Installing Guest Additions For Ubuntu Guests in VirtualBox

By | 2007/10/13

UPDATE: This post has been updated for more current releases. Please see the new Install VirtualBox Guest Additions article.

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:

  1. Open a terminal by pressing ALT-F2 and enter “gnome-terminal” on gnome or “konsole” on KDE.
  2. cd /media/cdrom
  3. 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!

112 thoughts on “Installing Guest Additions For Ubuntu Guests in VirtualBox

  1. Shaun

    thanks I wanted to fix my available screen resolutions – this works great!
    (Ubuntu 7.1RC1 guest on WinXP)

  2. Jay Armstrong

    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.

  3. Alistair

    nothing comes up when i click install guest edditions

  4. Dave

    Thanks, I didn’t know how to do it, but I succeeded thanks to this tutorial.

  5. Fanculo

    That crap ruined my box. How can I uninstall it? Thanks.

  6. Mikkel

    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???

  7. Nathaniel CJE Culver

    Great tip – thanks for the help. Worked perfectly. Just one slight typo:

    sudo bash ./VBoxLinux*

    Note the uppercase B.

    CJ

  8. Ubuntu Tutorials

    @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..

  9. Piet

    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?

  10. Peter

    Ditto the above commenter. Nothing happens when the you click “Install Guest Additions”. I’ve waiting 5 minutes already.

  11. JayWalker1

    @ 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?

  12. HK

    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.

  13. Bob

    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.

  14. Pingback: How To Do Seamless Window and Folder Integration with Ubuntu & VirtualBox | LiNUX FTW!

  15. adli

    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!

  16. alan

    This does not work with ubuntu 8.04. Any ideas how to get it working?

  17. J F

    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?

  18. TheGurkha

    Awesome, thanks.

    I was pulling my hair out trying to get the guest window to a suitable size.

    Keep the faith.

  19. herrkaleun

    thanks, nice tutorial for newbies:)

  20. RobMarinella

    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.

  21. Elangen

    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.

  22. Jason Mayoff

    Thank you. Just what I needed.

  23. Bledi

    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.

  24. Tom

    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.

  25. Tom

    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.

  26. Hugh

    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.

  27. http://www.jackpicks.com/

    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

  28. Matt

    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 🙂

  29. Matt

    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? 🙂 )

  30. azza

    thanks a ton..this works perfect.

  31. Maria Eugenia

    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

  32. Abu Yahya

    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.

  33. Ubuntu user

    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.

  34. Wes

    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.

  35. jh

    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

  36. Jomer

    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?

  37. Jomer

    Ooops…disregard my first post 😀 just miss the comment of Wes…Job all done! Thanks!

  38. guru

    “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

  39. guru

    Thanks Wes, now is worked for me and it’s very helpful.

    “sudo bash ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run”

  40. timbo

    You need to specify the exact filename (as opposed to using the asterix *) or else you will get the “Detected unsupported x86 enviroment.

  41. amasmilky

    Hi

    As a fresh ubuntu-tutorials.com user i only want to say hello to everyone else who uses this board 😀

  42. Craig

    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).

  43. Bob

    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.

  44. Bob

    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.

  45. John Doe

    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.

  46. Ade

    I’d been hunting around for a while trying to find out how to do this. It worked a treat, Thanks.

  47. gbo

    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?

  48. Rishi

    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

  49. Jitendra Rana

    Thanks… it worked great!!!

  50. GBO

    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?

  51. Jarno

    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?

  52. Belindo Filobeo

    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.

  53. Odomera

    I tried this:

    “sudo ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run”

    and works perfect…

    Host: Windows 7
    Guest: Ubuntu 8.10

  54. Aaron

    I get as far as inputting my password, which it won’t allow me to do.

  55. rado

    Thanks for this. I was having problems understanding why my virtualbox wouldn’t load the additions (they were already mounted)

  56. Person

    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

  57. Jorge

    Belindo Filobeo,

    Installing the dkms in ubuntu 8.10 guest i continue having the problem

  58. will

    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???

  59. anonymous

    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.

  60. jc

    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

  61. yay

    Yes awesome now the mouse isnt stuck in the window and i dont need to press the host key to free it

  62. Allen Meyers

    My question is does this work in 8.10 as the article is based in an earlier edition
    Thanks

    1. Christer Edwards Post author

      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.

