Member Avatar for GoldFinger

I have recently installed VMWare Workstation 4 on my local PC.

My host OS is Win XP (Pro) and my guest OS is Lunux (Read Hat 7.2).

I would llike to transfer files from my host OS to my guest OS - VMWare says this can be easily accomplished with 'drag and drop'. Please see

Where do I drag and drop the files to?

This is really bugging me and ruining a perfectly beautiful rainy Saturday morning in the pacific north-west.

Am I a complete dolt that I dont understand the instruct6ions? The manual says it is easy to do - but, unless I am a complete buffoon, it does not say which destination folder I can 'drag and drop'file to.

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Short answer for : drag from Windows Explorer into the guest’s GUI and drop it where you want it to live — e.g., onto the guest Desktop or into an open folder window. If you drop onto an application (or into some file dialogs) the guest will often open a temporary copy first; on Linux that temporary area is /tmp/VMwareDnD, so use “Save As” or move the file from that temp folder to your home directory.

To inspect the temp area:

ls -l /tmp/VMwareDnD

(See the vmblock/manual notes about the VMwareDnD temp area and how DnD is implemented.) (manpages.org)

Why drag-and-drop may not work: the guest must have VMware Tools (or open-vm-tools/open-vm-tools-desktop) installed and running, and Linux guests need an X session for the GUI DnD features. The usual install flow is “VM -> Install VMware Tools” (mount the tools ISO inside the guest), extract and run the installer (vmware-install.pl / vmware-config-tools.pl). If kernel modules fail to build you’ll need the guest’s development tools and kernel headers so vmhgfs/vmblock can be compiled. ()

If you want a more reliable share (recommended for many workflows) enable Shared Folders in the VM options and access them in the guest under /mnt/hgfs. If they do not auto-mount, you can mount them manually:

sudo vmhgfs-fuse .host:/ /mnt/hgfs -o allow_other
ls /mnt/hgfs

(Official guidance on HGFS and mounting is in the VMware KB.) (kb.vmware.com)

Quick troubleshooting checklist: confirm VMware Tools / vmware-user is running, check VM settings -> Options -> Guest Isolation (Enable drag and drop / copy and paste) or the vmx isolation.* flags, ensure /tmp/VMwareDnD exists with mode 1777, reboot the guest if needed. If DnD keeps failing, use a shared folder, SCP/SFTP, or a temporary ISO as a fallback. As suggested, network sharing is a fine option; is correct that Samba works independently of the host filesystem. (woshub.com)

References: VMware Workstation manual (drag-and-drop requirements), VMware KB on enabling HGFS (KB 74650), vmblock man page (vmblock(9)).

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Member Avatar for Eduardo

Firt of all,

Think about the opposite schema.

To put your RH as your OS and instal the VMWare over it, so the XP after that.

It's my case, Mandrake, VMWare and Win2k.

Basicly the content copied on one side can be pasted on another.

To change from one side to another I use the default HotKey (ctrl+alt).

For files transfer, the best is to use SAMBA. But, remeber that NTFS is ready only for samba. One alternative is to create a Fat32 partition on win side to allow file transfers.

Good Luck,

Eduardo

Member Avatar for alc6379

For files transfer, the best is to use SAMBA. But, remeber that NTFS is ready only for samba. One alternative is to create a Fat32 partition on win side to allow file transfers.

I'd have to agree with the first sentence of this statement, but not with the rest of it.

If you're running Linux and Windows, regardless of which one is host and which one is guest, your best bet is to set up the guest OS with a virtual network adapter and run SAMBA. That way, you would just treat it like you have two machines on a network. Additionally, when you're working with SAMBA, it's irrelevant which filesystem the OS has that you're copying files to. If you're copying from the Linux system to the Windows system, it will work just fine whether the Windows system is running NTFS or FAT.

I should know-- I'm constantly copying files between *nix boxen and Win2k servers running NTFS!

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