Cannot share folders with an Ubuntu VM on Mac OSX

[forbescw]

I am unable to get folder sharing to work on my Ubuntu VM. I am able to do so on my Windows XP VM so I'm familiar with the process.

Environment is OSX 10.6.7

VMware Fusion 3.1.2

VM Ware Tools Installed

Ubuntu 11.04.

I have installed and reinstalled Tools.

There is chatter on the internet that it doesn't work, but any "solution" I try also does not work.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Craig

[forbescw]

I upgraded to the just released 3.1.3 but folder sharing still does not work!

Any help solving this problem would be appreciated.

Craig

[WoodyZ]

Did you uninstall VMware Tools from the previous version and install VMware Tools from VMware Fusion 3.1.3?  Where there any errors during the install?

Personally I don't use the VMware Shared Folders feature and prefer use industry standard SBM/CIFS Shares instead and that would be my recommendation.

[forbescw]

Yes I uninstalled and reinstalled VMware tools. No error messages.

I would use anything that works! I don't know how to set up and use SMB/CIFS (I know what it stands for but don't know where to find apps on both sides to make it work).

Craig

[WoodyZ]

On the Mac side... Apple menu > System Preferences... > Internet & Wireless > Sharing

Check the File Sharing check box and add what you want shared.

File Sharing > Options... button > check Share files and folders using SMB (Windows) check box and check the User Account check box.

On Ubuntu 11.04 click Places (on the top panel) > Network and then double-click on the target Computer then double-click on the target SharePoint.

[forbescw]

Thanks for the help. On the Mac side, everything worked fine. I can't follow on the Ubuntu side though: When I select places/network I get a windows network response, When I click that, I get Workgroup, when I click that, I get "Unable to mount location" "Failed to retrieve share list from server". Don't know where to go from there.

Craig

[WoodyZ]

Under VMware Fusion 3.1.2 and using the default settings, as a test, I just did two clean installs one using Easy Install (VMware Tools get automatically installed) and the other manually installing Ubuntu 11.04 (without VMware Tools) and in both cases the results are the same when I go the Places > Network.  The Host is there along with the Windows Network folder and I can get to the pre-defined SMB SharePoints on the Host going either direction, directly to the Host in the Network folder or clicking the Windows Network folder and then the WORKGROUP folder.

As I've done this on different versions of VMware Fusion, 3.1.2 and the current Beta, as well as VMware Workstation using both 32-bit and 64-bit Ubuntu 11.04 and the results have been the same, as I've already described. Therefore I have to consider this the default behavior and the only thing I can say is if the results are not the same for you then you'll need to employ industry standard networking troubleshooting methods to try and determine what the problem is.

Also note that for the tests I just did the Host was not connected to the Physical LAN and was only using the default NAT VMware Virtual Network although even when connected to the Physical LAN things still worked.  The only time there is an issue is when using a USB WiFi Broadband Network Adapter as it by default kills the connectivity except to it unless I add the the Ethernet or Host WiFi Network adapters to the USB WiFi Broadband Network Adapters Profile.

[forbescw]

I really appreciate the thoroughness of your response. It's very cool that you have taken the time to do this. Unfortunatelly your results and mine are very different. I've installed from scratch not less than 3 times now. Same results. I get errors of various kinds that won't let VM tools install. I've been using VM since 2007 and never had this problem with a Windows XP client. I'll try some more things but am not hopeful. I just don't know where to look any more.

Craig

[forbescw]

I deleted my Ubuntu VM, uninstalled VMware, deleted all the library files, reinstalled VMware 3.1.3, installed a new Ubuntu VM: same result. can't install VMware Tools, can't share folders.

I installed Virtual Box and Ubuntu and everything works fine. I want to get VM working so I'm going to keep at it, but at least I can do what I need to do work-wise.

Craig

[forbescw]

I uninstalled VMware, reinstalled it, installed Ubuntu10.4 (easy install). Updated VMtools. Voila!!! I can now share folders. So it appears to me there is some serious flakyness going on with the ability of VM to support 11.04. 

Another non-support of note, Unity (the Ubuntu 11.04 desktop feature, not VMware-unity) does not work under VMware 3.1.3.

Craig

[WoodyZ]

I uninstalled VMware, reinstalled it, installed Ubuntu10.4 (easy install). Updated VMtools. Voila!!! I can now share folders. So it appears to me there is some serious flakyness going on with the ability of VM to support 11.04.

Could be, however since its release I've installed it several dozen times on different systems and 3 different VMware Products and on the non-beta releases I have not had any problems.  Now that doesn't mean it's not without issues on some systems or with some users, nothing personal, as user error is usually the case in an overwhelming number of cases, however time will tell what all the issues are and if they get resolved.

