How do I share a folder in virt-manager

https://libvirt.org/kbase/virtiofs.html

12

https://virtio-fs.gitlab.io/

7

Thats the best answer. The other option is to use Spice, which will require installing the qemu guest agent on the guest OS.

4

Not sure, I usually mount a network share that is accessible from both machines.

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I use fedora btw

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When I exchange files between host and guest, I usually just go to the directory I want to share and run python3 -m http.server

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Sharing a folder in virt-manager was a something. This is for Linux on Linux only. Didn't use a virtual manager for a while now, but I have notes how to do it. I think there are two ways, one with virtiofs and the other way with virtio-9p if the guest doesn't support virtiofs? I honestly forgot the details, so you might need to research a bit again. I'm relatively new to Virt-Manager and Qemu+Kvm, and don't understand every detail. It was a challenge to figure out all of this. My notes:

Host

First create a directory on your host system (the real machine outside of virtual machine). This folder will be shared:

mkdir /home/tuncay/Public/vm_share/
chmod 777 /home/tuncay/Public/vm_share/

In the Virt-Manager for your Linux guest, set following settings first.

either

virtiofs:


    Virt-Manager:
    Add Hardware > Filesystem
        - Driver: virtiofs
        - Source: /home/tuncay/Public/vm_share
        - Target: share

or

virtio-9p:

    Virt-Manager:
    Add Hardware > Filesystem
        - Driver: virtio-9p
        - Source: /home/tuncay/Public/vm_share
        - Target: /share

Then go and start the guest virtual machine. In the guest execute following commands, depending on which previous settings you have. Just create a folder in the virtual machine and mount it with virtiofs. Here this means "share" is the target (we set previously under - Target: /share) and "home/tuncay/Public" is the folder you want to use IN THE guest. The "share" name will then be connected to Virt-Manager, which in previous settings resolves to - Source: /home/tuncay/Public/vm_share on your real machine.

virtiofs:

Either mount the drive every time you start the guest, or you can just mount it in /etc/fstab automatically, like in bottom example.

    Guest:
    mkdir /home/tuncay/Public/
    sudo mount -t virtiofs share /home/tuncay/Public

    ... or Guest /etc/fstab:
    share   /home/tuncay/Public       virtiofs        defaults        0       0

or use virtio-9p, but this one does not work with fstab and the command is slightly more complicated. You can write a script and save it in the guest. Either autorun the script or just when you need it by demand.

virtio-9p:

    Guest:
    mkdir /home/tuncay/Public/
    sudo mount -t 9p -otrans=virtio,rw,version=9p2000.L /share /home/tuncay/Public

1