I manage a handful of small websites and have recently switched from Windows to Mint. I was using PortableApps to keep the sites separated, and for the moment want to do the same. I’ve set up VirtualBox with a cut down Windows 10 installation, and added the root folder of the websites as a shared folder, so Websites/Site1, Websites/Site2 etc. The root folder is still on an NTFS drive.

So far, everything works, except I can’t run the PortableApps suite from the shared folder in VirtualBox. PortableApps runs and updates, but the apps don’t work properly. Thunderbird is ok but has random glitches, Firefox launches but sites don’t load, and Chrome instantly closes. If I copy the folder for the individual site into the virtual machine though, it works perfectly.

I’m assuming that it’s a permissions problem, as the NTFS drive is owned by me but is in the root group, but copying the files to the virtual machine copies them to the vboxuser group, which I’m a member of. The fstab entry for the drive is:

UUID=BAB4BFE2B4BF9EF7 /mnt/Storage ntfs defaults,uid=tippon 0 2

but from what I can gather, it should have my UID and GID instead. The examples and questions I’ve found online have some extra details at the end with no explanation though, like dmask=022, fmask=133, and I don’t want to risk editing my fstab without understanding them.

So, to finally get to the question, if I replace uid=tippon with uid=1000,gid=1000 (my user and group), would that let me access the files from within VirtualBox, as well as whichever other programs I might want to use, and would it break anything?

  • Björn@swg-empire.de
    3·
    1 day ago

    KDE’s Activities could help you. They are basically completely different desktop layouts and open programs for different tasks. You could set up one for each website with a different Firefox and Thunderbird profile and desktop wallpaper and other things.

    • Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
      2·
      2 hours ago

      That could work really well then, especially as I’m looking to change distros. Mint is great, but it’s got a few issues that are getting in my way now.

      Thank you :)

      • Björn@swg-empire.de
        2·
        2 hours ago

        BTW, in general you can change your desktop environment without switching the distro. They just often come with a default. But installing another is usually one command away and then you can choose at the login screen.

        • Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
          2·
          1 hour ago

          I did look at changing the DE, but apparently KDE doesn’t work well with Mint. I want to change distros anyway though, as some of the problems I’m having are from the outdated repos. I’ve only been on Mint properly for a few months, but have had to manually install a few programs already