Another non-support of note, Unity (the Ubuntu 11.04 desktop feature, not VMware-unity) does not work under VMware 3.1.3.

VMware does not support what's necessary for it and the only choice I've seen is to use Unity 2D

In a Terminal:

sudo apt-get install unity-2d-default-settings

See Also:

How To Install Unity 2D (Qt) In Ubuntu 11.04 / 10.10 ~ Web Upd8 ...

2D Unity To Be Available As An Option In Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal

[forbescw]

Nothing personal indeed.

I have been using VM since 2007 and not had problems until this release. Also, just to do sanity checks, I had a CS major in college try it and he experienced the exact same issue. Knowing myself, it's very easy to believe I messed up. But the stats don't support that as the only conclusion.

[zmalloc]

It's not just you.  My development environment requires me to run numerous linux distro's for various services simultaneously.  I've had to resort back to using Samba.  It works, but has it's drawbacks.  I had to change my UID's to match the host machine to avoid permissions problems.  Mild annoyance, but I do prefer vmware to the other offerings out there.  Has always been a stellar product.  Eagerly awaiting a fix.

thanks

[tksuoran]

I am having similar issues but with different setup: VMware Player 3.1.4 build-385536, Host Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit 6.1.7601, Service Pack 1, Guest Ubuntu 11.04 installed with easyinstall.

First time I got to my guest desktop I was able to go to VMware player menu and share a folder from host. I was able to access files as well, but I run into issues when I tried to access same file from both host and guest. I ended up not being able to access the file from either. I don't really need this, so I thought maybe I just reboot the guest. But the shared folder is no longer mounted in Ubuntu, and WMware player shows this dialog:

Meanwhile I can run vmware toolbox in Ubuntu:

Reading the vmware log file gives me the impression that partly it thinks vmware tools is installed, partly not. I don't really know what to look for but this may be related:

Jun 24 23:34:02.953: vcpu-0| Guest: toolbox: Version: build-387002

Jun 24 23:34:09.712: vcpu-0| GuestRpc: Reinitializing Channel 0(toolbox)

Jun 24 23:34:09.712: vcpu-0| GuestRpc: Channel 0 reinitialized.

...

Jun 24 23:35:31.165: vcpu-0| GuestRpc: application toolbox-dnd already registered, id: -1

Jun 24 23:35:31.165: vcpu-0| GuestRpc: Channel 1, guest application toolbox-dnd.

Jun 24 23:35:31.178: vcpu-0| VMXVmdb_LoadRawConfig: Loading raw config

Jun 24 23:35:43.401: mks| Setting thread 39 stack size to 1048576.

Jun 24 23:36:38.541: mks| Setting thread 39 stack size to 1048576.

Jun 24 23:36:58.559: mks| USBGW: Write arbitrator op:13 len:17

Jun 24 23:36:58.564: mks| USBGW: Write arbitrator op:13 len:17

Jun 24 23:36:58.564: mks| Setting thread 39 stack size to 1048576.

Jun 24 23:37:00.849: mks| Setting thread 42 stack size to 1048576.

Jun 24 23:37:05.637: vcpu-0| GuestRpc: Channel 2, guest application toolbox-ui.

Jun 24 23:37:09.715: vmx| GuestRpcSendTimedOut: message to toolbox timed out.

Jun 24 23:37:09.715: vmx| Vix: [2148 guestCommands.c:2392]: Error VIX_E_TOOLS_NOT_RUNNING in VMAutomationTranslateGuestRpcError(): VMware Tools are not running in the guest

Jun 24 23:37:11.422: mks| Setting thread 42 stack size to 1048576.

Jun 24 23:37:31.723: mks| USBGW: Write arbitrator op:13 len:17

Jun 24 23:37:55.766: vmx| TOOLS received request in VMX to set option 'synctime' -> '1'

Jun 24 23:37:55.767: vmx| VMXVmdb_LoadRawConfig: Loading raw config

[forbescw]

looking forward to an update that fixes this problem.

[below]

I have the same problem. My setup:

Host: OS X 10.7.1, VMWare Fusion 4.1.0

Guest: Ubuntu 10.04, installed from the installation .iso, after the host was upgraded.

VMWare Fusion gives me some error message that it could not activate the share folders, the German message is: "Freigabestatus für Laufzeitordner kann nicht aktualisiert werden. VMWare Tools werden auf dem Gast nicht ausgeführt" (Something like "Sharing status für Runtime-Folder can not be updated. VMWare Tools are not running in the Guest).

However, VMWare Tools  8.8.1 are running in the guest. In this thread I saw someone running 8.9, shouldl I upgrade? If so, where do I get that upgrade?

Thanks

Alex