Ubuntu 10.04: an error occurred while mounting /mnt/hgfs

Question

I'm emulating Ubuntu using VMWare and I've upgraded it to last stable 10.04 version.

When I boot the system I get this error (below the Ubuntu logo):

"an error occurred while mounting /mnt/hgfs"

I made a screenshot: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/72686/mountError.png

So I have to click S to continue and the the OS seems to work well.

Thanks

Answer 1

I just had the same problem with shared folders on Ubuntu 10.04 under VirtualBox and found this post with a workaround. Hopefully, VMWare will have a similar solution.

First, comment out the share mounting line in /etc/fstab. It looks something like this:

SharedFolderName    /mount/path    vboxsf    rw    0    0

Then edit the /etc/rc.local file to add the mount point. It will look something like this:

mount.vboxsf -w SharedFolderName /mount/path

Answer 2

As mentioned here, editing the /etc/fstab with:

.host:/ /mnt/hgfs vmhgfs rw,ttl=1,uid=my_uid,gid=my_gid,nobootwait 0 0

worked for me.

Answer 3

Have you tried reinstalling the VMware tools or running vmware-config-tools? It sounds like the Host-Guest filesystem kernel extension isn't loading at boot-time, and reinstalling/reconfiguring the VMware tools will rebuild your initrd image and allow the module to be loaded at boot time.

Answer 4

I'm using VirtualBox to run Ubuntu virtual machine. I just had this error after doing an update on Ubuntu-10.04 and restarting.

I reinstalled Guest Additions (no need to uninstall on your own - just install it the same way you installed it the previous time) and the shared folders were working again. Did not need to do anything else.

Answer 5

In my case, I managed to fix this problem by enabling the shared folders feature in the VMWare GUI.

If you want to use the shared folders feature, look at the top of the running VM window and go to Virtual Machine->Virtual Machine Settings->Options tab->Shared Folders, and make sure Shared Folders is enabled.

You might not want to use the shared folders feature, for example if the VM is untrusted and you don't want to give it access to any folders on your physical machine. If so, choose from one of the answers that modify the fstab to allow uninterrupted boot without the hgfs/Shared-Folders feature.

Answer 6

Re-installing vmware tools can fix this problem.