Virtualbox shared folder ubuntu windows

Introduction

This explains how to share files and folders (directories) between host and guest. (Files are shared over a network, in other words, you access remote files. For virtual machines, the network between host and guest is virtual since they are on the same real machine. But the steps you take are similar to setting up file sharing over real networks.)

Required: Virtualbox Guest Additions

Before sharing folders, you must install Guest Additions. For instructions on how to do this, see Guest Additions.

• Create a folder on the Host computer (ubuntu) that you would like to share, for example ~/share

• Boot the Guest operating system in VirtualBox.

• Select Devices -> Shared Folders…

• Choose the ‘Add’ button.

• Select ~/share

• Optionally select the ‘Make permanent’ option

Prepare the folder

Linux

With a shared folder named share, as above, the folder can be mounted as the directory ~/host with the command

sudo mount -t vboxsf -o uid=$UID,gid=$(id -g) share ~/host

Windows

On the Windows Guest, run

net use x: \\vboxsvr\share

Now anything placed in this folder should be visible from the host in the ~/share folder.

Troubleshooting

This can be done more generically with the following:

sharename="whatever.you.want.to.call.it"; 
sudo mkdir /mnt/$sharename
sudo chmod 777 /mnt/$sharename
sudo mount -t vboxsf -o uid=1000,gid=1000 $sharename /mnt/$sharename
ln -s /mnt/$sharename $HOME/Desktop/$sharename

For the above command if you get the following error:

mount: unknown filesystem type 'vboxsf'

Then just change the vboxsf to vboxfs

If you want to have it mount automatically upon each boot, put the mount command in /etc/rc.local Debian distros (e.g. Ubuntu 10.04 and later) HOWTO Use Shared Folders

See Section 4.4 «Folder Sharing» in the VirtualBox documentation.

Note: if you want to mount the directory as owned and writable only by root, omit the  -o uid=1000,gid=1000  option to the mount command

/sbin/mount.vboxsf: mounting failed with the error: Protocol error

The above error could be one of the following.

The name was not valid

Make sure you specified the right name on the bash commands. If the guest machine is expecting «share» (as we did in the Prepare Host section) and you wrote

sharename="donotshare"
sudo mkdir /mnt/$sharename 
sudo chmod 777 /mnt/$sharename 
sudo mount -t vboxsf -o uid=1000,gid=1000 $sharename /mnt/$sharename 
ln -s /mnt/$sharename $HOME/Desktop/$sharename

it will not work.

Ubuntu 10.04 host

Note: Running on Ubuntu 10.04 host and Mint 14 as virtual system, the system would not accept a ~/share. It complained that it was not an absolute address. I entered /home/jim/share and it worked fine.

e. g.

• Create a folder on the Host computer (ubuntu) that you would like to share, for example ~/share

• Boot the Guest operating system in VirtualBox.

• Select Devices -> Shared Folders…

• Choose the ‘Add’ button.

• Select ‘/home/<user>/share’ for Folder Path

• Select ‘share’ for Folder Name
• Optionally select the ‘Make permanent’ option

This quick tutorial shows how to share a folder in Virtualbox Ubuntu host and get access within Windows virtual machine.

One of the top things after installed a virtual machine via VirtualBox is how to transfer files between host OS and guest OS. And this can be done via Shared Folder feature.

1. In Virtualbox (6.0.8 in the case), open Settings of the Windows Guest OS. Then do:

• Navigate to Shared Folders in left pane.
• Click ‘Adds new shared folder’ button in the right.
• In next pop-up dialog do:
  • Folder Path, choose a folder in the Host OS to share with.
  • Folder Name, auto generated after chosen folder.
  • Enable ‘Auto-mount‘.
  • Enable ‘Read-only’ if you DON’T want to add/edit the folder files in Guest.
  • Mount point:, leave it empty.

2. Boot up the Guest OS (Windows 7 in the case), and then go to menu Devices -> Insert Guest Additions CD image.

If you don’t see the Guest window menu, press right-Ctrl + C on keyboard.

3. Open Computer, you’ll see CD Driver marked as ‘VirtualBox Guest’.

4. Go to the CD Driver and click install the exe file to bring up guest addition install wizard.

5. Follow the install wizard until done.

6. Finally reboot the Windows guest OS, and shared folder should be there in ‘Computer’

How to create a shared folder between host Operating System and Guest Operating system?

This is the scenario that you run Windows as your host operating system and Ubuntu in a VirtualBox, and that you want to access a specific Windows folder from Ubuntu.
In short-
Share a folder between Host OS-> Windows and Guest OS ->Ubuntu(Virtual box)

Step 1
Install install Guest Additions from VirtualBox’s menu go to Devices->Install Guest Additions
This will mount a virtual CD on your /media/cdrom. As root user Open this /media/cdrom added folder using Open with terminal option(Right click with mouse).

Step 2
Run the program VBoxLinuxAdditions.run. When the program completes reboot your VirtualBox.

$ sudo ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

Step 3
Create a shared folder. From Virtual menu go to Devices->Shared Folders then add a new folder in the list, this folder should be the one in windows which you want to share with Ubuntu(Guest OS).
Make this created folder auto-mount.
Example -> Make a folder on Desktop with name Ubuntushare and add this folder.

Step 4
When done with you shared folder(s) specification, we mount folder from Ubuntu(Guest OS).
Create a mountpoint, this a directory in Ubuntu that will share files with the shared folder from Windows.
Run this to create a directory in Ubuntu

$ sudo mkdir ~/Desktop/windowsshare

Step 5
With your mountpoint created you can now mount the shared folder.
Run this command to share the folder:

$ sudo mount -t vboxsf Ubuntushare ~/Desktop/windowsshare

Ubuntushare is the name of folder we add in VirtualBox Devices section this folder is in Windows(Host OS).
~/Desktop/windowsshare is the directory in Ubuntu(Guest OS)

CONGRATULATIONS->
Now you can share the files between Windows and Ubuntu. Try adding any file in windows(Host OS) Ubuntu share folder now check Ubuntu(Guest OS) windowsshare directory the file will be reflected.

This article is contributed by SHAURYA UPPAL. If you like GeeksforGeeks and would like to contribute, you can also write an article using contribute.geeksforgeeks.org or mail your article to contribute@geeksforgeeks.org. See your article appearing on the GeeksforGeeks main page and help other Geeks.

Please write comments if you find anything incorrect, or you want to share more information about the topic discussed above.

Last Updated :
30 Mar, 2019

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