How To Share Folders Between Windows and Ubuntu in VirtualBox

Sharing folders between Windows and Ubuntu in VirtualBox can significantly streamline your workflow. This guide will walk you through the process step by step.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure that you have the following:

• A Windows machine (host)
• Ubuntu running on VirtualBox (guest)
• VirtualBox Guest Additions installed on the Ubuntu guest machine

If you haven’t installed the Guest Additions yet, you can do so by clicking on “Devices” in the VirtualBox menu, then “Insert Guest Additions CD image.” Follow the prompts to install the necessary packages.

Step 1: Setting Up the Shared Folder

First, we need to specify which folder on the Windows host we want to share with the Ubuntu guest.

1. Open VirtualBox Manager and select your Ubuntu virtual machine.
2. Navigate to “Settings,” then the “Shared Folders” tab.
3. Click on the folder icon with a plus sign to add a new shared folder.
4. Choose the folder path on your Windows machine that you want to share.
5. Assign a name to the shared folder. This name will be used to access the folder in Ubuntu.
6. Enable the “Auto-mount” option. This will automatically mount the shared folder each time you start the Ubuntu virtual machine.

Step 2: Accessing the Shared Folder in Ubuntu

Now, we’ll create a directory in Ubuntu where the shared folder will be mounted.

1. Start your Ubuntu virtual machine and log in.
2. Open a terminal. You can do this by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T.
3. Create a directory using the mkdir command. For example, mkdir ~/shared will create a directory named “shared” in your home directory.

Next, we’ll mount the shared folder to the directory we just created.

1. In the terminal, run the following command:

sudo mount -t vboxsf -o uid=1000,gid=1000 sharename ~/shared

Replace sharename with the name you assigned to the shared folder in VirtualBox. This command mounts the shared folder to the ~/shared directory.

Here’s what each part of the command does:

• sudo: This runs the command with root privileges.
• mount: This is the command to mount a filesystem.
• -t vboxsf: This specifies the type of the filesystem. vboxsf is the filesystem of VirtualBox shared folders.
• -o uid=1000,gid=1000: These are options passed to the mount command. uid=1000 and gid=1000 set the user and group IDs of the owner of the mounted filesystem.
• sharename: This is the name of the shared folder.
• ~/shared: This is the directory where the shared folder will be mounted.

After running this command, you should be able to access the shared folder in Ubuntu at the mount point ~/shared.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter any issues, ensure that you have the necessary permissions to access the shared folder. You can add your user to the vboxsf group by running the command sudo usermod -aG vboxsf $USER. After running this command, log out and log back in.

If you receive a warning about assigning too much memory to the virtual machine, adjust the memory allocation in VirtualBox settings.

Please note that symlinks cannot be shared between the host and guest machines.

Conclusion

Sharing folders between Windows and Ubuntu in VirtualBox can help you easily transfer files between the two systems. This guide has shown you how to set up a shared folder and access it in Ubuntu. If you follow these steps carefully, you should be able to share folders between your Windows host and Ubuntu guest with ease.