As promised in my previous post on installing VirtualBox Open Source Edititon today I’ll be going over installing the Guest Addition tools for better integration between host and guest. These steps have not been tested on other Linux distributions but I’m sure they’ll work about the same way. I tested these on Kubuntu 7.04 running atop Kubuntu 7.10 beta as the host.
Installing Linux Guest Additions in VirtualBox
VirtualBox has made it pretty easy to install the Guest Additions for improved integration between guest and host. Some of these benefits are mouse-capture improvements and improved video resolution. The mouse capture improvements now allow you to control your virtual machine when the mouse is over the window, and seamlessly return to your host when it is not. Improved video resolution should allow you to customize a better resolution for your guests.
What we need to do to install the Guest Additions is select the option from the VirtualBox menu. You’ll want to do this after your guest is running (the guest-additions are installed to the guest, not the host). Select:
Devices > Install Guest Additions...
This sometimes takes a minute so don’t worry if you don’t see anything right away. This should then prompt you and say something along the lines of:
The Guest Additions image is not found on your host. Would you like to download this image now?
We’ll select YES and let it download the image. The image is downloaded to the host machine and then mounted within the guest. This way it can be shared with future guests without needing to download multiple times. It should also prompt you whether or not you’d like to mount the image. Again, select YES.
At this point you should see a disk image mounted on your desktop. What we’ll do here is run a script that will generate the proper modules to allow for guest additions. In my preferred method we’ll do this:
- Open a terminal by pressing ALT-F2 and enter “gnome-terminal” on gnome or “konsole” on KDE.
- cd /media/cdrom
- sudo bash ./VBoxLinux*
This will grind away at generating the proper modules and then prompt you to restart your guest machine. Once this has finished and you’ve rebooted your guest operating system you should have the guest improvements ready to go. No additional configuration for the mouse integration should be needed, but you may have to manually update to a better resolution as wanted.
Hopefully I’ll have the tutorial for building proper network bridging soon as well. Until then, enjoy your virtualization with VirtualBox!
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83 Comments
thanks I wanted to fix my available screen resolutions – this works great!
(Ubuntu 7.1RC1 guest on WinXP)
Thanks for the tip. I couldn’t make sense of it at first because the guest additions ISO was mounted funny. Now everything is running so seamlessly I had to laugh.
nothing comes up when i click install guest edditions
Thanks, I didn’t know how to do it, but I succeeded thanks to this tutorial.
That crap ruined my box. How can I uninstall it? Thanks.
Thanks, instruction seem clear enough, but I get an error message:
bash: ./VboxLinux*: No such file or directory
I’ve got Dapper Drake installed in Virtualbox on Windows XP. The file I have on the guest desktop is called VBOXADDITIONS_1.5.2_25433 and has picture of a CD for an icon.
Any further tips???
I got here after following this http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=433359&highlight=xp+virtualbox guide, I had disabled the windows desktop, so i didn’t see the iso file as promised. I had to navigate to the desktop folder with explorer to find it. Anyways, just thought I’d share
Great tip – thanks for the help. Worked perfectly. Just one slight typo:
sudo bash ./VBoxLinux*
Note the uppercase B.
CJ
Any update on your the tutorial for building proper network bridging?
@Nathaniel – thank you for pointing that out. I’ve updated the post.
@David – I’ve been tinkering with it off and on without real repeatable success yet. It is on my list however..
When I select Devices > Install Guest Additions nothing happens not even an error message. The image is nowhere on my host system, how can I get it?
Ditto the above commenter. Nothing happens when the you click “Install Guest Additions”. I’ve waiting 5 minutes already.
@ Peter —Try this: Go to Devices and Unmount CD/DVD Rom — Then try install guess addition, it should come up in the desktop.
My Problem is, i can’t change the refresh rate — when i set it to the highest, i can’t see the screen because it’s blurry — anyone?
Hey! Peter and Piet! JayWalker1 was right.
Just unmount as he says, and it’ll show up. Chances are that you already have the image, so it should begin immediately.
Thank you, Ubuntu Tutorials and Jaywalker.
Btw, Jaywalker, I’m not experiencing any blurriness.
I heard something about messing around with a system file on your host, but you gotta look around.
Regarding the command to type in the terminal, I had the same problem as Mikkel (posted Nov. 3, 2007). I overcame it by typing the commands given in the tutorial, but in step 3 I typed sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run The author was installing a Kubuntu guest on a Kubuntu host, but Mikkel and I are both installing Ubuntu on Windows xp and that seems to require the alternative command in step 3.
I tried it on Ubuntu 7.10, and make my machine crash!
it doesn’t want to go to the main menu,
what’s wrong?
after installed guest addition, I restarted my Ubuntu guest system, and it happened; I can’t go to main menu!
