I used to set guests on VirtualBox direct access to the shared directory on the host pretty easy. But not so for KVM Windows guest now on openSUSE. I found out that KVM Windows 10 guest can’t have direct access to shared directories on host as stated in the section 11.5 share directories between host and guests. It looks like sharing directories between Windows guest and host can only be implemented via network protocols like samba, etc. for KVM VMs. Just wonder if there’re some detailed instructions regarding setting up this type of protocols such as samba for sharing directories between Windows guest and the host on openSUSE Leap? Preferably in step by step graphic instructions.
Yeah,
I noticed relatively recently that something happened in Windows 10,
Shared Folders doesn’t seem to work in any virtualization I’ve tried for Windows 10 guests.
This problem is not specific to KVM.
I haven’t had the time to search the Internet,
But the quick search I did turns of up nothing.
Not too surprisingly, even with both Guest and HostOS set to the same workgroup name, neither can see the other without external name resolution help.
TSU
Windows 10 guest on VirtualBox does have direct access to the shared directory on host, at least on ubuntu host as used previously on my laptop. I haven’t tried VirtualBox on openSUSE Leap 15.0 yet.
OK,
I looked into this a bit deeper just now and am pretty sure I’ve pinpointed the problem and the solution (untried on any other virtualization except for VMware).
Scope:
This affects <all> virtualization, regardless whether you’ve seen the problem on your system or not.
If you haven’t see this problem already, it’s probably only due to not yet upgrading your Windows with an update that re-writes an essential Registry key to its default, if you run your Guest long enough you will likely see this problem which has apparently happened at least twice in the last 3 years.
Technical Details:
If you execute a major Windows upgrade (particularly Windows 10) typically using Windows Update, the following Registry will be set with the following default settings. For Shared Folders to work, the Data key should prepend the Provider used by your virtualization to expose Shared Folders to the Windows Guest
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\NetworkProvider\OrderName: ProviderOrder
Type: REG_SZ
Data: "RDPNP, LanmanWorkstation,webclient"
Solution:
So, for example the above data key should prepend “vmhgfs” to the data key if this is a VMware machine but should be something else for other virtualization technologies…
But simply modifying the registry key might still not fix the problem properly, the <best> way that applies to all virtualization is to simply re-install the Guest Tools/Additions/Drivers as appropriate for your virtualization.
So, for VMware, that means simply re-installing VMware Tools using the provided Tools ISO in your VMware application.
In Virtualbox, it means re-installing your VMware Additions, either by force re-installing the package from your OSS or downloaded from the Oracle Virtualbox website as appropriate (sometimes both are the same, but generally you should install the Additions consistently with how you installed Virtualbox).
For KVM, it’s a bit more convoluted. I don’t know If there is an easier way provided by openSUSE, but the following are the KvM instructions which should work
https://www.linux-kvm.org/page/WindowsGuestDrivers/Building_the_drivers
More info if the above link isn’t enough
https://www.linux-kvm.org/page/WindowsGuestDrivers
HTH,
TSU
I gave up on KVM/Xen and back to use VirtualBox for its easy access to the shared directory on the host. It’s pretty much useless for desktop users on VM without easy access to shared directory on the host.