I have a clean install of 24.04.
Virtualbox installed from official repository without a hitch (NB “skip unattended”!).
Guest additions iso on host /usr/share/virtualbox (also from official repository)
Guest: Ubuntu 22.04 (minimal installation) and downloaded updates.
Device → insert guest addition CD
Opened the CD,clicked the “Run as software” button: Nothing happens.
Next installed “build-essential dkms linux-headers-generic” as suggested elsewhere on this site. I also downloaded the guest additions from within the guest and tried to run in.
No change.
Hope somebody knows what I’m missing.
My last few Ubuntu VMs on VirtualBox have not needed guest additions to be usable by me. I didn’t try to share disk or printers or things like that. The mouse capture was automatic and video resizing worked well though and that’s what normally causes issues that guest additions can resolve.
None of those builds was 24.04 though. Over the weekend I installed 24.04 from scratch on my tower and laptop. Then installed Gnome Boxes for virtualization. I will probably end up installing VirtualBox at some point.
I agree that Virtualbox is ok without the guest additions, except that I really do need to share. There are a couple tasks that 24.04 is unable to perform for me (so far) 1: run Tutanota seemlessly 2) syncronise a folder with a certain Cloud service. I expect these issues will be solved, but in the mean time Ineed to use 22.04 and pass the results through “share”.So share is really very important I think for people installing new versions early.
The best way to share is to use NFS to mount the filesystem you wish to access. NFS will work over a NAT connection ,
so it should work with Vbox., without the need for guest additions.
I think a better solution is to use virt-manager or gnome-boxes. I have tested NFS mounts with both of those and can guarantee that they work.
I found that in Virtualbox with Ubuntu 24.04, that you can only login with Wayland session only. As Virtualbox has not got Ubuntu 24.04 in the list. To set screen up though, you need the Kernel Headers. Open a Terminal in Ubuntu 24.04 and type: sudo apt install build-essential dkms linux-headers-$(uname -r)
Then you can install the guest ISO. A good way is to setup a keyboard shortcut in Virtualbox, to open Virtualbox ISO, with the host key being right hand Ctrl keyboard button. I have mine setup as Ctrl+G. I hope this helps. For some reason though Bidirectional does not work and it may have something to do with the fact, that cannot login with an Xorg session.
Thank you for your reply. If I cannot find out how to install guest additions, I’ll give virt-manager atry. But since I already have my VM with all the updates settings, I’m not giving up just yet.
I tried that, (build essential dkms and linux-headers) but terminal returned “…is already the newest version”. I guess they were installed by the official vb repo. I just tried logging in to x-rod on both guest (22.04) and host (24.04).No problem with either. But no guest addition.
So you’re not using the latest Virtualbox 7 then? It already comes with Virtualbox Guest additions ISO built into it. I take it you have extensions installed too?
Yes, I’m using version 7 but from the repos. It had the extension included but not guest additions, which I had to install separately also from repos. . I see that the version one downloads directly from Oracle has the guest addition included, as you say, but thought I would wait till Ubuntu 24.04 irons out anybugs before I try a deb.
No. I just also had to reboot the host. Then everything was fine. Now I’m using full screen - beautiful resolution - and shared folder as per the explanation in your link.
I’ve gone on to VMWare Player. So much better than Oracle Virtualbox in my opinion, as share is there straight away with Ubuntu 24.04. On the install screen of Ubuntu 24.04 just get it to install hardware WiFi drivers and then able to share folders, plus screen resolution correct straight away.
That must be new. I thought VMWare was nonfree?
Has it changed?
I moved from Vbox to virt-manager for the same reasons…
apparently Vbox works really well in Windows, but in Linux
its like a square peg in a round hole.
