Ubuntu – Windows Host Shared Folder in Ubuntu 20.04

shared-foldersvmware

I have used VMWare Workstation 15.5 running on Windows 10 Pro to create a VM for Ubuntu 20.04. I cannot access the shared folder in Ubuntu.

What I have done so far:

Created a shared folder called "Share" in the Windows 10 Host
Given read/write permission to Everyone
Added the Share folder in VMware VM Settings page and chose Always Enabled

When I turn my Ubunut 20.04 VM on, I cannot see the Share folder. vmware-hgfsclient shows that there is a folder called Share. However, cd /mnt is empty.

How can I get Ubuntu 20.04 to mount the Share folder and then access it?

I am a newbie so please be gentle.

Thanking eveyone in advance for any assistance provided.

sujayv_au

Best Answer

This answer is similar to the one posted by @user1099476 but will apply at boot.

Edit /etc/fstab and add:

vmhgfs-fuse    /mnt/hgfs    fuse    defaults,allow_other    0    0

Make sure the target folder exists. If not:

sudo mkdir /mnt/hgfs

Then remount:

sudo mount -a

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Ubuntu – How to make the Ubuntu show on a Windows Workgroup

Did you add yourself to samba users?

You can try this GUI to configure it: system-config-samba

I did this to configure mine:

Preferences > Server settings > Basic: input your Workgroup

Preferences > Server settings > Security: Authentication Mode=User, Guest Account=No Guest Account

Preferences > Samba Users > Add user:

Choose a Linux account (the one Samba will use when accessing the shared files. Usually, you want to choose yourself.)
Type in a user name and a password (does not have to be a real windows account or password, its just the input that Ubuntu will ask when someone tries to access the share. It can be "aaa" / "bbb")

So, basically, sharing folders involves two different authentications: first, the one that SAMBA, via SMB protocol, asks for from anyone that tries to access a share. That's step 2 above. Then, after Samba grants that person rights to access the share, Samba itself will need OS authorization to access to the filesystem and its files (the Linux owner-group-world security model). For that, Samba uses the user selected in step 1 above. So any folder (and files) you share must be accessible, inside Linux, by the user selected.

In the Windows world it works the same: there's the share authentication and the NTFS one.

Last but not least: whatever user you select (usually yourself), make sure that it has the Share Files with the Network privilege in Administration > Users and Groups > Advanced Settings button > Privileges tab. I think Ubuntu already grants this privilege to the first user it creates, but it doesn't hurt to check it out.

Also, to share folders, I don't use this GUI, I use Nautilus:

Right-click the folder you want to share
Select "Sharing Options"
Give the share a name, and select read/write or anonymous access

Hope that works for you too!

Ubuntu – Why don’t shared files show up in HGFS

I had this exact problem. It turned out IT had installed some old version of VMWare tools with non-functioning vmhgfs kernel module.

My solution was to run the configuration with the clobber-kernel-modules setting to overwrite the existing vmhgfs module.

 sudo vmware-config-tools.pl -d --clobber-kernel-modules=vmhgfs

The -d selects all the defaults for you (remove it if you don't want the defaults).

Best Answer

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Ubuntu – How to make the Ubuntu show on a Windows Workgroup

Ubuntu – Why don’t shared files show up in HGFS

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