I

The Issue

I installed Vagrant on Windows 10 so I can create a personal local development environment in a virtual machine. Everything I've read about Vagrant said I can even spin up multiple systems and test communication between them with NAT port forwarding. But first, I just want to get one development environment virtual machine created before I go too far with the rest of it.

I installed VirtualBox, Vagrant, PuTTy, and PuTTYGen, per this SitePoint tutorial: https://www.sitepoint.com/getting-started-vagrant-windows/. Next I created a vagrant project folder on C: drive, did vagrant init, deleted the Vagrantfile, and finally, vagrant init ubuntu/trusty64. Then I did vagrant up, but the process failed with the error:

Vagrant was unable to mount VirtualBox shared folders. This is usually because the filesystem "vboxsf" is not available. This filesystem is made available via the VirtualBox Guest Additions and kernel module. Please verify that these guest additions are properly installed in the guest. This is not a bug in Vagrant and is usually caused by a faulty Vagrant box. For context, the command attempted was:

mount -t vboxsf -o uid=1000,gid=1000 vagrant /vagrant

The error output from the command was:

: No such file or directory

Here's a screenshot of my Windows command line:

And here's a text version:

C:\vagrant\sitepoint-test-2017-02-05>vagrant up
Bringing machine 'default' up with 'virtualbox' provider...
==> default: Importing base box 'ubuntu/trusty64'...
==> default: Matching MAC address for NAT networking...
==> default: Checking if box 'ubuntu/trusty64' is up to date...
==> default: A newer version of the box 'ubuntu/trusty64' is available! You currently
==> default: have version '20160602.0.0'. The latest is version '20170202.0.0'. Run
==> default: `vagrant box update` to update.
==> default: Setting the name of the VM: sitepoint-test-2017-02-05_default_1486399403587_55255
==> default: Clearing any previously set forwarded ports...
==> default: Clearing any previously set network interfaces...
==> default: Preparing network interfaces based on configuration...
    default: Adapter 1: nat
==> default: Forwarding ports...
    default: 22 (guest) => 2222 (host) (adapter 1)
==> default: Booting VM...
==> default: Waiting for machine to boot. This may take a few minutes...
    default: SSH address: 127.0.0.1:2222
    default: SSH username: vagrant
    default: SSH auth method: private key
    default: Warning: Remote connection disconnect. Retrying...
    default:
    default: Vagrant insecure key detected. Vagrant will automatically replace
    default: this with a newly generated keypair for better security.
    default:
    default: Inserting generated public key within guest...
    default: Removing insecure key from the guest if it's present...
    default: Key inserted! Disconnecting and reconnecting using new SSH key...
==> default: Machine booted and ready!
==> default: Checking for guest additions in VM...
==> default: Mounting shared folders...
    default: /vagrant => C:/vagrant/sitepoint-test-2017-02-05
Vagrant was unable to mount VirtualBox shared folders. This is usually
because the filesystem "vboxsf" is not available. This filesystem is
made available via the VirtualBox Guest Additions and kernel module.
Please verify that these guest additions are properly installed in the
guest. This is not a bug in Vagrant and is usually caused by a faulty
Vagrant box. For context, the command attempted was:

mount -t vboxsf -o uid=1000,gid=1000 vagrant /vagrant

The error output from the command was:

: No such file or directory

My Setup

OS: Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.14393]
VirtualBox Version: 4.3.10 r93012
GuestAdditions Version: ???
Vagrant Version: 1.9.1 (Latest)
PuTTy Version: 0.67
PuTTYGen Version: 0.67

Plugins & Extensions Installed

Vagrant:
- vagrant-share (1.1.6, system)
- vagrant-vbguest (0.13.0)

What I tried already

This post seemed the most promising in my research.

Unfortunately, none of the solutions offered, nor any of the links provided solved the issue. I've tried a bunch of stuff already, but I'm not a system admin (which, I'm guessing is the skillset that you'd need to troubleshoot this). It was particularly troubling that many of the "solutions" from 2013/2014, are more recently indicated as not working any more. These solutions talk about something to do with symlinks not working, installing plugins like vagrant-vbguest, and something about vbox additions not matching something. I don't really understand all of that, but I tried my best. Here is what I tried already that hasn't solved it yet:

vagrant plugin install vagrant-vbguest. Vagrant shows the plugin as installed, but I get the same error on vagrant up.
List of links I read in researching this issue that provided no working solution.
- Vagrant unable to mount in Linux guest with VirtualBox Guest Additions on Windows 7
- Vagrant - How can I mount the virtualbox shared folder? ("vboxsf" not available)
- https://github.com/mitchellh/vagrant/issues/3341#issuecomment-144271026
- https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/12879 (This VirtualBox ticket is referenced by posters in some of the other listed links. Unfortuantely, this ticket doesn't fix the issue. It's not fixed and is still broken ... OR ... perhaps this ticket is related, but slightly differerent than the issue I and others are still experiencing).
- https://gist.github.com/fernandoaleman/5083680
- VAGRANT SHARED FOLDERS DO NOT MOUNT - Windows 7 - Vagrant 1.7.4 - Ubuntu 12.04 precise64 - VirtualBox 5.0.10 with Guest Additions