This does not work with ubuntu 8.04. Any ideas how to get it working?
I was able to get the guest additions installed on ubuntu 8.04 following the instructions in the VirtualBox User Manual, but when I add the alternate video modes in I don’t get any more options in Screen Resolution. Thoughts?
Very helpful! Thank you so much!
Awesome, thanks.
I was pulling my hair out trying to get the guest window to a suitable size.
Keep the faith.
Very nice!
Thanx A lot.
thanks, nice tutorial for newbies:)
Have Hardy Heron running in Vbox on a Vaio Laptop. Have installed Guest Additions, but it will only manage 800×600 resolution. Native Resolution for the Vaio is 1280×800. Have tried uninstalling and reinstalling to no avail. Everything worked fine until I upgraded from Gutsy Gibbon.
I’m gonna start saying a big chocolate flavored cherry on top Thanks, since every bump in my road until now has been solved by u guys.
And now we get to my current issue…
My lovely virtualbox is working perfectly, I even managed to install the Guest Additions (after coming here and reading the “unmount yr cd/dvd rom”)
Still I’m having issues in getting the shared folders working.
My host is the cute Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04, totally up to date.
at the vbox i’m running a xp.
I did create the folder first at the host, but this damn windows never “sees” it.
i even tried trough the command prompt.
Anyhows, help!!!
Ps: pardon any english mistakes, not my maind language.
Thank you. Just what I needed.
Hi.
Not that I read all the article and the posts, so if you find this addition before my post, then please, forgive me.
When you try to mount the VBoxGuestAdditions.iso, whatch out that you don’t have already mount an actual cd currently in your drive.
If that is the case, then first umount your cd and then mount the iso file.
I am assuming by the instructions that I should have Ubuntu running in its Vbox window.
So far, regardless of whether Ubuntu is running or not, I have not been able to find anything on any Vbox menu which will allow me to enter the Install command cited above. I also can’t find anything that looks like a command line to enter the command.
What am I missing?
Thanks.
I found the menu and was able to fix the problem.
I’m working on some kernel builds and am having what seems like (to me) and odd problem. What tutorial or forum page is likely to be able to best answer a .config question?
Thanks.
Oh dear: “VirtualBox has made it pretty easy… ALT-F2 … gnome-terminal … … sudo bash … …”
Imagine the outcry from the linux fanboys if you had to do stuff like that to install Windows.
If you don’t see ANYTHING happen when you click | Install Guest Additions | look IN YOUR GUEST OS CD ROM DRIVE in MY COMPUTER. You may just have AUTORUN disabled.
Jack
My own guest additions routine for kubuntu HH:
Load the guest additions in the guest’s virtual drive via vbox’s devices menu.
Run konsole.
Install GKSU with: sudo apt-get gksu
Type: gksudo dolphin
From the file explorer whitch has root priviledges, go to root/media/cdrom(0,1?)
Doubleclick guestadditions (i386 or x64)
To this step, it should work like a charm and guest additions should render to perfection.
En français: Ma propre routine pour installer les guest additions de virtualbox dans kubuntu HH, suffit d’installer gksu avec konsole en tappant: sudo apt-get gksu
Ensuite il faut tapper gksudo dolphin
À partir de Dolphin, qui a tous les droits et privilèges de root, il faut aller dans le dossier root, ensuitemedia, cdrom(0,1?) et lancer guestadditionslinux(i386 ou x64)
À partir de là, tout devrait bien aller, l’intégration du pointeur, le redimentionnement à l’échelle, les dossiers de partage host-to-guest-to-host.
Voilà
oh.. in fact, i’m quite unsure about the ability to share folders from guest to host and invertly… The rest works fine but where is it that i find that famous vboxsharefolder//// withins all the system file three?
(i’ll take the answer from my e-mail (sympatico.ca) or i’ll come back and see okay?
)
thanks a ton..this works perfect.
Hi, I have troble in installing guest additions. I ‘ve got Ubuntu 8.04 running on virtual box. The host is Windows XP SP2.
I used to have them installed but after a new actualizaction I need to reinstall guest additions but I don’t know how to proced after mounting the CD with the guest additions.
I would preciate any help. Thanks
Maria Eugenia
Thanks a zillion! You saved my life twice! Once when I first installed it, and another time when the additions got disabled because of an update.
I am trying to install Ubuntu 8.10 using Virtualbox but unfornately it doesn’t work. This HOWTO must be VERY old because I get an error message, unsupported system detected and installing the guest software fails.
