Shared folders in Mint 21 VirtualBox 6.1 not working

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rburkey
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Shared folders in Mint 21 VirtualBox 6.1 not working

Post by rburkey »

My host machine is Mint 17.3. I'm running VirtualBox 6.1.18 on it, even though the current version is 6.1.36, because that's the latest supported version of VirtualBox on Mint 17.3. Nor can I build the latest VirtualBox from source, because it requires a later version of Qt5 than Mint 17.3 uses.

I have 4 VMs with Mint guest systems: Mint 15, Mint 19.1, Mint 20.1, and Mint 21. The latter was installed just today, and the others have been in use for quite a while.

Each of the 4 VMs has an identical shared folder, with the desktop of the host.

The Mint 15, 19.1, and 20.1 shared folders all work fine.

The Mint 21 shared folder does not work at all. An entry for it shows up in /media as /media/sf_Desktop, but it appears to be simply an empty folder not attached to anything. I have added my username to to the vboxsf group on the guest. I rebooted the VM after doing so. Nothing helps.

Anything I should be doing that I haven't?
Last edited by LockBot on Sat Feb 04, 2023 11:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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pbear
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Re: Shared folders in Mint 21 VirtualBox 6.1 not working

Post by pbear »

Nothing peculiar about LM21 that I can see. Only tested Cinnamon so far, but that's usually the flakiest of the three.
Both shared folder and USB drive access work fine. This is with VBox 6.1.36, of course.
Cosmo.
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Re: Shared folders in Mint 21 VirtualBox 6.1 not working

Post by Cosmo. »

The real problem is, that you use a host, which is out of support since several years. As a consequence you cannot update your software, VB in this case, also not the guest additions and not the extension pack. The kernel, which gets used by LM 21, is most likely not supported in your prehistoric VB install and so there is only one way: Upgrade the host.
rburkey
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Re: Shared folders in Mint 21 VirtualBox 6.1 not working

Post by rburkey »

Upgrade the host.
Well, the reason I'm running these alternate versions of Mint in a VM is to avoid having to update the host all the time.
Cosmo.
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Re: Shared folders in Mint 21 VirtualBox 6.1 not working

Post by Cosmo. »

And now you are at the dead point. This would have been predictable, as the support ended already 3 years ago. You should switch to a rolling release; if the host gets only used as just that, it's desktop should not matter.
pbear
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Re: Shared folders in Mint 21 VirtualBox 6.1 not working

Post by pbear »

rburkey wrote: Fri Aug 05, 2022 7:47 am ... avoid having to update the host all the time.
Ahem, every two years is not "all the time." And you could get away with every four years, if you like.
rburkey
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Re: Shared folders in Mint 21 VirtualBox 6.1 not working

Post by rburkey »

Yes, you're right, these answers are fully predictable. I had merely hoped for more.

I've decided to simply set up the folders I want shared as network mounts instead. It works just as well, but it would have been nice to use VirtualBox's built-in facility.
pbear
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Re: Shared folders in Mint 21 VirtualBox 6.1 not working

Post by pbear »

Oh, I answered your question in the first response. Then you insisted on giving the tired old excuse for why you refuse to update. Your computer, so you get to do that. New users read threads, though, so it's important they understand what you're doing is neither prudent nor necessary.

Have a nice day.
Cosmo.
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Re: Shared folders in Mint 21 VirtualBox 6.1 not working

Post by Cosmo. »

You will sooner or later see, that you cannot go further, because newer Linux-distros use kernel versions, which your VB does not support.

Not to talk about other problems.
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Grayfox
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Re: Shared folders in Mint 21 VirtualBox 6.1 not working

Post by Grayfox »

Try running QEMU with Virt Manager for your VM needs.
Better performance, more features and better supported.
PC: Intel i5 6600K @4.5Ghz, 1TB NVMe SSD, 32GiB 3000Mhz DDR4, GTX1080 running Mint 21.3
Laptop: Asus UM425UAZ running LMDE 6
Cosmo.
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Re: Shared folders in Mint 21 VirtualBox 6.1 not working

Post by Cosmo. »

On this antiquated host the op cannot install anything.
munchmunch
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Re: Shared folders in Mint 21 VirtualBox 6.1 not working

Post by munchmunch »

I have the same problem. Have a 20.3 Mint Cinnamon VM which works perfectly with shared folders.
Created and installed a fresh Mint 21 Cinnamon and shared folders do not work. The subfolders in the shared folder in Mint have random locks on them which change on reboot. My apps do not seem to have permissions to write to these folders. I have added my user to the vboxsf group.

The folders that do not work within the shared folder show as user nobody group nogroup.

I disabled auto mount and it worked for a while then suddenly the same problem.

I use the latest version of windows 10 as the host.
Reddog1
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Re: Shared folders in Mint 21 VirtualBox 6.1 not working

Post by Reddog1 »

This has got to be a Windows permissions/share problem because it isn't happening with VBox on a Linux host. Maybe something to do with the newest ntfs compatibility release?? I cannot check this because I have no Windows hosts, only Windows VM's.
munchmunch
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Re: Shared folders in Mint 21 VirtualBox 6.1 not working

Post by munchmunch »

No I have Linux Mint 20.3 running on the exact same host and it works fine.
Reddog1
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Re: Shared folders in Mint 21 VirtualBox 6.1 not working

Post by Reddog1 »

Keep in mind, ntfs support is built into the kernel and the 5.15 kernel is different from the 5.4 and 5.13 kernels. Ubuntu/Mint 5.15 is not the same as, for example arch 5.15. It very well could be that 5.15 kernel ntfs support in the Mint kernel isn't playing well with Windows permissions. I'm definitely going to watch and wait before I install Mint 21 as a host. It works fine as a guest.
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