Listing file share drive root contents hangs Windows VMs

[ssawgift]

I'm not sure if it's specific only to myself. After upgrading to 4.3.20 and installing the Addtions, listing file share drive root contents will always hang the Windows guest VM.

For example, I have a Windows XP guest VM which has a file share drive E: mapped to /Users/myname/Downloads. Every time I navigate to E:\ using Windows File Explorer, the VM hangs. I cannot even save the VM; the only option left is to force-kill the VM using Activity Monitor. To make things look more weird, I can actually browse sub-folders under E:\ without problem.

[loukingjr]

I'm not sure if it's specific only to myself. After upgrading to 4.3.20 and installing the Addtions, listing file share drive root contents will always hang the Windows guest VM.

For example, I have a Windows XP guest VM which has a file share drive E: mapped to /Users/myname/Downloads. Every time I navigate to E:\ using Windows File Explorer, the VM hangs. I cannot even save the VM; the only option left is to force-kill the VM using Activity Monitor. To make things look more weird, I can actually browse sub-folders under E:\ without problem.

I don't understand. How do you browse the sub-folders on E:\ if the VM hangs when you access E:\? (computers are so complicated)

[ChipMcK]

I'm not sure if it's specific only to myself. After upgrading to 4.3.20 and installing the Addtions, listing file share drive root contents will always hang the Windows guest VM.

I have my shared folder mapped to U: and i experience no problems accessing U: and its subfolders via File Explorer

[socratis]

E: mapped to /Users/myname/Downloads ... Every time I navigate to E:\, the VM hangs

Can you check the permissions of '/Users/myname/Downloads'? Which means type 'ls -al' in a Terminal window and give me the output of the first two lines. Example:

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MacOS:~ myname$ ls -al /Users/myname/Downloads/
total 8864
drwx------@ 31 myname  staff     1054  6 Dec 18:01 .
drwxrwxr-t  27 myname  staff      918  6 Dec 00:12 ..

Also, can you post the output of the following commands:

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ls -l /Users/myname/Downloads | wc -l
find /Users/myname/Downloads -type f | wc -l
du -d 0 /Users/myname/Downloads

[ssawgift]

Code: Select all

$ ls -al
drwxr-xr-x  10 myname  staff      340 Dec  7 12:05 .
drwxr-xr-x+ 36 myname  staff     1224 Dec  6 20:03 ..

$ ls -l ~/Downloads | wc -l
       7
$ find ~/Downloads -type f | wc -l
    7864
$ du -d 0 ~/Downloads
17781328	/Users/myname/Downloads

Why my output is so different?

P.S.
I want to add that even though the permissions of ~/Downloads may be very bad, but I don't think it should hang the VM. Instead, VB should report some errors about reading/writing permissions. Maybe some kind of hard-coded logic is lurking in the source code.

Oh, one more thing. I recently did a fresh re-installation of Yosemite. I recall I once used cp with a special option (can't remember) to copy backed files back to my home folder. Maybe that is causing the problem.

[socratis]

Why my output is so different?

If you're worried about the wrong permissions in your Downloads folder (and potentially other ones in your home directory), you could follow the instructions in this article titled Mac Troubleshooting - Reset User Account Permissions. BTW, you got me worried about my permissions being wrong, so I'm going to try it on my computer as well .

But, the more interesting part is the output of the "find ~/Downloads -type f | wc -l" command. That basically counts are in the folder and its subfolders. That would be 7864 (compared to 834 in my case). Since you have only 7 of them at the folder level (ls -l ~/Downloads | wc -l), I assume that these 7 are subfolders, and the majority of your downloads are organized in these subfolders.

I'm wondering if in your VM the Windows Explorer isn't "stuck", but it is simply trying to enumerate those 7864 files and get info on them. When you said "I can actually browse sub-folders under E:\" did you mean that you open the tree from the left and click on one of the subfolders on the right pane of WinExplorer?

[loukingjr]

fwiw, my Download permissions are different than either of yours.

[socratis]

Please tell...

[loukingjr]

oh geez… I just closed the terminal.

I printed the entire output.

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drwx------+  4 louis  staff   136 Oct 23 16:00 .
drwxr-xr-x+ 29 louis  staff   986 Dec  6 10:22 ..
-rw-r--r--@  1 louis  staff  6148 Oct 23 16:00 .DS_Store
-rw-------   1 louis  staff     0 May 23  2014 .localized

[socratis]

That's what it should be (that's why I always keep an untouched VM). The '+' means that there are extra permissions (Access Control Lists, or ACLs) not usually seen by the more simplistic User, Group, Other, Read, Write, eXecute that 'ls' is outputting. If you do an 'ls -lae', your output should be:

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drwx------+ 31 socratis  staff     1054  7 Dec 18:08 .
 0: group: everyone deny delete
drwxrwxr-x+ 27 socratis  staff      918  6 Dec 00:12 ..
 0: group: everyone deny delete
-rw-------@  1 socratis  staff     6148  6 Dec 18:02 .DS_Store
-rw-r--r--   1 socratis  staff        0  4 Aug  2008 .localized

But we still haven't figured a solution to the OP's question

[loukingjr]

but, but, why does yours have a w instead of a dash?

drwxrwxr-x+ 27 socratis staff 918 6 Dec 00:12 ..
drwxr-xr-x+ 29 louis staff 986 Dec 6 10:22 ..

as far as the OP, maybe he just needs to repair permissions.

[socratis]

Oops, good catch. Now I definitely have to eat my own dog food...

[loukingjr]

no need to go that far.

here's what I don't get, why is the OP sharing his Download folder in the first place?

[ssawgift]

Thanks everyone for your comments and replies.

I have attached a screenshot to clarify my problem. In the screenshot, I can browse E:\Windows without problem, but *if* I navigate to E:\, the VM will hang.

[socratis]

What happens if you don't go through the mapped network drive (E:\), but you browse through normal, unmapped drives, like Network, VBoxShare? Does it still hang?