  63. Laurence Buchanan

    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.

  64. Bryan

    Works on 9.04 with 2.2.0, but it comes with 64 bit drivers, so run the command without the wild card.

  65. Bogdy Cornel

    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!

  66. Jason Watson

    I found this useful – thank you for your effortss

  67. Jorge

    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

  68. Shangaur Salakh

    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.

  69. Einar

    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

  70. alex

    great!
    but the correct command is:

    sudo bash ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run

    thanks anyway

  71. alex

    Great, it works!

    but the correct command is this:

    sudo bash ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run

  72. Arun

    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

  73. Paul

    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

  74. james

    thank you this really helped me out.

  75. Pingback: Installing Ubuntu « ALs Blog

  76. Jeff

    Thanks for the tutorial. Up and working with
    Win7 64-bit host, VirtualBox running Ubuntu 9.1 and XP-Pro

  77. Sameera

    Most useful! Thanks very much 🙂

  78. gnidde

    Works just fine! I do however need to re-install it from time to time since the mouse integration and the full screen does not work. Any ideas why?

  79. ideans

    Alright, I myself had a HUGE amount of issues trying to get Guest Additions installed on my ubuntu guest os with windows 7 host. After tons of searching I found that I needed several other packages.

    sudo apt-get install dkms build-essential linux-headers-server

    I myself am running the server version, I guess you just replace server with whatever you are running. After installing these packages and manually mounting the guest additions cd I was able to install them from the terminal. The mouse integration and full screen both work great perfectly now.

    Hope this helps anyone who is still having trouble.

  80. Ed

    Just a tip for anyone who’s been searching for ‘Guest Additions’ help — Sun (now Oracle) has always included a very thorough, detailed ‘User Manual’ that’s a part of each install. Also on virtualbox.org. The ‘VBoxGuestAdditions.iso’ is put on your hard drive with each install as well. Both are updated with each new version release and Sun (err, Oracle) has done an especially nice job updating the User Manual in accordance with each release.

    Online help like the above is often helpful but there’s a lot of pertinent info already included in each VB install. (Also, the User Manual comes as a pdf with a clearly labeled Index.)

  81. Sinc

    @Aaron Your password should work. If it’s running like it is on mine, it won’t show any symbols when you type, but it will accept it once you’ve typed it and press enter.

  82. fringe

    this method did not work for me – osx snow leopard host, linux mint guest. I got an unsupported x86 error — read somewhere else to go into the guest additions folder and run the autorun.sh file. Did that and it worked

  83. Robin Catling

    All: this post has been a great resource over the time it’s been running; thanks to all the commenter for the updates over time, it got me out of a hole and a couple of readers of my blog also. RC

  84. Jason

    ok .. this is all driving me a little silly … not sure if I’m just doin something wrong or what … Host is Windows 7 Guest is Ubuntu 10.04

    I have the Guest Additions mounted, but every time I pull up a terminal window and try to run the scrips in this thread, all I get is “file or directory not found” and nothing

    All I want to do is Not have to keep hitting Right-Ctrl to get my mouse out of the window, and be able to make the window larger .. right now when I make the window larger, Ubuntu stays same size as it did when it boots (I hope that makes since) .. book marking page for help

  85. Jason

    That looks AWSOME .. but I still cant get it to work 🙁 when I mount the guest additions and get the CD on the desktop I’m good. Then when I open a terminal and type in “cd /media/cdrom” all I keep getting is “file or directory not found” and then nothing .. when the treminal opens it shows being in “jason@jason ~ desktop” did I do something wrong or am I just totally missing something?

  86. Jacob Christ

    I’m running Windows 7 64bit and have Ubuntu 10.04 32bit guest with x86 guest additions installed. Mouse/Keyboard integration works great and I can resize VM window and the Ubuntu desktop resizes fine, but the full screen and seemless modes are not working. Both appear to have the same problem. When I go to full screen mode the display updates and I can see Ubuntu in full screen but the graphics are non-responsive except for the mouse cursor. If I move the mouse cursor over a menu item then click it nothing happens. If I exit full screen I can see that the menu did indeed open sine the screen has now refreshed.

    Thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer,

    Jacob

  87. Willow Wright

    I am running MAC OSX 10.5.8, as Host and Ubuntu 10.04 as guest in VirtualBox. I have “installed” Guest Additons, and image is on desktop. Now I’m trying to find instructions that will work for me. I got it to work once before when running Ubuntu 9.10, but now, and have lost those simple instructions, and now I’m not getting past the cd to /media/cdrom….well it’s because there is no folder called cdrom…I can cd into /media. And I’m seeing VBoxAdditions_3.2.8_64453 when I do an ls.

    This doesn’t appear to be a file or directory….What’s next? Any assistance would be appreciated. WCW

  88. Enow Mbi

    doesn’t work on my system. host windows 7, guest ubuntu 7

  89. Enow Mbi

    ok. thanks. it works like magic.I didn’t restart the guest OS.I had to shut it down and then start it up before the changes were effected.restarting the guest machine alone didn’t do it. thanks again

  90. Liger_XT5

    Thought I’d just do a quick redo of the steps for easy look and use.

    1. Open a terminal by pressing ALT-F2 and enter “gnome-terminal” on gnome or “konsole” on KDE.
    2. cd /media/(Followed but the Exact name of the disc shown in File Manager. Example: cd /media/VBOXADDITIONS_3.2.12_68302)
    3. sudo bash ./VBoxLinux*
    4. It will then ask for an installation location. For me, I had:
    “Please specify an absolute path
    Usage: install [] | uninstall [force] [no_setup]
    Example:
    ./VoxLinuxAdditions-amd64.run install” (This line may be different, but similar)
    Input sudo followed by the example:
    sudo ./VoxLinuxAdditions-amd64.run install

    You now have the guest additions installed. Restart and enjoy.

  91. Ozman

    I m not able to install guest additions on backtrack 4 distro. Which is supposed to be a substitution of ubuntu linux. Even if i push the install button on devices menu nothing will appear.

    Any info or suggestion about this situation?

  92. Ozman

    …by the way my host system is a win 7 and 2 clients are backtrack4 and win xp. Over xp guest additions and all drives working perfectly but over BT i m stuck with low graphic resolution. : /

  93. MasIs

    It’s helping me. I thought I only got the windows version of guest additions. But I weren’t.

  94. JT

    Just downloaded VirtualBox 4.04, for OSX. I cannot find a “Device” menu,
    only a Virtual Media Manager. The CD/DVD drive does not give me the option
    of adding or mounting another .iso file, any ideas guys?

  95. Marco

    Hello All,

    I would like to thank you for the article, it was helpful for me.

    I’d like to add this statement:
    For VirtualBox 4.0.4,
    Installing ” Guest Additions ” on Ubuntu 10.04
    will refer to run the script with this name: ” VBoxLinuxAdditions.run ”

    Hope that it helps,
    Thanks

  96. Sabb

    THANKS !
    I was tired of failing the installation, I succeeded thanks to you 🙂
    Sabb

  97. Dream

    Hi Admin!
    I’ve installed VBox on Win7 an a Natty-Narwhal Ubuntu into VBox.
    I traced: Devices > Install Guest Additions…
    No need to download! => VBOXADDITIONS_3.0.8_53138 mounted in ubuntu
    into terminal I followed:
    $ cd /media/VBOXADDITIONS_3.0.8_53138
    $ ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-amd64.run

  98. Dream

    Hi Admin!
    I’ve installed VBox on Win7 an a Natty-Narwhal Ubuntu into VBox.
    I traced: Devices > Install Guest Additions…
    No need to download! => VBOXADDITIONS_3.0.8_53138 mounted into ubuntu
    (into terminal) I followed:
    $ cd /media/VBOXADDITIONS_3.0.8_53138
    $ sudo ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-amd64.run
    OutPut is here:
    Verifying archive integrity… All good.
    Uncompressing VirtualBox 3.0.8 Guest Additions for Linux installation…….
    ……………………………………………………………………………………..
    …………………………………
    VirtualBox 3.0.8 Guest Additions for Linux installation
    Unable to build the kernel module. see log file.
    I take photo of the log file?
    it’s here:
    http://up.vatandownload.com/images/leeh3mjyzdnwzn470b6i.png

  99. Zey

    Man, thank you so much! you saved my day! 🙂

Comments are closed.