VBox Issue

WetGeek

I wanted to run a copy of Solus with the unstable repo in a VM, so I don't accidentally mess up my host's installation. I created a VBox VM, installed the Solus 4.0 ISO, ran the VM, and upgraded all. When I tried to go full-screen, it would not. So I tried to insert the guest additions into the virtual CD drive, and was told I needed to download them. (I thought that Solus included this OOTB?)

The download got to about 85%, then jumped to 100% and displayed this error:

I tried this several times, always with the same results. Is this a known problem with VBox on Solus?

[deleted]

Well, i can't help you with your actual problem downloading the additions, but.......there is no need to do so.
the Vbox Guest Additions are in the repo. You can install them via the Solus Software Center (or command line).
Search vor virtualbox-guest (if your using LTS kernel) or virtualbox-guest-current (for current kernel).
Its much easier that way 😀

WetGeek

[deleted]
Problem is, that didn't work. I installed them from the repo when I installed VirtualBox, but when it came time to load them into the virtual CD drive, I got a message saying that they needed to be downloaded. Then the download failed, as noted. Since I can't access VBoxLinuxAdditions.run, I can't build them for this VM.

They used to be built-in when an installation was done, allowing "host + F" keypress to toggle the VM window to full-screen immediately. That doesn't work anymore, so I tried to load the guest additions and build them.

kyrios

You have to install the guest package from the repository as explained in the doc.

WetGeek

kyrios
Perhaps I was unclear. When I installed VirtualBox from the Solus Software Center, I also installed the client additions from the same place, at the same time. Isn't this installing the guest package from the repository?

When the VM would not go to full-screen in the normal way, I decided to use VBoxLinuxAdditions.run to build the modules, as one would when installing a distro other than Solus. Although I'd already retrieved the guest additions from the software center, I was told that I needed to download them.

I'm not sure which "doc" you're referring to. Perhaps that would help me to figure this out.

[deleted]

Just so there is no misunderstanding: the virtualbox-guest / vurtualbox-guest-current package needs to be installed in the guest machine / the VM. The doc, kyrios is referring to is the Help Center i guess (see here: https://getsol.us/articles/software/virtualbox/en/

kyrios

WetGeek This is because virtualbox 6 uses the VMSVGA (VMware SVGA) graphic controller for Linux guest. The behaviour you're looking for is the one of the VBoxVGA which was the default graphic controller for Linux until VirtualBox 5 and is now considered as legacy.

Regarding the doc, there is only one page dedicated to virtualbox in the Solus documentation, it's the link that @[deleted] provided.

tomocafe

Inserting plug for qemu / virt-manager / gnome-boxes here. Be free of Ora¢le!

aiwan3

One can still make VboxSVGA work in Solus as the display driver, but it requires building manually from the Oracle quest additions.

I don't recommend doing this, because eventually you have manually rebuild after every kernel update (e.g 2-3 times / month), but it can be done. I do it because of far better performance of VboxSVGA when compared to VMSVGA. And yes it can go fullscreen too.

1) ON HOST: Download the quest additions ISO from https://download.virtualbox.org and place it to $HOME/.config/Virtualbox That's where download from GUI should go, but it does not.
2) ON QUEST: Install base development tools: https://getsol.us/articles/package-management/basics/en/
3) Remove currently installed quest additions if any: sudo eopkg rm virtualbox-quest-common
4) Shutdown.
5) ON HOST: If I remenber correctly the ISO downloaded in step 1 can now be seen Virtualbox Media Manager and can be inserted to Solus quest optical drive. Start Solus VM.
6) ON QUEST: Run quest additions installer from CDROM drive (or mount it first if needed), and it should succeed building of "custom" quest additions that also contain fully working VboxSVGA support.

Sorry, I could not verify these instructions right now, but that is basically what is needed. Please make backup of your virtual drive before trying this - as it may have some steps missing, but the general idea is build quest additions from the source and there you go - much faster graphics. 🙂

kyrios

aiwan3 but it requires building manually from the Oracle quest additions.

Which is absolutely untrue since the guest additions packages are shipped in the repository and it's just a matter of choosing another graphic controller at the moment you create your virtual machine if you don't want to use the default one.

Tip: search on guest with a G, not on quest with a Q to find the package !

WetGeek

Thanks to everyone who helped, but I've given it a lot of thought, and I'm going to go back to Win 10 for this laptop. When I changed to Solus for this host, I installed a new, blank, SSD. I kept the Windows SSD in case I might change my mind, so it's pretty trivial to go back.

I'm NOT leaving Solus. It's installed on four other machines here. I'm just going back to Windows for this laptop, where VirtualBox seems to be much more at home. This is a workstation class laptop, so the Solus VMs here (stable and unstable) run very smoothly.

I just wanted to let you know that I no longer need help getting VBox working on this machine, as the problem has been solved.

aiwan3

@WetGeek Why on earth you made this thread? How quickly You would have needed the answer? A few hours is not good enough...

Just sometimes pisses me off, I even signed up to reply and this what we have.

DataDrake

@aiwan3 Lose the attitude please.