My Questions

I suspect the issue is with VirtualBox, not Vagrant. Is this true?
How can I fix this so I can continue with the tutorial?
There seems to have been a drastic drop in Vagrant questions answered on Stack Overflow since around 2014. What is the reason for this? Is Vagrant/VirtualBox no longer considered "best practice"? Is there a better solution so users are ignoring the Vagrant questions?

Again, I'm not a system administrator, but I am technically savvy and can follow technical directions.

Iver answered 6/2, 2017 at 17:57 Comment(2)

Hey Eric, have you found any solution? My friend experienced this problem too and I'm helping him to find the solution, but none of what I've found worked for him. – Sherrer 14/3, 2017 at 4:2

@softtama Best and the easiest solution is downgrade virtualbox to 5.1.14. Related to issue github.com/mitchellh/vagrant/issues/8352 – Odontoblast 14/3, 2017 at 13:49

M

8

This problem is solved in VirtualBox 5.1.18.

Megargee answered 21/3, 2017 at 11:59 Comment(9)

This problem seems disappeared when I upgrade to 5.1.18 from 5.1.16. – Incogitable 3/4, 2017 at 19:43

I love the detailed answers that others gave, however, this one was the simplest and it worked. Unfortunately, it indicates that there was an issue that apparently wasn't well-known until shortly after I posted this question. Does that mean that no newbie has been able to install VirtualBox + Guest Additions for the past 3 years (since 2014 at least) due to this issue, or is it only an issue on VirtualBox on Windows? – Iver 20/4, 2017 at 17:18

Unfortunately this problem reappeared just now when I upgraded from 5.1.18 to 5.1.20 – Fossorial 22/4, 2017 at 12:12

@SzczepanHołyszewski same here on 5.1.24 – Chrestomathy 26/7, 2017 at 0:12

For me it also appeared with 5.1.20 again - but now there´s VirtualBox 5.2.0 out! Upgrade fixed it again for me. Eric Hepperle - CodeSlayer2010 - if you need a complete example for a working multi-machine-setup with Windows AND Linux, check out the first parts of this article blog.codecentric.de/en/2017/09/… (paragraph "A multi-machine Windows & Linux mixed OS Vagrant setup for Docker Swarm"). – Glendoraglendower 17/11, 2017 at 9:27

Seems to have reappeared in v5.2.2 of VirtualBox so don't upgrade – Skat 14/12, 2017 at 4:27

Virtual Box v5.2.8 still has this problem – Marcenemarcescent 19/3, 2018 at 9:33

This also has issues with v5.2.26. Regression issue I would say. – Billposter 12/3, 2019 at 14:16

It seems to have reappeared in VirtualBox-6.0.12-133076-Win – Brute 27/9, 2019 at 13:36

Y

29

vagrant plugin install vagrant-vbguest

This didn't work for me, it seems to be incompatible with vagrant 1.9.2, I uninstalled the latest version of virtual box (5.1.16) and installed version 5.1.12 with the latest version of vagrant 1.9.2 and homestead and it works for me.

Yearling answered 10/3, 2017 at 11:32 Comment(4)

This worked for me☺ ! I have Vagrant 1.9.2 and Virtual Box 5.1.16r113841 – Lacteous 12/3, 2017 at 19:31

yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssss. – Classics 14/3, 2017 at 22:32

Yes! Thank you so much. This worked with Virtual box 5.1.22 and Vagrant 1.9.4 – Mastitis 11/5, 2017 at 16:41

Worked for me as well: Vagrant 1.9.5 and VirtualBox 5.1.22. – Tortoiseshell 17/6, 2017 at 21:27

R

28

You can downgrade VirtualBox or edit the line in the file:

On my setup this was Line 206 of:

C:\HashiCorp\Vagrant\embedded\gems\gems\vagrant-1.9.2\lib\vagrant\util\platform.rb

on my host machine.

