Other Interesting Distros, part 3

tomscharbach

WetGeek I've always believed that installing the guest additions from the repository installed them on the host, so the host could install them on a VM.

Review the official documentation on Guest Additions: "... the Guest Additions are designed to be installed inside a virtual machine after the guest operating system has been installed ..."

WetGeek

tomscharbach Guest Additions are designed to be installed inside a virtual machine after the guest operating system has been installed ...

Yep. That's exactly how I do it. The host machine installs them on the guest after the guest OS has been installed.
Works great!

stalebrim

WetGeek Some distros also come with the guest additions preinstalled. I guess some of the issues you've been experiencing may be due to installing the VirtualBox-provided version of guest additions.

tomscharbach

stalebrim Some distros also come with the guest additions preinstalled.

Good news, as is the news that at least some other distros provide for installation from the repository. Sure beats screwing around with the VirtualBox installation method. Difficulties with Guest Additions was the reason I abandoned VirtualBox years ago, and I am glad to see that things are changing.

tomscharbach

WetGeek Yep. That's exactly how I do it. The host machine installs them on the guest after the guest OS has been installed. Works great!

You're the VirtualBox expert.

WetGeek

tomscharbach You're the VirtualBox expert.

Yeah. Us experts get the big bucks!

tomscharbach

WetGeek I'm glad that VirtualBox works for you. I got frustrated trying to work with Guest Additions. Worked okay with some distros, but next to impossible with others.

WetGeek

tomscharbach Worked okay with some distros, but next to impossible with others.

I hear ya. Some distros I've examined don't provide any way to execute an executable shell script. They'll only treat one as text. Others make it as easy as simply double-clicking on it. The guest additions are the same in every case ... it's the distros that differ.

I'm going to try @stalebrim's idea next time I run into one that gives me trouble. I don't know how just fetching the guest additions from the repository can modify the guest's kernel, but I'm open-minded, if anything.

stalebrim

WetGeek

Some distros I've examined don't provide any way to execute an executable shell script

Most probably they do, but by default don't if the file hasn't got the execute permission set.

I don't know how just fetching the guest additions from the repository can modify the guest's kernel

Why can't it?

WetGeek

stalebrim Why can't it?

Like I said, I'll find out soon. I'm gonna try your method next time I have trouble doing it VirtualBox's way.

WetGeek

stalebrim by default don't if the file hasn't got the execute permission set

The shell script is in the Guest Additions .ISO file that VirtualBox inserts into the guest's CD drive. Why would the X permission be set sometimes and not at other times? As I said, I have an open mind, and will gladly admit I have it wrong if I do. I'll soon find out.

In fact, I have some ISOs that I've tested recently, and I know will create a VM that treats the guest additions as text only. I'll create the VM again, and experiment with it. I'm curious now.

stalebrim

WetGeek Because distributions treat files from unknown sources differently. That's however different than "not providing any way to execute an executable shell script".

WetGeek

WetGeek I'll create the VM again, and experiment with it. I'm curious now.

I re-created my Debian 11 VM, the most recent one I had problems with. Here's the scene from Dolphin.

The only ways to open it are these, with Kate (editor) as the default.

If I choose "Run in Konsole," this is the result.

So I'll eject the ISO from the virtual CD drive, and try to fetch the guest additions using apt. First I'll need to search for them, so I know what package name I need to install. Using apt search VirtualBox I get two full HD screens of results, not one of them having to do with Guest Additions. So I try apt search guestadditions, and this time there are zero results.

I figured I'd try using Discover, the GUI interface to the repository. I took this screenshot after Discover had been searching for three or four minutes.

I was preparing stuffed peppers for dinner, so I went to the kitchen, mixed the stuffing, prepared the peppers and stuffed them, filled the baking dish with the extra rice/beef/cheese mix, added the peppers, and preheatef the oven to 350, and when it got there, I inserted the baking dish and returned to this laptop. Still looking!

Solus' Software Center would return a list of VirtualBox components, for current and LTS in about 5 seconds, so I figure by now it's time to give up on Discover. Debian may be slow, but by now I don't think this is gonna work at all.

