Arch Linux

Ralf

Member

From: Ruhrgebiet

Registered: 2013-03-15

Posts: 88

VM that provides sharing a folder rw wanted

Hi,

I share a folder on an ext3 partition with an Arch host and a XP VBox guest, rw for both at the same time.

I wanted to switch to virt-manager (qemu, kvm) with a Win 7 guest.

IIUC it's impossible to share the same folder rw by the host and guest at the same time, when not using VBox. Is this correct?

A network protocol to share files isn't an option. I don't want to disable and enable too many services/daemons all the times, since this machine is also used for real-time audio. Is there an alternative to VBox that allows simply to share an existing folder on an ext3 partition with a Windows guest?

Regards,
Ralf

Last edited by Ralf (2015-10-13 20:45:00)

nixpunk

Member

Registered: 2009-11-23

Posts: 271

Re: VM that provides sharing a folder rw wanted

Why not just continue to use VirtualBox if it meets your needs?

Ralf

Member

From: Ruhrgebiet

Registered: 2013-03-15

Posts: 88

Re: VM that provides sharing a folder rw wanted

Why not just continue to use VirtualBox if it meets your needs?

I did not claim that it fits to my needs, just because it provides the wanted shared folder.

Every version of vbox > 4.3.12 I tested has got broken USB support. Most users don't notice this USB issues, however, on my machine it's impossible to update iOS on an iPad by iTunes running on the guest, when using vbox > 4.3.12. Sharing data with an iPad, or using an USB mouse works.

Maintaining 4.3.12 is annoying. DKMS doesn't build vbox modules for new kernels and vbox 4.3.12, so there's the need to keep an old kernel that OTOH doesn't fit very good to the current version of systemd-nspawn. It also needs an older version of libvpx, so I need to provide the current version and the needed older version of libvpx.

Last edited by Ralf (2015-10-13 22:18:51)

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 14,885

Re: VM that provides sharing a folder rw wanted

VirtFS  might be what you're looking for, but wiki.qemu.org appears to be down.

Last edited by Lone_Wolf (2015-10-14 13:06:13)

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Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

Ralf

Member

From: Ruhrgebiet

Registered: 2013-03-15

Posts: 88

Re: VM that provides sharing a folder rw wanted

Thank you,

unfortunately I already read it before you mentioned it. The Wiki explains how to mount the shared folder on a Linux guest, but not how to mount it on a Windows guest. Regarding other websites I read it's not available for Windows.

Regards,
Ralf

ayekat

Member

Registered: 2011-01-17

Posts: 1,632

Re: VM that provides sharing a folder rw wanted

Otherwise there is -net user,smb=... for providing SAMBA to the guest - although this requires installling a SAMBA server on the host... and I guess it falls into the category of "network sharing isn't an option".

Last edited by ayekat (2015-10-14 14:19:38)

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pkgs │ hacks │ cfg │ blag

Ralf

Member

From: Ruhrgebiet

Registered: 2013-03-15

Posts: 88

Re: VM that provides sharing a folder rw wanted

Thank you,

I could enable and disable everything needed by the Linux host on demand by a script, so this shouldn't be an issue, but I want to use an existing directory on an ext3 partition. The file system, file and directory permissions, owners and groups of the dirs and files should be kept. IOW it is a regular Linux partition and nothing should change for this partition and the dirs and files on it. The Linux host needs to be able to use it as it is, if the guest is running or not. Assumed I want to access files by the host using Thunar, I want to be able to do it without having gvfs installed. If the Windows guest is running, nothing should change for the Linux host and the guest should be able to access the dirs and files too.

Actually I don't understand how Samba works. Is it possible to share a regular Linux folder with the guest by keeping owner and group and permissions the way they are, still be able to access them by the host without gvfs or similar? I definitively can not allow gvfs to run on my machine, even not temporarily, because it wakes up green drives, that should stay asleep.

OTOH it doesn't matter what's running on the Windows guest, as long as it's easy to set up on Windows and doesn't cause issues for the Windows guest and/or the Arch host.

Regards,
Ralf

Last edited by Ralf (2015-10-14 15:26:26)

nixpunk

Member

Registered: 2009-11-23

Posts: 271

Re: VM that provides sharing a folder rw wanted

Why not just continue to use VirtualBox if it meets your needs?

I did not claim that it fits to my needs, just because it provides the wanted shared folder.

Every version of vbox > 4.3.12 I tested has got broken USB support. Most users don't notice this USB issues, however, on my machine it's impossible to update iOS on an iPad by iTunes running on the guest, when using vbox > 4.3.12. Sharing data with an iPad, or using an USB mouse works.

Maintaining 4.3.12 is annoying. DKMS doesn't build vbox modules for new kernels and vbox 4.3.12, so there's the need to keep an old kernel that OTOH doesn't fit very good to the current version of systemd-nspawn. It also needs an older version of libvpx, so I need to provide the current version and the needed older version of libvpx.

Fair enough.  I did write "if", not "since". 

And with at least QEMU I believe the only working option will be to share directories via a virtual LAN.  I know libvirt is available on Windows, and it includes features like storage management, but I've never seen it configured in such a way to meet your needs.

Ralf

Member

From: Ruhrgebiet

Registered: 2013-03-15

Posts: 88

Re: VM that provides sharing a folder rw wanted

Thank you,

at the moment I plan to continue using VirtualBox . I upgraded to the current version and will use it to share my audio sessions between Linux, by the Windows guest running iTunes and an iPad.

To upgrade iOS I not necessarily need iTunes on the Windows guest anymore. I can do it directly, since I own a wlan router. A while back I had no router and ad-hoc or a hotspot didn't work, so the USB connection with virtualbox was needed for iOS updates too. As already pointed out, I experienced issues when I tried to update iOS by an USB connection.

Perhaps there's an image format that can be used with kvm and virtualbox. Until now I used vdi, but I can use something else for the new guest. I wonder if it's possible to test kvm with an image that can be used with virtualbox too. Regarding a quick Internet research RAW format might be usable with both.

Regards,
Ralf