[SOLVED] Can't mount shared folder - Virtualbox - Ubuntu 18 Guest OS

swilsy · 12-23-2018, 03:20 PM

Hello all,

I am having trouble mounting a shared folder on my guest OS using Virtualbox. My host OS is Windows 10 and my guest OS is Ubuntu 18 Desktop. I created the shared folder in the Virtualbox settings. I tried both automount and not. Virtualbox Guest Addition 5.2.22 is installed on the guest OS and appears to be working. When I run

Code:

sudo mount -t vboxsf sharedfoldername ~/Desktop/sharedfolder

I get the following error.

Code:

wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on VirtualShared, missing codepage or helper program, or other error.

I found this error all over the internet, but the solution is always to install the guest addition which I already have. I've tried updating my guest OS, but no luck.

michaelk · 12-23-2018, 07:02 PM

Is vboxfs a valid filesystem i.e check the output of the command.

cat /proc/filesystems

Have you restarted the guest?

swilsy · 12-24-2018, 10:56 AM

Yes, vboxsf is listed in /proc/filesystems.

Yes, I have tried restarting the guest OS several times.

michaelk · 12-24-2018, 12:30 PM

Forgot to ask if vboxadd-service is running. I just installed Ubuntu 18.04 as a guest under Windows 7 running VirtualBox 5.2.22 and shared folders works. Without knowing exactly how your system is configured from the default it is difficult to determine why isn't working.

Just as a side note the latest Windows 10 update laptop appears to have broken the guest dhcp clients in networking bridged mode but shares folders still works.

swilsy · 12-24-2018, 02:45 PM

I tried running

Code:

service --status-all

and I do not see vboxadd or anything like it listed.

I tried

Code:

sudo service vboxadd start

and

Code:

sudo service vboxadd-service start

Both of these return

Code:

Failed to start vboxadd-service.service: Unit vboxadd-service.service not found.

It sounds like this is might be my problem. Any idea how to get the service installed and running? My graphics are adjusted properly and I see the VBox_GAs_5.2.22 mounted as a cd on the desktop.

michaelk · 12-24-2018, 02:59 PM

Open a terminal window and cd to the directory which should be /media/VBox_GAs_5.2.22 (or something like that). Run the command
sudo ./VboxGuestAdditions.run (whatever its named...) and see what happens.

You need to install the gcc, kernel headers and dkms first in order for Guest Additions to compile and install.
sudo apt install build-essential dkms linux-headers-$(uname -r)

swilsy · 12-24-2018, 06:54 PM

That did it. After running ./VboxGuestAdditions.run the share is working. I turned off auto-mount in the Virtualbox options and added an entry to fstab to mount the shared directory to a folder on my desktop with my uid and gid. Without this, it automatically mounts with the user and group as root. I also had trouble editing with gedit one a text file was altered on the host OS. To solve this, I installed Notepad3. This seems to work great.