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Notes for Virtual Machines

Tips, hints, and tricks when working with Virtual Machines

Last update: 2022-06-29

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Unlike Virtual Box, VMWare does not automatically mount shared folders. Here are steps to make it work at system startup:

Make sure the mounting target folder exists. If not:

sudo mkdir /mnt/hgfs

Edit /etc/fstab and add:

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

Then remount:

sudo mount -a

A faster way, but be carefull of the redirection syntax: must use >> to append a new line:

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/hgfs && \
sudo bash -c 'echo \
    "vmhgfs-fuse /mnt/hgfs fuse defaults,allow_other 0 0" \
    >> /etc/fstab'

This is for mounting Samba shared-folder in Linux.

Install necessary packages:

sudo apt install -y \
    smbclient \
    cifs-utils

Then use smbclient to probe sharing points:

smbclient -L //<ip>

Create a mount point:

sudo mkdir -p /media/SharedFolder

Then mount:

sudo mount -t cifs \
    -o user=<username>,pass=<password>,uid=<uid>,gid=<gid> \
    //<ip>/<share_point> \
    <mount_point>

Run id to see ID of user and groups of the current user.

Install build kernel modules:

sudo apt install -y dkms build-essential linux-headers-generic linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Insert Guest Additions CD Images and mount it:

sudo mkdir - /media/cdrom
sudo mount /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom

Change to the sudo account and run the build script:

./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

VirtualBox Guest Additions functions only works in GUI desktop!

Install zerofree in the virtual machine
Boot into Recovery mode

Press ESC while boot up to see Grub menu.
Select Advanced options → (recovery mode) → root.
Press Enter afterwards when Press Enter for maintenance appears on your screen. You’ll be given a terminal prompt.
Run zerofree on the target disk, such as /dev/sda2:
```
zerofree -v /dev/sda2
```
Error: filesystem is mounted rw

Remount system in ro mode, and run zerofree again:
```
echo "u" > /proc/sysrq-trigger
zerofree -v /dev/sda2
```
Shutdown the machine
```
poweroff
```

Compress the disk file

VBoxManage modifyhd --compact /path/to/VDI/VM.vdi