Sharing folder from Windows Host to Freebsd Guest

Question

First of all, let me say that though I use Linux (Red Hat, at work) regularly, I am a complete beginner when it comes to actually administrating it.

What I am trying to accomplish:

• I have (at home) a PC with Windows 7 installed
• I would like to run a Unix in Virtual Box, because I am more used to developing / scripting on it

I settled on Freebsd at the moment, and I managed to install it and configure the network. The next step is sharing a folder from Windows to Freebsd so that I can easily edit files on Windows and on Freebsd both. Unfortunately it seems a though thing to do.

I rummaged on the net and found two different ways:

• mounting a vboxsf
• using samba

I installed the guest additions in freebsd using pkg_add -r virtualbox-ose-additions, the install proceeded switfly enough, and I edited /etc/rc.conf to add the two suggested lines: vboxguest_enable="YES" and vboxservice_enable="YES" and rebooted.

It did not work. The command to mount the system ends up in an error:

# mount -t vboxsf shared /home/myuser/shared
mount: shared : Operation not supported by device

where shared is the name of the folder I setup in my virtual box settings for this VM.

Is it actually possible to use a vboxsf filesystem type in freebsd ? Some comments seem to suggest it is not supported but finding up-to-date information is difficult.

Next, I moved on to the samba approach. I basically followed the guide I linked it. Unfortunately it ends up with:

# mount_smbfs -N -I 192.168.56.1 //winuser@winmachinename/Shared /mnt/shared
mount_smbfs: unable to open connection: syserr = RPC struct is bad

where Shared is the name of the shared folder I configured with windows, accessible to the winuser obviously. The ping works.

I would like to note that I have no password on the windows guest account I am trying to connect at, it seemed easier, but perhaps that it's bothering samba somehow.

edit: working from PuTTY I had not seen that some messages were printed in the console:

smb_maperror: Unmapped error 3:31
smb_co_lock: recursive lock for object 1

both appear several times. /end of edit

If the direct filesytem sharing does not work, any idea how to get samba to do it ? The article suggest it's already be done by some at least.

Technical information:

• Host: Windows 7 Familial Edition (up-to-date)
• Guest: FreeBSD 9.0-RELEASE #0: Tue Jan 3 07:15:25 UTC 2012 root@obrian.cse.buffalo.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC i386
• Virtual Box: 4.1.16 r78094

I am open to new suggestions to sharing as well. I would if possible prefer avoiding transferring files back and forth: it's not particularly efficient and always a source of confusing errors.

I am also open to changing systems. I like the philosophy of freebsd, but if it does not work, I have no qualms about moving to a linux.

EDIT:

This question is now purely of theoretical interest. I switch to using Ubuntu Server and managed to set it up without samba since vboxsf is well supported.

Answer 1

I was fighting the same problem. A couple things on the Windows side allowed me to finally get mount_smbfs working in FreeBSD 9.0:

• Enable anonymous access for the system

Network and Sharing Center → Change Advanced Sharing Settings → Turn off password protected sharing

• Enable anonymous access on the folder via Simple Sharing

Properties → Sharing → Share... → Add 'Everyone'

In the Sharing properties there are two ways to create the share; Simple Sharing and Advanced Sharing. I was using Advanced Sharing, and for some reason I don't really care about at this point, that did not work; I re-added the share through Simple Sharing and then mount/smbclient finally worked.

Verifying that anonymous login works with smbclient:

[root@fileserv ~]# smbclient -N -I 192.168.56.1 '\\twblamer-pc\share'
Domain=[TWBLAMER-PC] OS=[Windows 7 Professional 7601 Service Pack 1] Server=[Windows 7 Professional 6.1]
smb: \> dir
  .                                  DR        0  Thu Dec 13 04:33:09 2012
  ..                                 DR        0  Thu Dec 13 04:33:09 2012
  mydirectory                         D        0  Thu Dec 13 01:55:45 2012

Answer 2

Ensure that you have configured sharing on the windows folder to the user you wish to use to share on freebsd.

I like to add the following to /etc/hosts for ease of use.

<ip address of server>  vboxhost
eg.
192.168.56.1    vboxhost

First test mounting the folder:

mount_smbfs -I vboxhost //username@nameofwindowsbox/foldername /mnt

If this is correct you be prompted for the windows-user password.

To make it mount on boot add the following to /etc/fstab

//username@nameofwindowsbox/foldername  /mnt smbfs  rw,noauto  0 0

It should be mounted everytime you boot

If you don't want to be prompted for password add this in /etc/nsmb.conf:

[default]
[NAMEOFWINDOWSBOX]              
addr=<ip address of host>
[NAMEOFWINDOWSBOX:USERNAME]
password=<myPassword>