Enabling shared folders in a OpenSUSE virtual machine reports the error: There was an error mounting Shared Folders file system inside the guest operating system

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• When enabling shared folders in a OpenSUSE virtual machine, you see the error:
  
  Unable to update run-time folder sharing status: There was an error mounting Shared Folders file system inside the guest operating system
   
• After enabling the shred folder feature, the /mnt/hgfs/ folder is not mounted in the OpenSUSE virtual machine

Environment

VMware Player 7.x (Windows)
VMware Player 4.x (Linux)
VMware Player 5.x (Windows)
VMware Fusion 8.x
VMware Workstation 10.x (Windows)
VMware Player 6.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 9.x (Linux)
VMware Fusion 4.x
VMware Player 5.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 10.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 8.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation Pro 14.x (for Linux)
VMware Workstation 8.x (Windows)
VMware Player Pro 7.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 11.x (for Windows)
VMware Workstation 11.x (for Linux)
VMware Workstation Pro 14.x (for Windows)
VMware Player 4.x (Windows)
VMware Fusion 7.x
VMware Workstation Pro 15.x (Windows)
VMware Player 6.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 9.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation Pro 15.x (Linux)
VMware Fusion 5.x
VMware Fusion 6.x
VMware Fusion Pro 8.x
VMware Player 7.x (Linux)
VMware Player Pro 7.x (Windows)

Resolution

To resolve the issue:

1. Open a Terminal window in the guest operating system.
2. Get the current kernel version using this command:
   
   uname - r
    
3. Download and install the correct kernel-desktop-devel packages from http://software.opensuse.org/package/kernel-desktop-devel.
4. Reboot the virtual machine.
5. Reinstall VMware Tools. For more infromation, see Installing VMware Tools in a Linux virtual machine using a Compiler (1018414) or run the /usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl script from a Terminal window.
6. Reboot the virtual machine.

Note: If there are compiling errors while re-installing VMware Tools or while running /usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl script, downgrade the kernel version to the one in the OpenSUSE Installation ISO/Disk and then install the proper kernel-desktop-devel packages.

 

After successful completion of the preceding steps, the vmhgfs module should be compiled and loaded and Shared Folders can be enabled without any issues.

Additional Information

Installing VMware Tools in a Linux virtual machine using a Compiler