VirtualBox shared folder hangs on read in guest OS
In my case the following has helped:
- update to Virtual Box 4.3.8 r92456,
- reinstallation of VirtualBox Guest Additions from virtual CD (not from apt repository),
- reboot of virtual machine.
System information:
- Host: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit,
- Guest: Linux Mint 16 Petra 32-bit.
VirtualBox 4.3 has been released. It doesn't show up in the update check from VirtualBox. I've just resolved this issue for myself by installing from the VirtualBox site and updating the version of Guest Additions installed on the VM.
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
So the problem is with symbolic links to the shared folder. It turns out that these are a security risk. See source.
My solution is to delete the symbolic link and navigate to the mount point (/media/sf_MyUserName). This also allows me to sort in directories within the shared folder.
This issue still exists on a fresh install of VirtualBox 5.0.0 on Win 7 with fresh upgrade to debian 8 (Jessie) as a guest.
On my configuration, the issue exhibits when I click on the shared folder from Dolphin. Dolphin is fine with any other directory, however, on clicking on the shared drive, Dolphin freezes.
This issue first appeared on my machine in Debian 7 (wheezy) on VirtualBox 4.3.3. I googled, fixed it somewhat, but cannot remember what I did several months ago. I say it was somewhat fixed because if I tried to sort any directory in the shared folder, Dolphin would freeze. The problem reappeared when I upgraded to deb 8. Any attempt to navigate to the shared drive caused Dolphin to freeze. I upgraded to VirtualBox 5.0.0.0 with the extension pack, but this did not help.
After some time investigating, I have found the problem. The issue only arises if I click on the "sf_MyUserName" symbolic link that VirtualBox created. However, if I go through the file system where the shared folder is mounted (/media/sf_MyUserName) Dolphin has no problem.