Question

26

What is the correct way to share directories with Ubuntu running in a Virtual Box VM with correct permissions?

rated 0 times [ 26] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 42338 / 3 Years ago, thu, august 26, 2021, 2:12:58

In VirtualBox, what is the best way to share a directory between an OS X host and Ubuntu
guest?

Host: Mac OS X 10.7.3

Guest: Ubuntu 12.04

Guest has a shared directory mounted via VirtualBox settings with
Access=Full and Auto-Mount=Yes.

The problem with this setup is illustrated below. In my shared directory, I
can't change the permissions at all (not a permissions denied error, but they
just don't take effect).

Ubuntu 12.04 (guest):

% ls -l

total 0

-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf 0 Apr 17 21:56 1

-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf 0 Apr 17 21:56 10

-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf 0 Apr 17 21:56 2

-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf 0 Apr 17 21:56 3

-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf 0 Apr 17 21:56 4

-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf 0 Apr 17 21:56 5

-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf 0 Apr 17 21:56 6

-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf 0 Apr 17 21:56 7

-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf 0 Apr 17 21:56 8

-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf 0 Apr 17 21:56 9

Mac OS X 10.7.3 (host):

$ ls -l

total 0

-rw-r--r--  1 <my-mac-user>  staff  0 Apr 17 21:56 1

-rw-r--r--  1 <my-mac-user>  staff  0 Apr 17 21:56 10

-rw-r--r--  1 <my-mac-user>  staff  0 Apr 17 21:56 2

-rw-r--r--  1 <my-mac-user>  staff  0 Apr 17 21:56 3

-rw-r--r--  1 <my-mac-user>  staff  0 Apr 17 21:56 4

-rw-r--r--  1 <my-mac-user>  staff  0 Apr 17 21:56 5

-rw-r--r--  1 <my-mac-user>  staff  0 Apr 17 21:56 6

-rw-r--r--  1 <my-mac-user>  staff  0 Apr 17 21:56 7

-rw-r--r--  1 <my-mac-user>  staff  0 Apr 17 21:56 8

-rw-r--r--  1 <my-mac-user>  staff  0 Apr 17 21:56 9

If I chmod on the guest, nothing changes:

% chmod +x 1 | ls -l 1 # guest

-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf 0 Apr 17 21:56 1

If I chmod on the host, it changes on the host but not on the guest:

$ chmod +x 1 | ls -l 1 # host

-rwxrwx--x  1 <my-mac-user>  staff  0 Apr 17 21:56 1



% ls -l 1 # guest

-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf 0 Apr 17 21:56 1

Answers

Only authorized users can answer the question. Please sign in first, or register a free account.

disdry

Add To Favorites

Follow

Total Points: 133

Total Questions: 128

Total Answers: 109

Location: Greenland

Member since Fri, Jul 31, 2020

4 Years ago

disdry questions

1 Mount Shares Permanently - mount:cifs Permission Denied

Tue, Apr 11, 23, 11:37, 1 Year ago

1 how can i enable the menubar and titlebar?

Thu, Oct 13, 22, 19:09, 2 Years ago

1 How to play a sound from a systemd service on Ubuntu?

Fri, Oct 28, 22, 15:06, 2 Years ago

1 Problem installing Nvidia driver on Ubuntu 20.04

Sat, Feb 25, 23, 11:33, 1 Year ago

1 How to count all folder and sub folder in a directory recursive way

Wed, Aug 3, 22, 00:23, 2 Years ago

View All

answered 3 Years ago listeerrated · Accepted Answer

I've figured it out!

To reproduce:

Shutdown the VM, add shared folders in VBox's settings (Permanent=Yes, Auto-Mount=No)

Start the VM

From a terminal, run umask && id as the normal user to get something like this:

002 # this is your umask

uid=1000(luser) gid=1000(luser) groups=1000(luser),4(adm),24(cdrom),27(sudo),30(dip),46(plugdev),109(lpadmin),124(sambashare),125(vboxsf)

sudo mkdir -p /media/sf_src # src is the shared directory

To mount the src directory as a test:

sudo mount.vboxsf -o umask=002,gid=1000,uid=1000 src /media/sf_src 

                           |   |        |        |   |-> where to mount

                           |   |        |        |       the file

                           |   |        |        |-> name of the shared dir

                           |   |        |            (in VBox settings)

                           |   |        |

                              |        /

                        from the `id` command

To automatically mount it on login, edit /etc/fstab and add the following:

src /media/sf_src vboxsf umask=002,gid=1000,uid=1000