Slight change for step 3 on new version of VirtualBox for Windows Hosts. there are different versions of the additions for x86 and amd64 platforms. between setps 2 and 3 you can type ‘ls’ and see what the exact name of the additions are for your platform, then do “sudo bash ./VBoxAdditions-###.run”, replacing the ### with x86 or amd64.
even after insert .iso file (by the menu ‘Install Guest Additions’), I couldn’t access to the directory /mnt (actually I could, but it was just an empty directory.)
so, I really MOUNTed, using following command,
[….$ sudo mount /dev/sr0 /mnt
after that, I was able to see the file VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run in /mnt
It was the problem that I actually didn’t MOUNT the .iso image fully to the guest OS (Ubuntu 8.10 server)
I alone pulled out a handful of my hair cuz of this? T_T
I’ve the instructions above but got this message on the terminal –
“VirtualBox 2.0.6 Guest Additions installation
Detected unsupported x86 environment.”
Sun xVM VirtualBox
Host: WinXP Home SP3
Guest: Ubuntu 8.10
Any Suggestions?
Ooops…disregard my first post
just miss the comment of Wes…Job all done! Thanks!
“VirtualBox 2.0.6 Guest Additions installation
Detected unsupported x86 environment.”
Host: Microsoft Vista Business
Guest: Ubuntu 8.04
Is don’t work and please help me.
Thanks
Thanks Wes, now is worked for me and it’s very helpful.
“sudo bash ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run”
You need to specify the exact filename (as opposed to using the asterix *) or else you will get the “Detected unsupported x86 enviroment.
Hi
As a fresh ubuntu-tutorials.com user i only want to say hello to everyone else who uses this board
I cannot install VBox additions, It says something about kernel
When I enter the ./VBoxLinux* command it appears to be working but then stops informing me that it needs to be run with admin priviledges.
How do I set my privs to admin? I am the only user of this computer (vista laptop).
Fresh install of Ubumtu 810 using Virtualbox 210 on Vista. Select Devices then Install Guest Additons. ICON shows up on desktop. Open Terminal: cd /cdrom then DIR. I see all the files. Now enter SUDO bash ./vboxlinuxadditions-x86.run. Get message: no such file or directory. Any help would be appreciated by this newbee.
Just wanted to follow up on not being able to install Guest Additions. It would help if somewhere someone would mention that file names must be entered in upper and lower case as displayed in the file name. It is unnecessary in Windows.
Bob: Filenames are always case sensitive on linux. It’s not just guest additions, but the whole OS that’s built that way. I think OSX does the same, but i’m not entirely sure.
I’d been hunting around for a while trying to find out how to do this. It worked a treat, Thanks.
I feel stupid even asking this but having trouble and looking for someone to point out the obvious. Okay, so i’ve got:
VirtualBox 2.x (just downloaded 1/09)
Host: WinXP SP3 – 32bit
Guest: gOS 3 (Ubuntu 8.04/Hardy)
I have an AMD 5000+ X2 and (nForce4/Gforce6100) and am unsure whether to use the “x86.run” or “amd64.run”? and what happens if i run both for good measure? does that screw things up?
I too searched on many of the forums about how to get the problem resolved.
Finally I came across the fact that the latest version of Virtual Box (2.1) has good support for UBuntu.I Downloaded and configured my Ubuntu 8.10 image (Guest) on Windows XP SP2 (Host).
Now I’m able to run VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run with out any problem and am able to install GuestAdditions also.
And the best thing is Virtual Box 2.1 does a lot of things for you automatically.
So enjoy your time with Virtual Box 2.1
Thanks… it worked great!!!
Questions:
I have Virtual Box 2.1 installed on a Host that consists of: WinXP sp3 32bit on Athlon 5000X2. The guests are (32bit) Ubuntu 8.04 and OpenSolaris. Do I execute the x86 or amd64 string in the “sudo bash ./VBoxLinux*” command?
Also, if I already did one of them, and then typed in the other, does it screw everything up? If so, how should I fix it?
I tried this on my Ubuntu 8.10 guest, but after it installed the kernel modules it crashes saying ‘unknown version of X window system’. Anyone know how to fix this?
For Jarno and Ubunto 8.10 users.
Mount the VBoxGuestAdditions.iso then you have to install DKMS in Linux guests.
If it is not installed open terminal and use this command:
sudo apt-get install dkms
and answer “yes” to the question.
Then change to the directory where your iso CD-ROM drive is mounted, you have to type such a command like this
cd /media/cdrom0
finally type this:
sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run
input your password if necessary.
I hope it’s useful.
I tried this:
“sudo ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run”
and works perfect…
Host: Windows 7
Guest: Ubuntu 8.10
This worked great even with Crunchbang Linux 8.10!
I get as far as inputting my password, which it won’t allow me to do.
