On Tumbleweed, Slowroll and Fedora time and date on shared folders are wrong

[os-larryr]

On both Tumbleweed and Leap 15.5 hosts running 7.0.14 or 7.0.16 the guests have the wrong date and time all are with Oracle Guest additions installed (not vendor guest additions) /tmpx/a is the mount point for all guests tested. All failures are with kernel 6.8.6

Good Leap 15.5 with 7.0.16 guest additions
VM4:~ # uname -a
Linux VM4 5.14.21-150500.55.52-default #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Tue Mar 5 16:53:41 UTC 2024 (a62851f) x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
VM4:~ # ll /tmpx/a
total 389064
-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf 222883840 Feb 29 14:42 6.6.11.tar
drwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf         0 Jan 16 17:48 Leap
drwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf         0 Apr  1 19:38 TW
-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf   4597839 Apr 17 07:23 UserManual.pdf
-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf 170897951 Apr 17 07:23 VirtualBox-7.0.16.tar.bz2
-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf        98 Feb  4 15:15 avb.repo
-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf        34 May  1  2023 doit
-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf      3157 Apr 17 08:46 oracle_vbox_2016.asc
-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf       288 Apr 18 17:35 virtualbox.repo
VM4:~ # 

Tumbleweed with 7.0.16 guest additions
TW2022:~ # uname -a
Linux TW2022 6.8.6-1-default #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Mon Apr 15 06:36:47 UTC 2024 (605b284) x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
TW2022:~ # ll /tmpx/a
total 389064
-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf 222883840 Apr 18 07:10 6.6.11.tar
drwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf         0 Apr 18 07:10 Leap
drwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf         0 Apr 18 07:10 TW
-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf   4597839 Apr 18 07:18 UserManual.pdf
-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf 170897951 Apr 18 07:10 VirtualBox-7.0.16.tar.bz2
-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf        98 Apr 18 07:10 avb.repo
-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf        34 Apr 18 07:18 doit
-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf      3157 Apr 18 

Slowroll with 7.0.16 guest additions
slowroll:~ # uname -a
Linux slowroll 6.8.5-1-default #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Thu Apr 11 04:31:19 UTC 2024 (542f698) x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
slowroll:~ # ll /tmpx/a
total 389064
-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf 222883840 Apr 18 07:11 6.6.11.tar
drwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf         0 Apr 18 07:11 Leap
drwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf         0 Apr 18 07:11 TW
-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf   4597839 Apr 18 07:11 UserManual.pdf
-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf 170897951 Apr 18 07:11 VirtualBox-7.0.16.tar.bz2
-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf        98 Apr 18 07:11 avb.repo
-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf        34 Apr 18 07:11 doit
-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf      3157 Apr 18 07:17 oracle_vbox_2016.asc
-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf       288 Apr 18 17:47 virtualbox.repo
slowroll:~ # 

Fedora with 7.0.16 guest additions
[root@fedora ~]# uname -a
Linux fedora 6.8.6-200.fc39.x86_64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Sat Apr 13 15:14:23 UTC 2024 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[root@fedora ~]# ll /tmpx/a
total 389064
-rwxrwx---. 1 root vboxsf 222883840 Apr 17 10:57 6.6.11.tar
-rwxrwx---. 1 root vboxsf        98 Apr 17 10:57 avb.repo
-rwxrwx---. 1 root vboxsf        34 Apr 17 10:57 doit
drwxrwx---. 1 root vboxsf         0 Apr 17 10:57 Leap
-rwxrwx---. 1 root vboxsf      3157 Apr 18 11:21 oracle_vbox_2016.asc
drwxrwx---. 1 root vboxsf         0 Apr 17 10:57 TW
-rwxrwx---. 1 root vboxsf   4597839 Apr 18 11:21 UserManual.pdf
-rwxrwx---. 1 root vboxsf 170897951 Apr 18 11:21 VirtualBox-7.0.16.tar.bz2
-rwxrwx---. 1 root vboxsf       288 Apr 18 11:21 virtualbox.repo
[root@fedora ~]# 

[os-larryr]

readable file of issue

[galitsyn]

Hi Larry,

What is the wrong and what is the expected time in listing from the description?

