA from the Debian repo has been installed automatically which you need to remove. Search for virtualbox-guest-x11 in aptitude.