I have a Windows 10 laptop, and I am running VirtualBox. One of my virtual machines has Ubuntu 14.04 64 bit operating system. Now, I want to be able to share folders from my Ubuntu to Windows 10 and vice versa. I’m assuming that you have installed the Ubuntu virtual machine already and ready to set up the shared folder.
Step 1) Make a folder to be shared on your Windows 10 host operating system.
I’ll create a folder called shared on my Windows 10 Desktop.
I’ll put a bunch of stuff inside the shared folder to be used by the Ubuntu virtual machine.
Step 2) Make sure that you have an empty optical drive for your virtual machine.
Step 3) Boot your Ubuntu virtual machine. Go to Devices tab and click Insert Guest Additions CD image…
Step 4) Open up a terminal and install the Guest Additions CD.
We make a directory to mount the Guest Additions CD. The Guest Additions CD contains a file system type that we need to use.
sudo mkdir /media/cdrom
Now, we can mount the Guest Additions CD to the /media/cdrom folder.
sudo mount /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom mount: block device /dev/sr0 is write-protected, mounting read-only
We should install necessary packages if they have not already been installed.
sudo apt-get install make gcc linux-headers-$(uname -r)
Now, we can install and run the Guest Additions CD.
sudo /media/cdrom/VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
Step 5) Click on the Devices tab and click Shared Folder Settings… and integrate the Windows 10 shared folder.
Hit the add shared folder button.
Click on the Folder Path list and find your shared folder on Windows 10. I checked off Read-only, Auto-mount, and Make Permanent. Hit OK.
Step 6) Create a shared folder on Ubuntu virtual machine and mount the shared folder.
You make a directory on the Ubuntu virtual machine that will act as Ubuntu’s shared folder.
mkdir ~/shared-windows10
We mount the shared folder on Windows 10 to the ~/shared-windows10 folder.
sudo mount -t vboxsf shared ~/shared-windows10
shared was the name of the Windows 10 shared folder, and I called the Ubuntu shared folder, ~/shared-windows10, to differentiate between the two.
Step 7) Change directory into the shared folder and see all the shared files.
cd ~/shared-windows10 ls
Huzzah! The shared folder is great for transferring files from Windows 10 to the Ubuntu virtual machine and vice versa.
I set the shared folder to Read-only, but you can uncheck the box in the Shared Folder Settings…
