Share a Folder between Ubuntu 18.04 Host and a MacOS High Sierra Guest in VirtualBox

If you followed this article about hosting a MacOS High Sierra in VirtualBox you would face a big problem:

How can I move data between the Ubuntu Host and MacOS Guest operating systems?

Samba to the rescue!

We can install Samba on Ubuntu like this:

$ sudo apt update

$ sudo apt install samba

Now that Samba is installed, we need to create a directory for it to share:

$ mkdir /home/<username>/sambashare/

The command above creates a new folder sambashare in our home directory which we will share later. The configuration file for Samba is located at /etc/samba/smb.conf. To add the new directory as a share, we edit the file by running:

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

At the bottom of the file, add the following lines:

[sambashare]
    comment = Samba on Ubuntu
    path = /home/username/sambashare
    read only = no

    
    browsable = yes 

Then press Ctrl-O to save and Ctrl-X to exit from the nano text editor.

Now that we have our new share configured, save it and restart Samba for it to take effect:

sudo service smbd restart

Update the firewall rules to allow Samba traffic:

sudo ufw allow samba

Connection in MacOS

Fire up Finder in your MacOS:

Now press Command(Windows)+K to open Connect to Server window and type:

smb://<your Ubuntu IP Address>

You can see the IP address in Ubuntu using "ifconfig" command.

After that enter the password for your Samba user and you're good to go.