MS Word will not write to a VMware Shared Folder

[bobcal2008]

I'm running openSuse 11.1 with Kernel 2.6.27.29.01-default x86_64 as my Host OS for VMware workstation 6.5.3. The shared folder is on a 400GB Linux volume formated with FAT, 300GB free.

The Guest is MS Windows XP Pro SP3 and MS Office 2003 (11.8307) SP3. The guest OS has 3072GB of RAM, the system has 12GB

I can't write (save or save as) to the VMWare Shared folder from MS Word, just Word, Excel works fine. The error says "The save failed due to out of memery or disk space) see attached. I can copy a MS Word file to VMWare Shared folder with MS Windows explorer. I had VMware Workstation 6.5.2 and it did the same thing, I just upgraded to 6.5.3.

This is crazy. Does anyone have any ideas?

[Scissor]

I know this isn't the answer you are looking for, but VMware Shared Folders have all sorts of issues. Best to figure out a different way to share files (perhaps set up Samba on your Linux host?)

Also, just curious why are you using FAT for such a large disk? Next time you rebuild your system, consider looking into using a Journaled filesystem like NTFS or whatever the Linux equivalent is.

[jokke]

I can also confirm that vmware shared folders very often is a bad solution.

In many cases a regular network mapped share will solve the write-issue (as long as the guest can read the filesystem).

Joakim

[bobcal2008]

Thanks!

The reason for the FAT volume is, I could not figure out how to format a NTFS volume on openSUSE, it is not a choice in YaST. If you know please tell me.

If I can ask a few questions about Samba:

1 - I need Linux and MS Windows guests to use the files. WIll Samba allow this?

2 - I install it on the Host OS, correct?

3 - If I change the volume to say ext3, can I point Samba to it? Windows guests will read the files through Samba, not from the volume, correct?

4 - Do you know a easy to follow installation guide for Samba, on openSUSE 11.1?

5 - If server goes on the openSUSE 11.1 Host, is there a client to install on the guests, or can the guests just see the Samba server?

[Scissor · Accepted solution]

Thanks!

The reason for the FAT volume is, I could not figure out how to format a NTFS volume on openSUSE, it is not a choice in YaST. If you know please tell me.

I remembered one reason for a FAT volume would be if this is an external hard drive that you want to easily move between Windows and Linux physical machines. Other than that using a journaled file system would be preferrable.

Since you're running linux on your Host you would not want to use NTFS. You would want to use whatever your favorite linux filesystem is.

If I can ask a few questions about Samba:

1 - I need Linux and MS Windows guests to use the files. WIll Samba allow this?

Yes. Samba is a linux port of the MS Windows file sharing protocol (also knows as CIFS).

2 - I install it on the Host OS, correct?

Yes. Well, actually you install the Samba server on your Linux server that has the large drive attached to it, and you install the Samba client on any linux machines that you want to access the server over the network. Windows machines have built in support for talking to Samba servers.

3 - If I change the volume to say ext3, can I point Samba to it? Windows guests will read the files through Samba, not from the volume, correct?

Only the Server machine needs to be able to understand the filesystem on the volume. Clients connecting to the server will access the files on the volume via the CIFS protocol.

4 - Do you know a easy to follow installation guide for Samba, on openSUSE 11.1?

No sorry. It's been a few years since I set up a Samba server.

5 - If server goes on the openSUSE 11.1 Host, is there a client to install on the guests, or can the guests just see the Samba server?

Many (most) Linux installs these days already include the samba package in the base install. I think the client is called "smbclient". If your linux system does not have Samba installed already, most linux distrubutions include Samba in their Packages systems.

[Scissor]

Of course, it might be easier to continue to use VMware Shared Folders. Save your Word document to the Desktop of your Windows Guest, and then copy it to the VMware Shared Folder using Windows Explorer. Kind of a hokey workaround, but hey if it works for you...

[bobcal2008]

Thank you very much for answering my questions! I'm going to try Samba this weekend. As for the VMware shared folders work-around, I'm already doing that, kind of defeats the purpose. Wish me luck!

Again Thanks!