Arch Linux

Papa Echo

Member

Registered: 2017-07-25

Posts: 23

VirtualBox Shared Folder not mounting: unknown filesystem type »vboxsf

I have tried to downgrade the guest additions in an Arch Linux VirtualBox Guest.

pacman -Rs virtualbox-guest-utils
pacman -Rs virtualbox-guest-modules-arch
cd /var/cache/pacman/pkg
pacman -U virtualbox-guest-modules-arch-6.0.14-9-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U virtualbox-guest-utils-6.0.14-4-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz

After the downgrade when I try to mount the shared folder with:

sudo mount -t vboxsf D_DRIVE /home/papa/d

I see the following message: mount: unknown filesystem type »vboxsf«.

Before the downgrade the shared folders had worked. Meanwhile I tried to go back to the old guest additions, but I also get the error message with the unknown filesystem type »vboxsf«.

Does anyone have an explanation for this? How can I fix it?

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 18,859

Re: VirtualBox Shared Folder not mounting: unknown filesystem type »vboxsf

What are you trying to achieve with the partial update?  Did you downgrade the kernel to match virtualbox-guest-modules-arch 6.0.14-9?

Papa Echo

Member

Registered: 2017-07-25

Posts: 23

Re: VirtualBox Shared Folder not mounting: unknown filesystem type »vboxsf

The recent VirtualBox version 6.1.6 has a serious bug. It is in the guest additions of 6.1.6. Version 6.1.4 also does not work, because copy and paste is broken. I want to go back to 6.1.2 or 6.0.14. I did not change the kernel.

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 18,859

Re: VirtualBox Shared Folder not mounting: unknown filesystem type »vboxsf

virtualbox-guest-modules-arch 6.0.14-9 was built for linux 5.3.2.arch1-1 and will not work with other kernel versions.
You could try virtualbox-guest-modules-dkms 6.0.14-4 from the ALA.  Has the issue been reported on the arch bug tracker or upstream?

Papa Echo

Member

Registered: 2017-07-25

Posts: 23

Re: VirtualBox Shared Folder not mounting: unknown filesystem type »vboxsf

My Linux is 5.5.8 and 5.6.? on another VM. Where do I find the information about guest modules and matching kernel?
I did not report anything right now, because I want to make sure that I did everything right, first.

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 18,859

Re: VirtualBox Shared Folder not mounting: unknown filesystem type »vboxsf

You could normally check the packages info on the arch website -> changes link -> find the version you are checking and for kernel module updates the commit message should include the kernel version the package is being updated for.  As virtualbox-guest-modules-arch has been dropped from the repositories due to the modules now being shipped by the 5.6 kernel that  method can not be used.  You can check the .BUILDINFO extracted from the package archive.

$ bsdtar -xf ~/Downloads/virtualbox-guest-modules-arch-6.0.12-9-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz 
$ grep linux .BUILDINFO 
installed = archlinux-keyring-20190827-1-any
installed = libutil-linux-2.34-3-x86_64
installed = linux-5.3.2.arch1-1-x86_64
installed = linux-api-headers-5.3.1-1-any
installed = linux-firmware-20190923.417a9c6-1-any
installed = linux-headers-5.3.2.arch1-1-x86_64
installed = util-linux-2.34-3-x86_64

With 5.6 you may have a clash with the modules shipped by the kernel package.
Edit:
You can use dmesg and or lsmod to see if a module is loaded,  modinfo to see information on if a module is available for a kernel,  modprobe to manually load a module.  See commands man pages / Kernel_module for more details.

Last edited by loqs (2020-05-11 22:15:16)

Papa Echo

Member

Registered: 2017-07-25

Posts: 23

Re: VirtualBox Shared Folder not mounting: unknown filesystem type »vboxsf

Hi loqs, thank you very much. You have helped me a lot and I have learned something.
I have installed the two guest modules in version 6.1.4, again and my error message "mount: unknown filesystem type »vboxsf«." was gone. I can access my shared folders again. Unfortunately the VirtualBox 6.1.4 version has a bug with copy & paste between host <=> guest.

I don't know what is going on with Oracle and VirtualBox. The 6.1.x version is a whole mess if you use Arch Linux in a virtual machine (VM).
6.1.0 was unusable.
6.1.2 (I didn't try it)
6.1.4 The huge bug with copy and paste.
6.1.6 xfce desktop does not work. It is unusable.

I really hope that the next version fixes some problems.

Papa Echo

Member

Registered: 2017-07-25

Posts: 23

Re: VirtualBox Shared Folder not mounting: unknown filesystem type »vboxsf

Hi loqs, thank you very much. You have helped me a lot and I have learned something.
I have installed the two guest modules in version 6.1.4, again and my error message "mount: unknown filesystem type »vboxsf«." was gone. I can access my shared folders again. Unfortunately the VirtualBox 6.1.4 version has a bug with copy & paste between host <=> guest.

I don't know what is going on with Oracle and VirtualBox. The 6.1.x version is a whole mess if you use Arch Linux in a virtual machine (VM).
6.1.0 was unusable.
6.1.2 (I didn't try it)
6.1.4 The huge bug with copy and paste.
6.1.6 xfce desktop does not work. It is unusable.

I really hope that the next version fixes some problems.

WFV

Member

From: ☭USSA⛧⭒⭒⭒⭒

Registered: 2013-04-23

Posts: 290

Re: VirtualBox Shared Folder not mounting: unknown filesystem type »vboxsf

What is your host?
I'm running VirtualBox Arch guest on Arch host, both Xfce without any issues with shares in both Shared Folders and fstab (guest).
An update some time ago changed Shares (6.1?) which i think is why i added them to fstab, i don't recall. Copy-paste works.
Guest:

core-testing/linux 5.6.12.arch1-1 [installed]
community-testing/virtualbox-guest-utils 6.1.6-1 [installed]

Host:

core/linux 5.6.11.arch1-1 [installed]
community/libvirt 5.10.0-3 [installed]
community/virtualbox 6.1.6-1 [installed]
community/virtualbox-ext-vnc 6.1.6-1 [installed]
community/virtualbox-guest-iso 6.1.6-1 [installed] #not for Arch guest, used for other guests
community/virtualbox-host-modules-arch 6.1.6-10 [installed]
AUR/virtualbox-ext-oracle 6.1.6-1 [installed]

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∞ hard times make the strong, the strong make good times, good times make the weak, the weak make hard times ∞

Papa Echo

Member

Registered: 2017-07-25

Posts: 23

Re: VirtualBox Shared Folder not mounting: unknown filesystem type »vboxsf

My host is Windows 10.
Shares were changed in 2018 from the Linux side when a part was moved to the kernel and just recently with VirtualBox 6.1.6 when another part was moved to the kernel.
I have updated a copy of one VM to 6.1.6 and Linux 5.6.x and it didn't work at all.