VirtualBox Guest Additions Manual Install

My Scenario: Ubuntu 10.04 beta 1 64-bit guest on a Windows 7 host

In the case with Ubuntu 10.04 beta 1 64-bit guest on a Windows 7 host, and in some other situations, the VirtualBox Guest Additions may not install automatically.

Possible problems during manual install of VirtualBox Guest Additions:

Error: sh can’t open VBoxLinuxAdditions-amd64.run

Also make sure Dynamic Kernel Module Support (DKMS) is installed on your Linux guest: sudo apt-get install dkms

The biggest problem I have seen with installing Guest Additions manually is that we tend to assume we should change directory (cd) to cdrom or cdrom0. You must cd to the directory the guest additions are actually in. In my case it was:
/media/VBOXADDITIONS_3.1.6_59338

So after you choose to ‘Install Guest Additions…’ under ‘Devices’ in the VirtualBox Menu, navigate to the /media folder in your Linux Guest OS and observe the name of the mounted folder the Guest Additions are actually in. It will also be the same name as the ss the VBOXADDITIONS Shortcut on your Guests Desktop (if it appeared).

After you cd to the right directory it’s a piece of cake.

    Steps Involved:

  1. Choose ‘Install Guest Additions…’ under ‘Devices’ in the VirtualBox Menu. NOTE: You may have to mount the VBOXADDITION image before being able to proceed. It will be visible in your file browser menu sidebar inside the guest OS. Just right click and choose mount.
  2. Open a Terminal window in your Linux Guest and cd to the folder containing your VirtualBox Guest Addition files.
  3. Type ‘dir’ (without quotes) to display the Directory contents.
  4. Copy and Paste the correct Additions file after the command: sudo sh


Below is a successful installation example copied from Terminal inside the Linux Guest:

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timothy@ubuntu64:~$ cd /media/VBOXADDITIONS_3.1.6_59338
timothy@ubuntu64:/media/VBOXADDITIONS_3.1.6_59338$ dir
32Bit	     VBoxLinuxAdditions-amd64.run    VBoxWindowsAdditions.exe
64Bit	     VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run      VBoxWindowsAdditions-x86.exe
AUTORUN.INF  VBoxSolarisAdditions.pkg
autorun.sh   VBoxWindowsAdditions-amd64.exe
timothy@ubuntu64:/media/VBOXADDITIONS_3.1.6_59338$ sudo sh VBoxLinuxAdditions-amd64.run
[sudo] password for timothy:
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox 3.1.6 Guest Additions for Linux.........
VirtualBox Guest Additions installer
tar: Record size = 8 blocks
Building the VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel modules
Building the main Guest Additions module ...done.
Building the shared folder support module ...done.
Building the OpenGL support module ...done.
Doing non-kernel setup of the Guest Additions ...done.
Starting the VirtualBox Guest Additions ...done.
Installing the Window System drivers
Installing experimental X.Org Server 1.7 modules ...done.
Setting up the Window System to use the Guest Additions ...done.
You may need to restart the hal service and the Window System (or just restart
the guest system) to enable the Guest Additions.

Installing graphics libraries and desktop services components ...done.
timothy@ubuntu64:/media/VBOXADDITIONS_3.1.6_59338$
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