Shared Folders do not work with MS-Office 2003 (Access/Excel/Word) -> Fixed

[Christian d'Heureuse]

When I try to open an Access 2003 MDB file on a shared folder, I get the error message "too many active users". When I try to open an Access 2003 ADP file, the error message is "This file is not in the correct format for a Microsoft Office Access project."

When I try to save an Excel 2003 XLS file, the error message is "Microsoft Office Excel cannot open or save any more documents because there is not enough available memory or disk space."

When I try to save a Word 2003 DOC file, the error message is "Word cannot complete the operation because too many files are open."

When I use normal Windows networking ("net use n: \10.0.2.2\sharename"), the errors do not occur. I used normal Windows networking since a long time with Virtualbox without any problems. But I cannot use normal Windows networking in this VM, because I have to use a Cisco VPN client which forbids local LAN access (The "Centralized Protection Policy" forbids split-tunneling).

(I already checked that I have the newest guest additions (VBoxMRXNP.dll and VBoxSF.sys are version 2.0.4.0). I tried to stop the Webclient service and I tried the new VBoxSF.sys version from ​http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/2461).

[sunlover]

MS Office works here with shared folders, so more information about your system is required.

Is the shared folder mapped to a drive letter in the guest or is it accessed via an UNC \vboxsrv\path?

What are exact versions of the host and guest Windows? Is it XP or Vista? Which SP?

Also the VBox.log with reproduced problem is necessary. Please attach it to this ticket.

[Christian d'Heureuse]

Is the shared folder mapped to a drive letter in the guest or is it accessed via an UNC \vboxsrv\path?

The same errors occur whether the shared folder is mapped to a drive letter or accessed via UNC.

What are exact versions of the host and guest Windows?

Both (host and guest) are WinXP SP2.

[Christian d'Heureuse]

vbox.log

[sunlover]

Thanks for the info. In the log I see that root directories of host drives are mounted as shared folders. Could you try to mount a host directory ('c:\some_directory' instead of 'c:\') as a shared folder and attach the new VBox.log? Do errors still happen then?

[Christian d'Heureuse]

vbox.log with non-root folder shared

[Christian d'Heureuse]

In the log I see that root directories of host drives are mounted as shared folders. Could you try to mount a host directory ('c:\some_directory' instead of 'c:\') as a shared folder and attach the new VBox.log? Do errors still happen then?

Yes the error also occurs when i use a subfolder.

[Christian d'Heureuse]

I tested with other configurations:

Host: WinXP SP2
Client: WinXP SP2, Office 2000 SP4
Result: Same errors

Host: WinXP SP2
Client: WinXP SP2, Office 2007 SP1
Result: Excel&Word work, Access has same errors

Host: WinXP SP2
Client: Windows Vista SP0, Office 2003 SP3
Result: Same errors. (Word seems to block endlessly while trying to open a *.DOC file. Windows Explorer crashed once when I tried to open the shared folder.)

[Christian d'Heureuse]

I used Filemon (from Sysinternals.com) within the Guest to analyze the problem.

When Excel 2003 opens an XLS file, it first locks and unlocks some byte ranges within the XLS file with length 20. Then it tries to lock single bytes within these previously locked/unlocked ranges. During these single byte locks, a FILE LOCK CONFLICT occurs which is wrong.

[Christian d'Heureuse]

The same thing happens with Access 2003:

After opening the MDB file, access locks and unlocks a range of 256 bytes within the file. Then it tries to lock single bytes within that range and that fails with FILE LOCK CONFLICT. After 5100 such failed single byte lock attempts, it gives up and displays the error "Too many active users".

[Christian d'Heureuse]

Note on using Filemon with shared folders in the guest OS (WinXP):

Problem: Filemon does not display the drive letter of the mapped shared folder drive in the Volumes menu and the shared folder is not logged by default.

Solution: The following method can be used to log the file operations on the shared folder:

1. Select menu Volume / All Volumes and click Continue/OK at the popups that follow.

2. Deselect all volumes in the Volume menu and execute Edit / Clear Display.

Now Filemon is ready to log the operations on the shared folder.

[sunlover]

The information you provided is very helpful. Thanks! We will look at the problem.

[sunlover]

The problem with Access 2007 has been fixed in the attached VBoxSharedFolders.dll. Could you please verify and also try the dll with Office 2003 applications? The dll should be copied to the VirtualBox installation directory on the host.

[Christian d'Heureuse]

With the new DLL, I get the following error in VBox.log:

VBoxHGCMSvcLoad: version mismatch loading shared folders service: ptable->cbSize = 52, should be 52, ptable->u32Version = 0x00040002, should be 0x00040001

Failed to load Shared Folders service VERR_INVALID_PARAMETER

I have VirtualBox 2.0.4 installed.

[sunlover]

Host shared folders dll for VBox 2.0.4. Fixes MS Access 2007 file open problem.

[sunlover]

Replying to chdh:

With the new DLL, I get the following error in VBox.log

Sorry about that. Please retry with the reattached dll, which should be on the 2.0.4 interface level.

[Christian d'Heureuse]

With the new DLL, the bug is fixed. Thanks for the quick solution.

Now if bug ​http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/438 would also be fixed, I could use shared folders as a full replacement for the normal Windows networking.

[sunlover]

Thanks for testing. The fix will be included in a new VBox version.

[Frank Mehnert]

Should be fixed in 2.0.6