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In VirtualBox, Ubuntu guest, Windows 7 host, I click this "Auto-mount" box, but it doesn't seem to have any effect. I have to edit fstab to get it to mount. So what is it for?
endolith
Posted 2011-03-02T14:55:27.920
Reputation: 6 626
What does "auto-mount" do in VirtualBox shared folder setup?
Answers
37
Make sure that the additions are installed, and that you have added your username as a member of the vboxsf group (sudo usermod -aG vboxsf <your username>).
Then you need at least to log out (or reboot) for the change to take effect.
Erwin
Posted 2011-03-02T14:55:27.920
Reputation: 1 246
You may also invoke "newgrp vboxsf" to make the addition to vboxsf effective for the current terminal. – ElazarR – 2015-12-03T12:29:30.983
1Thanks, worked perfectly. Isn't this something that the installer of the guest additions should do? – Gigo – 2016-05-31T00:42:23.850
15
In Ubuntu this should auto-mount shared folders under /media/sf_share_name. I've had permissions issues with the auto-mounts and still use the fstab.
John Lyon
Posted 2011-03-02T14:55:27.920
Reputation: 288
1I had the same permissions issue. Then I have noticed the answer of @private_meta (below) that refers to the vboxsf group. Following his comment, all you have to do is add your user to vboxsf group:
$ sudo adduser <your username> vboxsf . Then you would have access to the auto-mounts under /media/sf_share_name/ . You may have to "newgrp vboxsf" to make the addition to vboxsf group effective in your current terminal. – ElazarR – 2015-12-03T12:25:29.233
In CentOS it does absolutely nothing. – Dissident Rage – 2017-05-05T19:10:12.707
11
You can find information on that in the VirtualBox Manual,
http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04.html#sf_mount_auto
Maybe your user is not in the vboxsf user group, maybe you didn't look correctly where to find it. Are you sure you installed the latest guest additions?
You can check all that, but you can refer to the manual for details if it helps.
private_meta
Posted 2011-03-02T14:55:27.920
Reputation: 2 204
3There is no vboxsf group. I added it, but it didn't seem to change anything. – endolith – 2011-03-02T15:42:21.703
1@endolith Have you installed the Guest Additions in your Ubuntu guest? The auto-mount (and really the shared folders feature in general) won't work without them. – Goyuix – 2011-03-02T16:37:06.347
1@Goyuix: Yes, virtualbox-ose-guest-utils virtualbox-ose-guest-dkms virtualbox-ose-guest-x11 are all installed. I wouldn't be able to mount from vboxsf at all, otherwise, would I? – endolith – 2011-03-02T20:29:07.743
what does this automount means? and why its better to have it on? – Amir – 2017-07-20T22:39:31.847
@Amir if you don't have auto-mount on then you have to manually run the mount command yourself. which is fairly cryptic for vbox shares – Shanteva – 2018-01-05T16:04:05.547