Sharing a folder between Vista Host and a Ubuntu Guest

So to share a folder between the two OS (note the OS host and guest), first go to Devices->Share folders and then share the folder you want from your windows system. And then give it a name. Note the name that you give it as this becomes your sharing_name.

Next thing you do is go back to your Ubuntu guest OS, and then open a terminal. Then make a directory somewhere to share as your mounting point. With a command like this:

mkdir /mount_point_name

Then go into the folder and then type this command:

mount -t vboxsf sharing_name .

The sharing_name is simply the name of the sharing folder you specified earlier when you were in Devices->Share Folders

VirtualBox

I've been recently getting into virtual machines for work and for school. Mainly because I needed a solution to the problem that a lot of Bioinformatic (what I study for those who don't know) programs run on linux machines. I've grown up using windows and still quite a novice at linux as I only really started using it a year ago. Previously, I had a setup a dual boot on my PC running Vista and Ubuntu. However that didn't work so well because I always had to restart my machine just to get into Ubuntu or vice versa.

And thanks to a client who requested I test out some webpages in IE6 which I couldn't because I had Vista which comes with IE7 pre-installed (for those who don't know, you can't downgrade IE7 to IE6). I had to resort to a virtual machine to install windows XP just so I could test out the site in IE6. Frustrating!

Anyways, most virtual wares are quite expensive except for one: Virtualbox which is free! And it is a great piece of software too supporting many host OS and guest OS. I got it installed and setting up my guest OS was a breeze thanks to a very simple wizard.

When installing the Ubuntu guest OS, I took a Ubuntu LiveCD (I had previously burned this) and popped it in and followed the wizard. During the installation it got stuck at 82% saying it was configuring apts for a good like 15 minutes. I thought it had hanged on me, but it finally it got passed it. I noticed the network adapter was running so it was using the internet to search for applications? Not sure what would happen if the network adaptor was disconnected. In any case, it took a while so you should be prepared to wait a while too when installing.

A better idea is to actually download the latest version of Ubuntu as an iso onto your host machine. And then when you first start your guest os it will ask how you want to install it. You can then choose the CD-ROM and mount an image onto and install from there.

After installing, it would be wise to get the "guest additions" as this improves like mouse handling and the resolution. You can this by going to:

Devices ->Install Guest Additions

And then you should use an image on the desktop which means it has been mounted into the CD rom. And then open up a terminal and type:

sudo /media/cdrom/VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run

It will do some setup and then once it is done restart the virtual machine and you'll use the changes instantly!

Thank you Virtualbox!

Update:

I've found that when you run the ubuntu update, it will end up nullifying the guest additions. And then when you try to re-install the guest additions, it will complain about linux-headers build-essentials needing to be updated.

The way to solve this: sudo aptitude install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`

Where `-uname -r` is the version of the linux kernel. Apparently, you can just enter uname -r and it will enter the linux kernel version number for you. But I couldn't get it to work. So I ended up using entering uname -r in the terminal to get the version number displayed and then manually entering that into the command. So it ended up being something like this:

sudo aptitude install build-essential linux-headers-2.6.11-generic (something like that). And should install everything you need. And then try to re-install your guest additions and it should work.

Update on Dell Laptop External Sleep Problem

So I did some more testing, and I found out my theory about the laptop going into "unfriendly sleep mode" only happens the second time was false. I can't produce a reliable pattern, it just seems to sometimes go into a sleep mode, and then sometimes the display just turns off yet everything is still functionally.

I spent almost 3 hours on the phone with Dell technical support in hopes they could help me. Trying to explain to them the phenomenon of the laptop going into this mysterious "sleep" mode and avoiding it when music is playing was longest part. Over and over again I had to explain to them my situation. In any case, nothing worked. The technician even tried to flash my BIOS, and the scariest part was I was supposed to wait for my laptop to shut down and this would flash it...but it never shut down. When I told the technician I think he was worried out of his mind that he was screwed up my laptop. Flashing your bios is something dangerous and can really screw things up. So I had to manually turn my laptop off...for like the 500th time. And it booted up fine (whew), but when I tried to shut down it THEN tried to flash my bios only it failed with this message about how it couldn't update because it couldn't find the ROM file???

God...the technician then said he would go to bring this to Microsoft because it was clearly a Vista operating system problem. I don't know what is going on anymore. All I fricking want is for my laptop to go into this nice like energy saving mode when I don't use it for awhile. Back in the XP days, I think my laptop always went into this standby mode which was nice and all I had to do was press the power button once and everything came back. But after reading this article
it appears that Microsoft has replaced this with their new feature "sleep" (the same bloody feature I am pulling my hair out about).

Apparently sleep is a combination of standby and hibernate. The computer will go into standby for the first while, and then after awhile it goes into hibernate. Sounds good. Except it DOESN'T WORK.

I hate computers!!!