VirtualBox 4.04 is out

It's not something I need to be able to do. I was just fooling around the other night and couldn't quite figure it out. But I didn't try too hard. I came across, online, an old DOS program I used a hundred years ago. dosemu ran it great, except the (PC speaker) sound effects didn't work. I was going to try to run it in VirtualBox, and see if the sfx worked under it. But I couldn't figure out how to import the file. :shrug:

and an osx host -- so you'll have to vary for a windows host or guest

It wasn't terribly hard last time I did this, but there was some one-time preliminary hoop-jumping. IIRC, it went somewhat as follows

First, install the Guest Additions
by clicking Devices >> Install Guest Additions
then running the appropriate program from the mounted guest additions disk

Then, add the appropriate host folder to the Shared Folders for the virtual machine:
click Settings >> Shared Folders &c&c

On the host machine, set sharing permissions for that folder, so you actually have access to it

Also add a folder to the guest machine where the shared host folder will be mounted

After going through the above one-time hoop-jumping, you still need to ensure that the host folder gets mounted when you need it. For me, something like the following worked:
http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=15868#

Unfortunately, I can't double-check the above with any of my current virtual machines for various reasons (my ubuntu 11.04 beta doesn't support guest additions, my remastersys custom disk installation doesn't support guest additions, &c&c). Some details may depend on your version of virtual box

I did something like the above for a while, about a year ago, but for most purposes I find the following alternative more convenient: just use a USB stick to transport files between the guest and host. I find a mounted USB claimed by the host can be claimed by guest if dismounted from the host and conversely. You may want to check Settings >> Ports >> USB and add the stick there; you may need to click the USB icon at the bottom of the individual virtual machine screen and be sure that the particular stick is ticked. Then I just drag my host file to the USB stick, eject the stick from the host, claim the stick in the guest, and copy the file to the guest file system. Usually I have no problem mindlessly going back and forth this way, though now and then something might bork

Here's another option I haven't tried http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Sharing_files_on_OSE

Hopefully I'll get a chance to try it out soon. Thanks especially for suggesting the mem stick. I don't know why I didn't think of that.

I tried this with osx host and ubuntu guest:

Go to the guest settings, choose Shared Folders, click the little +-folder-icon and add the host directory there. Remember the name assigned to the share (say "ShareName") Check the AutoMount box and back out

When starting the guest, I now find the share mounted under /media/ShareName. It inconveniently belongs to root. But operating as root I have access to the files

I still don't quite have the following alternative method working:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VirtualBox/SharedFolders

(1) Go to the guest settings, choose Shared Folders, click the little +-folder-icon and add the host directory there. Remember the name assigned to the share (say "ShareName") Check the AutoMount box and back out

(2)(a) When starting the guest, I now find the share mounted under /media/ShareName. The share inconveniently belongs to root, but it ALSO belongs to the vboxsf group.
(2)(b) So I add my name to vboxsf group: System >> Administration >> Users and Groups >> Manage Groups >> <select from list> vboxsf >> Properties >> <add username to list>

(3) Gotta reboot

Now I have access to the share mounted under /media/ShareName without fancy contortions

it became available in another one

I have another Debian machine using gnome desktop. The share was mounted there too: only had to add my name to vboxsf group as above and reboot to use it

I'm sorry that I'm so late responding. I'm usually a regular reader of this forum, but I must have missed some time.

I haven't really processed all your information yet, but I hope to.

Turns out that Ubuntu kills the pc speaker on boot. From what I've read, you have to jump through loops, and change a bunch of settings, in scripts all over the place.

I figured my speaker was okay, since the BIOS squeaked each time, a little bit. I've been meaning to do Linux From Scratch again.

Thanks for all the help!

(say debian itself or ubuntu) on my AAO, the sound is muted by default and I have to go through the menubar menus to turn on the sound

When I run virtualbox in an OSX host and install ubuntu as guest, sound works immediately

But rather the crude little speaker that (I think) is still built into most desktops. The one that the BIOS sends the "beep codes" to, and the one that old DOS programs like Stereo Shell used to use for sound effects.

Winamp works great in a Windows guest on an Ubuntu host, but when I try to use an old DOS program that expects to use the old PC speaker, it still works great, just without sound.

Overall it's probably better for the pc speaker to be disabled, like it seems to be in Ubuntu. It just can be annoying in very specific circumstances. :)

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1490771

Seems it screws up the other speakers' output, though