Symlinks within shared folders in VirtualBox: Operation not permitted and Read Only Filesystem
This blog post was published 9 years ago and may or may not have aged well.
While reading please keep in mind that it may no longer be accurate or even relevant.
This is not a bug, it is a security feature of Virtual Box. Nevertheless it is annoying. To enable symlinks:
VBoxManage setextradata <MACHINE_LABEL> VBoxInternal2/SharedFoldersEnableSymlinksCreate/<SHARE_LABEL> 1
For example:
VBoxManage setextradata Debian Wheezy VBoxInternal2/SharedFoldersEnableSymlinksCreate/Public 1
To check if your setting has been ‘taken’, run
VBoxManage getextradata MACHINE_LABEL enumerate
Restart the virtual machine and the creation of symlinks should work.