LabVIEW crash when calling project in VM

[cirrusio]

@billko wrote:
I wouldn't be so sure.  Have you tried pausing the syncing and then open LabVIEW?  

Sorry - that wasn't clear. Yesyesyesyes - this code is always in a Dropbox folder.  The ONLY time I have issues is when the Dropbox folder is a shared folder.

@billko wrote:
Pausing the syncing does wonders for when you're sure Dropbox is interfering but you don't know exactly how.  When you're done with LabVIEW, unpause it and everything update.  IMHO this is a dangerous way to operate.  I believe that the safer way to share source code is with something like SVN.

Two things - use git not svn.  Second, I would recommend NOT using repositories as a backup.  I use Dropbox because I work across several different computers (including several different VMs on a single computer) and I don't want to have to be constantly duplicating or checking the code out.  If I were to check in code every time I shutdown for an evening or switched to a different machine, my repository would be cluttered with meaningless versions.  From a philosophical perspective, I believe that each check-in should 1) work and 2) be associated with an issue raised.  

But that is tangential, so I will reiterate the problem - working on a Dropbox folder dedicated to a VM results in no issues.  Working on a Dropbox folder shared between the client and host of the VM creates a situation where I can not open a project.

[dan_u]

How do you share the folder between client and host? We had issues when using the Virtualbox shared folders (e.g. project could not be saved), but everything was working properly when working with network shares (as was already mentioned in a previous post).

[cirrusio]

Maybe it is the host system that is not liking the shared folders (I run different flavors of linux)?  As far as sharing - I simply go to Settings->Shared Folders and select the folder that I want to share on the host.  I make sure that I have full access and the folder is always auto-mounted.

[dan_u · Accepted solution]

That's my point... the built-in sharing of VirtualBox did not work for us with LabVIEW. We then created a network share on the host machine and mounted it in the guest. That worked.

[cirrusio]

OK - will give this a try.  Did you share using samba?

[dan_u]

Yes. We're working with Windows machines only, we used the built-in sharing feature, which afaik uses SMB (Samba).

[cirrusio]

OK - this is unlikely to work then.  When you create a network share (in Windows and in Linux), you will access that share using the address.  For VirtualBox, this will be VBOXSVR so it will look like this - \\VBOXSVR\Dropbox.  This is no different than accessing it via the shared folders feature of VBox...

[dan_u]

For us it did make a difference. You can also try connecting to the share using the machine name or IP address.

[cirrusio]

Ooooooohhhhh...that worked!  Awesome!  Thanks a lot.

So for those running a Linux host and want to use a network share you will need samba.  On Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install samba

Then you will need to add a user and password 

sudo smbpasswd -a <username>

This will prompt you for a password.  Then you will have to edit the conf file for samba in /etc/samba/smb.conf adding the folder you want to share.  It should look something like this (I am sharing my Dropbox folder in my home directory):

[Dropbox]
path = /home/mrichardson/Dropbox
available = yes
valid users = mrichardson
read only = no
browsable = yes
public = yes
writable = yes

Finally, on the host side you will need to restart the service:

sudo service smbd restart

Then on the VM side, you will add the share - it will be \\<host-address>\Dropbox.  You will be prompted for your user name and password and VIOLA! you have access.  

I wish I could kudo this response like a hundred times.  This reduces a lot of headaches for me and reduces a lot of wasted space.  I will respond here if I run into any other issues.

[dan_u]

Glad to hear it helped. I agree it doesn't sound too promising and I can't explain why it makes a difference, but well, as long as it helps