vboxsf

Utility for Android to mount VirtualBox shared folders

Theory

To access a shared folder, a guest OS must have:

1. The vboxsf and vboxguest drivers from guest additions.
2. Utility (mount.vboxsf) to mount shared folders. Sources are available on the http://www.virtualbox.org. The src directory of this project contains a port of the mount.vboxsf utility for Android.
3. Some glue to mount shared folders on boot. For marshmallow this can be done by patching the init.rc script. The vboxsf.sh script mounts shared folders at the /mnt/media_rw/vboxsf directory on a guest.

Prerequisits

1. Download android_x86 sources from http://www.android-x86.org.
2. Download VBoxGuestAdditions.iso from https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/. If VirtualBox is installed the iso image is located in the /usr/share/virtualbox directory.
3. Install 7z package.

Build android_x86.iso with VirtualBox shared folders and mouse integration support

1. Copy guest additions sources to the android-x86 tree.

$ ./scripts/guest-copy VBoxGuestAdditions.iso android-x86

2. For marshmallow apply patch from patches/marshmallow (not needed for nougat)

$ patch -p1 < path/to/this/project/patches/marshmallow/mount-vbox-shared-folders.patch

3. Apply mouse integration patch (for both marshmallow and nougat)

$ patch -p1 < path/to/this/project/patches/mouse-integration.patch

4. Build android_x86.iso image (see http://www.android_x86.org for instructions).
5. Done!

Scripts to build iso image with additions for Android

1. Extract guest drivers sources from VBoxGuestAdditions.iso. Sources will be placed in the work directory.

$ ./scripts/guest-extract VBoxGuestAdditions.iso

2. Create iso image

$ ./scripts/guest-build android-x86

Notes

1. Shared folder name must be vboxsf. Edit file vboxsf.sh if another name is used.
2. Shared folder mount point is /mnt/media_rf_vboxsf directory. Edit file vboxsf.sh to change mount point.

Todo

• port the mount.vboxsf utility for Android
• scripts to extract and build guest drivers from VBoxGuestAdditions.iso
• add mount.vboxsf to VBoxGuestAdditionsAndroid.iso
• mouse integration
• query VirtualBox for a list of configured shared folders

Links

• Build guest drivers https://github.com/coyun/android-virtualbox/issues/18
• Mouse integration https://github.com/coyun/android-virtualbox/issues/2
• Building AOSP 7.x Nougat https://github.com/mikecriggs/fuckjack, http://www.2net.co.uk/blog/jack-server.html