I did this and it worked fine on Windows 10! I would like to add what I did with line 206:

Before edit: "\\?\" + path.gsub("/", "\")

After edit: path.gsub("/", "\")

Ronnaronnholm answered 10/3, 2017 at 10:51 Comment(4)

It is a solution until they fix it there github.com/mitchellh/vagrant/issues/8352 – Apelles 10/3, 2017 at 15:18

Updated everything: virtual box, vagrant (1.9.2), Guest Addition 5.1.16, the above method works. Note that you have to put a double backslash to escape the above line after edit. – Eozoic 11/3, 2017 at 0:53

This took me three days now to figure out. Thanks a lot for sharing this - it should be accepted as the correct answer (if it fixes the problem @Eric as well)! – Lipocaic 13/3, 2017 at 23:37

this worked for me in windows 7 x64, using vagrant 1.9.2, virtualbox 5.1.16.! thanks! – Achromat 14/3, 2017 at 13:20

S

13

Guest Additions is incompatible with the version of VirtualBox. Autoupdating VirtualBox Guest Additions will solve probably related issue:

vagrant plugin install vagrant-vbguest

I exprerienced this issue with these stack:

Windows 10
Oracle VirtualBox 5.1.16
Vagrant 1.9.2
config.vm.box = "hashicorp/precise64"

Scutate answered 9/3, 2017 at 13:25 Comment(8)

For which vagrant boxes did you try it? With the same setup as you, for me the automatic update of the virtualbox guest additions does not solve the issue when using ubuntu/xenial64 as vagrant box. It seems like that the vbox guest additions have some problems with the UNC encoded path vagrant uses for the shared folder. vbox version 5.1.14 works fine. Thanks in advance! – Soutane 9/3, 2017 at 16:10

Thanks for your reply @JosephStar. I have already done that update prior to posting my question, to no avail. My situation is similar to what @lootr is describing, except my in Ubuntu Server 14 LTS something. Still waiting on a good solution ... surprised nobody else has reported this issue yet... – Iver 9/3, 2017 at 16:37

Thanks, using 5.1.14 was the only thing that fixed the issue for me. – Merow 9/3, 2017 at 20:58

Same issue. Downgrading from 5.1.16 to 5.1.14 fixed things. Thanks @Mr_CryptoPrime! – Loris 10/3, 2017 at 3:27

@EricHepperle-CodeSlayer2010 There is now a vagrant issue for this at github github.com/mitchellh/vagrant/issues/8352 – Soutane 10/3, 2017 at 6:7

Cool. I will attempt the downgrade and report back. – Iver 15/3, 2017 at 20:47

it worked for me when installing laravel (5.4) Homestead on vagrant version-1.9.7. On win-10 with folders type NTFS in Homestead.yaml – Sanatorium 5/8, 2017 at 8:29

Thanks for this one. I'm using Vagrant 1.9.5 and Virtual Box 5.1.28 (although this started happening with 5.1.20). I went through a lot of stuff before finding this. – Rola 22/9, 2017 at 2:50

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8

There can be multiple cause :

The version of the guest addition is not matching the version of VirtualBox, for this you can update the version of the guest addition by running vagrant plugin install vagrant-vbguest
You hit a bug of vagrant with NFS on Windows : should be fixed so maybe try to update to the latest release of Vagrant and VirtualBox
In this github issue https://github.com/fideloper/Vaprobash/issues/92, there is two thing that you can test : use the winnfsd plugin (https://github.com/winnfsd/vagrant-winnfsd) or try to configure the default mount with no NFS

I had the same issue, and it was just the guest addition that was not up-to-date ...

UDPATE : The bug on Vagrant with NFS on Windows (point 2) has been fixed in version 5.1.18, re-appears in version 5.1.20 and is fixed again in version 5.2.

Nasty answered 8/2, 2017 at 10:56 Comment(4)

Thanks for your answer. I don't know if I will get to it this week, but I will report back and let you know if it worked. – Iver 10/2, 2017 at 17:52

Try to disable vbox guest additions at all and up vagrant again. Edit "Vagrantfile": 1) machine.vm.synced_folder '.', '/vagrant', type: user_config.vagrant_mount_method, disabled: true 2) config.vbguest.auto_update = false Or here you can see how to compile guest additions manually: #28329275 – Levon 15/2, 2017 at 15:36

in my case I needed both vagrant plugin install vagrant-vbguest and vagrant plugin install vagrant-winnfsd – Shornick 6/1, 2018 at 18:19

@Shornick Installing vagrant-winffsd fixed my issue as well! – Nomarch 9/3, 2018 at 21:36