So, it's very clear by now that I can't fetch the guest additions from Debian's rather large repository. I can get them from the VM's host, but after getting them mounted in Dolphin, there's nothing I can do with them there. I can't change the permissions, because I'm not runnng Dolphin as root, but the display clearly shows that the executable checkbox is marked. (It couldn't be any other way.) And Debian will only open the script as text with the Kate editor. Selecting Run in Konsole doesn't execute the scriipt. And tryng to find anything related to VirtualBox in the Discover utility discovers nothing after about 30 minutes.

What would you have done differently to install the guest additions in the VM's kernel?

WetGeek

WetGeek What would you have done differently to install the guest additions in the VM's kernel?

@stalebrim : I'll keep this Debian 11 VM around for a while, in case you have any other suggestions I should try.

tomscharbach

WetGeek Per the Debian Wiki: "Packages for VirtualBox's Guest Additions are not officially available in stable releases of Debian, due to lack of cooperation from upstream on security support for older releases." However, there is a method to install Guest Additions using Debian Fast Track. Open the link and scroll down to the Debian 10 "Buster" and Debian 11 "Bullseye" for instructions.

WetGeek

tomscharbach However, there is a method to install Guest Additions using Debian Fast Track.

Thanks for researching that. While installing the distro to check it out, of course I knew nothing about the Debian Fast Track Project. I had the Guest Additions mounted in the file manager, and assumed that there should be a way to get them installed there. The "lack of cooperation from upstream on security support" is obviously what prevented that.

I appreciate knowing about this method. Should I ever decide to create another Debian VM, I'll take advantage of the opportunity to give this a try.

Brucehankins

What is the next distro on the docket?
I just installed Gecko Tumbleweed Plasma and LXQt in VMs to check those out. Also have Budgie and Cinnamon .iso's to check out too. I know you had Gecko earlier this year and curios to see your full thoughts on it.
Trying to find a very lightweight rolling release distro to throw on a 13+ year old iMac and the reviews are extremely helpful. I'd like to move away from arch, mostly because I'm not a fan of pacman. I'm waiting for new Solus .iso files to try Mate on it, but I've never been able to really enjoy using the old Gnome2 paradigm.

WetGeek

Brucehankins I'm waiting for new Solus .iso files to try Mate on it

There's really no need to wait, if you're ready for it now. The current .ISO file will install the same OS as the new one will. Just takes a couple minutes longer because of more packages needing updating after the installation. When I had a problem installng GNOME on a VM with the 4.3 .ISO, I dug out my 4.2 .ISO file and used that instead. There was no problem with that one. I can confirm that our 4.3 .ISO file works just fine -- I had no problem building my current MATE VM using it.

WetGeek

Brucehankins I know you had Gecko earlier this year and curios to see your full thoughts on it.

Actually, it was last year. If you do a forum search for Gecko, you'll find that thread easily. It was with the Budgie DE, I believe. It was at a time when several of us wanted to see how Budgie was faring elsewhere besides Solus.

I didn't try it with Plasma, but I used openSuSE Plasma for a long time, in fact, it was my introduction to Plasma. Since it's been that long, I could be interested in trying it again, this time with its Plasma DE. I have some free time until I need to fix lunch. 😄

Brucehankins

WetGeek I'll give it a go and see how it performs. Endeavour LXQt is about 556mb at idle, which is great since this machine only has 4gb of RAM and can use all the help it can get.

WetGeek

Brucehankins I'll give it a go and see how it performs.

Good luck with your MATE adventure! I hope it's everything you need for that machine.

brent

Budgie, my only love since 2017, was nuked on purpose last night. I came to the conclusion I really need a functioning file manager and the solus budgie experience had become frustrating to me as of late.
@tomscharbach Brucehankins --did try Ubuntu Budgie 22.04 (?) live....slick and beautiful. After Solus' rolling release I can't abide by the muted update schedule Ubu offers for the LTS. That was the dealbreaker.
@WetGeek --could find little on the internet--or from your experiences--about Ultramarine as a daily driver 24/7, so I decided against this as bad as I wanted Budgie back in some form. I revisited this Fedora today I really like it. If you had an opinion on this I'd be interested.

In the end I'm dedicating my hard disk to Solus Mate and Bodhi (ubu fork). Will install the bodhi with grub first and see how solus install works around that. Tentative plan for this evening. Writing from W10 right now.
@tomscharbach --I will follow yr wise mantra and unplug my W10 ssd for my install shenanigans later.

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