[Fixed (kinda)] Making writable shared folders windows host

[VeggieDealer]

Have a windows 8.1 64bit host and a Mint 16/Saucy Salamander Guest.

If you RTFM it says you can mount with fstab this is a lie as vboxsf isn't loaded when the mounts happen. You can add the mounts in rc.local file and they will mount fine after they've been added to the share folder dialog in virtualbox.

So here's what you do. (first not sure if you need to but go ahead and add your user to the vboxsf group)

Let's say you want to mount your Documents and Pictures directories in linux. If you mount them with: (as root or with sudo) mount -t vboxsf -o uid=1000,gid=1000 Documents /home/<username>/Documents then it will be readable but not writable it will have these permissions: dr-xr-xr-x so no go

ALTHOUGH.... if you sudo mkdir mycoolnewdir then it will have full permissions AND be writable by your user.

Here is the tl;dr:

Delete the folder you want to mount in linux
Mount the folder above it
mkdir in linux that you want
unmount the directory
NOW YOU CAN MOUNT A WRITABLE FOLDER!!!

Woot GJ, and screw the manual! I thought about making a ticket for this a few closed ones exist but honestly in my past experiences it would be close a few times or fixed in a few years so here's the 4 hour quest solved! ENJOY

[fiterbek]

Thank you so much for your post! The above works, and is a very nice workaround for a (imho) broken/incomplete shared folder default implementation in the Guest Additions.

I just want to add for the other readers here, ONLY use the above mount cmd line for mounting the shared folders, and do not forget the uid and gid fields (set them to the uid/gid of the user that needs to have all permissions on the share). This line can be added to rc.local.
Do NOT use the auto-mount 'feature' you can set from the VirtualBox Management interface (where you have to set/select the shared folders for your vbox), as this will cause VirtualBox to mount it with owner root and group vboxsf, and you'd have the same problem all over again.

Furthermore, the current implementation really is broken as chmod commands on files in folders mounted in the way described in the manual, even as root or with sudo access, seem to change nothing when checking after the command in the same session. However, when mounting the same share in the way described above, I can clearly see permission DID change (although not consistent with the flags given to chmod, lol )

Stopping the ranting here, I want to thank VeggieDealer again for sharing this solution with all of us!

[loukingjr]

I've had writable shared folders for 5 years... (talk about the blind leading the blind)

[fiterbek]

Well loukingjr, this post helped me out. While many other posts on this forum related to shared folders did not. As was the case with the manual (ch04.html#sharedfolders)

So if you want to call names, go do it elsewhere.

[loukingjr]

I wasn't "call names". I was using an expression. I don't like to see misinformation spread. for example, what you said here...

Do NOT use the auto-mount 'feature' you can set from the VirtualBox Management interface (where you have to set/select the shared folders for your vbox), as this will cause VirtualBox to mount it with owner root and group vboxsf, and you'd have the same problem all over again.

That is incorrect. All you have to do to have shared folders working set up like that is to add your user name to the vboxsf group then restart the guest. The shared folder/s will be in /media. It's about as simple to do as it gets.

As far as manually mounting shared folders, as "VeggieDealer" tried to describe, there is a tutorial that has been on this forum describing how to do that for 5 years, plus it's in the users manual (although it describes fstab rather than rc.local), plus it has been posted and re-posted many times over in people's posts. HOWTO: Use Shared Folders

[fiterbek]

Well, I just migrated my VirtualBox to another machine and tried out what you wrote.

Although the shared folder works in rw mode after I add my own user to the vboxsf group, it still doesn't allow me to change/set permissions on anything inside the shared folder.

What was described above does work though, and fixes my file permissions issue. Granted, the needed mount commands for what VeggieDealer describes are explained in a little more detail in the howto than in the manual.

Is there a reason why what is in the howto is not in the manual? Seems like a better place for it (again, imho).

Anyway, thanks for the explanation, makes a lot more sense to me than a remark about the blind teaching the blind. At least I learnt something (also, I'm not completely blind )!

[loukingjr]

Well, I just migrated my VirtualBox to another machine and tried out what you wrote.

Although the shared folder works in rw mode after I add my own user to the vboxsf group, it still doesn't allow me to change/set permissions on anything inside the shared folder.

What was described above does work though, and fixes my file permissions issue. Granted, the needed mount commands for what VeggieDealer describes are explained in a little more detail in the howto than in the manual.

Is there a reason why what is in the howto is not in the manual? Seems like a better place for it (again, imho).

Anyway, thanks for the explanation, makes a lot more sense to me than a remark about the blind teaching the blind. At least I learnt something (also, I'm not completely blind )!

I have no idea why things are included or not included or in what detail in the manual. I suppose whoever puts it together knows. As far as people being blind, I just mean there are so many people who don't bother to look for the information that's already out there, or they just can't "see".