[MichaelGoldshteyn]

Full details of fairly thorough testing are available starting with the following post on another forum. Include is likely the first kernel where the file time problems started:

​https://forums.opensuse.org/t/files-in-the-virtualbox-share-show-wrong-timestamp/172718/46

Summary: Even with proper Guest Additions, when using a vboxsf share of a Windows host directory on a Linux guest, some of file times are incorrect and do not match the file times as reported on the host, itself. The first kernel version experiencing this issue has been determined to be somewhere between v6.5 (no file time issue) and v6.6.12 (definitely has file time issue), see above link for detailed testing.

[galitsyn]

Hy guys,

I confirm can that it was an issue on our side. Fix will be available with the next release. Thank you for pointing out.

[MichaelGoldshteyn]

Hi Galitsyn, please include in 7.0.16, once the big crasher bug is fixed.

[MichaelGoldshteyn]

After waiting for over a week for this to get fixed. I looked into it myself and fixed it by making the following change in the Guest Additions (Line numbers based on a 7.0.15 dev build of Virtualbox)

This is for informational purposes, only. If you use this to patch your own Guest Additions, you will do so at your own risk!

Patch file: vbox-file-timestamps-fix.patch

File (patch) contents are as follows:

--- vboxsf/utils.c      2024-03-21 06:53:07.000000000 -0500
+++ vboxsf/utils.c      2024-04-30 14:12:07.000000000 -0500
@@ -299,9 +299,13 @@
 static void vbsf_update_inode_timestamps(struct inode *pInode, PSHFLFSOBJINFO pObjInfo)
 {
 #if RTLNX_VER_MIN(6,6,0)
-    struct timespec64 ts;
-    vbsf_time_to_linux(&ts, &pObjInfo->ChangeTime);
-    inode_set_ctime_to_ts(pInode, ts);
+    struct timespec64 ats, cts, mts;
+    vbsf_time_to_linux(&ats, &pObjInfo->AccessTime);
+    inode_set_atime_to_ts(pInode, ats);
+    vbsf_time_to_linux(&cts, &pObjInfo->ChangeTime);
+    inode_set_ctime_to_ts(pInode, cts);
+    vbsf_time_to_linux(&mts, &pObjInfo->ModificationTime);
+    inode_set_mtime_to_ts(pInode, mts);
 #else
     vbsf_time_to_linux(&pInode->i_atime, &pObjInfo->AccessTime);
     vbsf_time_to_linux(&pInode->i_ctime, &pObjInfo->ChangeTime);

To apply, after installing guest additions and assuming that you're using 7.0.15 and the line numbers line up (otherwise, above patch file content will need to be edited):

# Create the vbox-file-timestamps-fix.patch file with the contents above, and
# place the patch file into the /tmp directory

vbox_version=7.0.15 # Whatever version of virtualbox you are using

# Go the the root dir from which the patch should be applied
cd "/opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-${vbox_version}/src/vboxguest-${vbox_version}"

# Check the patch for validity to make sure line numbers line up and you are in the
# correct working directory to apply the patch...
sudo patch --dry-run -p0 /tmp/vbox-file-timestamps-fix.patch

# Assuming no errors arose from above line, apply the patch to fix up Guest Additions
# file modified and access time handling for shared folders on newer Linux kernel based
# guests
sudo patch -p0 /tmp/vbox-file-timestamps-fix.patch

# Regen Vbox Guest Additions for your kernel (and any other kernels you have installed
#                                             that are affected)
#   Set the kernel version to apply this to (you can use: uname -a # And get it from that)
my_kernel_version=6.8.4-060804-generic
sudo /etc/kernel/postinst.d/vboxadd "$my_kernel_version"

# Repeat the Guest Addition update procedure (i.e., my_kernel_version=... and the command that follows) for any other kernels that this change should apply to

# Reboot to reload Linux and the latest built guest additions
sudo reboot

Check any host shared directories you have for files with correct timestamps and hopefully, you're good to go.

E.g.,

cd /media/sf_D_DRIVE
stat some_file.txt

..., then compare the file times in the output of the stat command with the file times on the Windows host.

Be careful when updating Virtualbox or reinstalling Guest Additions from (virtual) CD, because you will likely wipe the above patch and need to reapply it, at least until it's officially fixed by Oracle.