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I'm running VirtualBox 4.2.18 with a Windows 7 host and Ubuntu 13.10 guest. I'm trying to set up a shared folder, but attempting to read the folder from the Ubuntu VM appears to hang indefinitely. Writing to the shared folder, however, works fine.

On the Windows host, the shared folder is set up to point to C:\ubuntu_share. It's configured in VirtualBox as permanent, but not auto-mount.

In the Ubuntu VM, I can mount the shared folder successfully:

$ mkdir ubuntu_share
$ sudo mount -t vboxsf -o "rw,uid=1000,gid=1000,dmode=0755" ubuntu_share ubuntu_share
$ ls -l
drwxr-xr-x  1 nreed nreed    0 Oct 28 16:37 ubuntu_share/

However, attempting to look at the contents of the mounted folder using ls simply presents a blinking cursor until I kill it with Ctrl+C. Similarly if I try to view the folder in Nautilus I just get the wait cursor forever.

On the other hand, writing to the mounted folder works:

$ cat > ubuntu_share/test.txt
hello world
^D

and then I can see the test.txt file show up in Windows just fine.

I've tried rebooting the VM, reinstalling the guest additions, deleting and recreating the shared folder, mounting it as root instead of my UID, all to no avail. Anyone have any ideas what's going on, or how I can diagnose this?

3 Answers 3

6

In my case the following has helped:

  • update to Virtual Box 4.3.8 r92456,
  • reinstallation of VirtualBox Guest Additions from virtual CD (not from apt repository),
  • reboot of virtual machine.

System information:

  • Host: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit,
  • Guest: Linux Mint 16 Petra 32-bit.
2

VirtualBox 4.3 has been released. It doesn't show up in the update check from VirtualBox. I've just resolved this issue for myself by installing from the VirtualBox site and updating the version of Guest Additions installed on the VM.

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

4
  • Thanks. Updating to 4.3 did the trick for me too. I guess I lucked out in encountering this problem just after they apparently fixed it... Oct 29, 2013 at 23:33
  • 2
    I have the same issue even with the latest version.
    – tiam
    Nov 11, 2013 at 16:22
  • 3
    I also have this issue with 4.3.6
    – dvreed77
    Dec 31, 2013 at 13:46
  • @smbear's answer fixed it form me on 4.3.12
    – Hans
    Jun 11, 2014 at 22:20
1

So the problem is with symbolic links to the shared folder. It turns out that these are a security risk. See source.

My solution is to delete the symbolic link and navigate to the mount point (/media/sf_MyUserName). This also allows me to sort in directories within the shared folder.

This issue still exists on a fresh install of VirtualBox 5.0.0 on Win 7 with fresh upgrade to debian 8 (Jessie) as a guest.

On my configuration, the issue exhibits when I click on the shared folder from Dolphin. Dolphin is fine with any other directory, however, on clicking on the shared drive, Dolphin freezes.

This issue first appeared on my machine in Debian 7 (wheezy) on VirtualBox 4.3.3. I googled, fixed it somewhat, but cannot remember what I did several months ago. I say it was somewhat fixed because if I tried to sort any directory in the shared folder, Dolphin would freeze. The problem reappeared when I upgraded to deb 8. Any attempt to navigate to the shared drive caused Dolphin to freeze. I upgraded to VirtualBox 5.0.0.0 with the extension pack, but this did not help.

After some time investigating, I have found the problem. The issue only arises if I click on the "sf_MyUserName" symbolic link that VirtualBox created. However, if I go through the file system where the shared folder is mounted (/media/sf_MyUserName) Dolphin has no problem.

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  • It took me three attempts to read this answer, to determine, it was actually an answer. The solution boils down to removing the symbolic link.
    – Ramhound
    Jul 22, 2015 at 17:52
  • Interesting. However, you're talking about symlinks to the shared folder mount point within the guest OS, and the askubuntu question you linked to appears to be talking about something quite different: symlinks in the shared folder that reference non-shared locations in the host filesystem? Jul 22, 2015 at 19:44
  • Hi Nathan, I think my situation was very similar, although not exactly the same as the original post.
    – Joe
    Jul 24, 2015 at 9:55
  • Nathan, My situation was similar to your original post. The first two sentences describes my situation. "I'm running VirtualBox 4.2.18 with a Windows 7 host and Ubuntu 13.10 guest. I'm trying to set up a shared folder, but attempting to read the folder from the Ubuntu VM appears to hang indefinitely. " In my case it is Win 7 host and Debian guest. The difference is in my case only Dolphin hung. I just reread the AskUbuntu link and you are right that the symlinks point in a different direction. I must have missed that. In any case, I hope my suggestion helps you or others. -- cheers
    – Joe
    Jul 24, 2015 at 10:12

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