Thanks for this. I was having problems understanding why my virtualbox wouldn’t load the additions (they were already mounted)
I had a problem getting it to work on my 64 bit Ubuntu, ended up I had to specify the file and use the All command. I input:
sudo bash ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-amd64 all
Worked fine! And newish versions of VBox all have the correct Additions btw
Belindo Filobeo,
Installing the dkms in ubuntu 8.10 guest i continue having the problem
hi i’m using Ubuntu 8.10 and whenever i try to install guest additions it starts to install but then it says
Unknown version of the X Window System installed.
don’t know if this has anything to do with it but i installed it on an external hard drive. any thoughts???
After step 2 i.e. “cd /media/cdrom” do :
3. Type “sudo bash ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run” if you have an intel CPU
OR
Type “”sudo bash ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-amd64.run” if you have an AMD CPU.
Done…worked like a charm…have a question now on “shared folder”….I’m a noob so bare with me…how would I mount this inside the Ubuntu guest….I created a folder on my Host XP desktop and want to see it in guest ubuntu.
thx…jc
Yes awesome now the mouse isnt stuck in the window and i dont need to press the host key to free it
My question is does this work in 8.10 as the article is based in an earlier edition
Thanks
Installing Guest Additions should be roughly the same for any Ubuntu release. Give it a try. If it does not, leave a comment here and I’ll try to update the post.
Nothing worked as advertised, I finally got going as follows:
VirtualBox 2.2 on Vista host, running ubuntu 8.10 as guest.
Selecting “devices – Install Guest Additions” did not do anything, /media/cdrom was empty, so I downloaded the iso from virtualbox and saved it in a folder on the vista host.
Goto http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/ and look for the folder for your version (x.x.x) of virtualbox. From in there download VBoxGuestAdditions x.x.x.iso
Start your ubuntu guest and login. Install dkms
sudo apt-get install dkms
reboot the ubuntu box.
There is a bug with ubuntu 8.10, dkms points to wrong kernel header version, so the VBoxLinuxAdditions.run script will fail.
Check which kernel you have.
uname -r
Outputs something like: 2.6.27-11-generic (note this last bit)
Now, fix the incorrect headers problem. (replace generic with your uname output).
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic
Almost done, the VBoxGuestAdditions.iso must be mounted.
From the menu in your ubuntu guest window, select
“devices – mount CD/DVD Rom”
Now select option “CD/DVD Rom image” and choose the VBoxGuestAdditions iso file you saved in the vista host earlier.
Now ensure the iso is properly mounted as a cdrom in the guest.
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/cdrom
sudo mount -t iso9660 /dev/scd0 /mnt/cdrom
the cdrom device may differ on your guest, check the output of: ls -l /dev/cdrom
Finally, run the additions script in thu ubuntu guest::
cd /mnt/cdrom
sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run
Worked for me, YMMV.
Works on 9.04 with 2.2.0, but it comes with 64 bit drivers, so run the command without the wild card.
It was really great , thank you verry much but now a little update, the command in the terminal is for Ubuntu 9.04:
" sudo bash VBoxLinuxAddition-x86.run"
Good luck!
There is a very nicely done guide on explaining the entire process of installing the Guest Additions for a Linux Guest. The article also gives an insight to all the problems that you may encounter: http://digitizor.com/2009/05/26/how-to-install-vi...
THANK YOU WES !!!
I found this useful – thank you for your effortss
Hi, I get the following error when I execute the command "sudo bash ./VBoxLinux*" : Detected unsupported x86 environment, what can I do? thanks in advance
Thanks to Wes and Timbo. I entered full filename in step 3 and managed to install guest additions in Ubuntu 9.04 guest on Windows XP SP3 host. But as someone who has been programming for 30 plus years, I can understand why non-techies are slow to move to Linux. I was searching for two days and trying different suggestions, none of which worked mainly because they dealt with older releases, before I found this forum.
I'm running Ubuntu 9.0.4 and trying to install Guest Additions from Vbox 3.0.8.
I got this error " Detected unsupported x86 environment.
To fix this write:
sudo bash ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-86.run
Hope that helps
great!
but the correct command is:
sudo bash ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run
thanks anyway
Great, it works!
but the correct command is this:
sudo bash ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run
when i m trying to install guest addition for ubuntu on my window7 host…the terminal window comes but its saying , " u need administrator privilege " ….and i don't know how to give a program administrator privilege in ubuntu…plz any body help me out..
Thanks
Running WIndows 7 64 bit Host with VirtualBox 3.0.10 and Ubuntu 9.1 Needed the VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run command (not the amd64 version) and now works fine. needed to reinstall aftre the 9.04 to 9.1 upgrade
thank you this really helped me out.
Thanks for the tutorial. Up and working with
Win7 64-bit host, VirtualBox running Ubuntu 9.1 and XP-Pro
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