VirtualBox Guest Additions

WetGeek

I used to install GuestAdditions on my Windows 10 VMs, but lately I'm having problems doing that. When I try, I get an error message saying that they can't be found, and would I like to download them from the Internet? Then, when I click to download them, another error immediately appears (something about a cert) telling me that can't happen.

If occurred to me that there might be some other way to get them mounted in the VM's virtual CD drive if I could only access the guest additions .ISO. After all, the guest and its host can share in lots of ways. I've seen that .ISO file before, but can't find it now.

And if I check with eopkg, these are all the VirtualBox components that are available. It lists guest additions for the LTS kernel, but not for the current kernel. I suspect this may indicate when something changed, but I don't want to go back to using an LTS kernel just to get the guest additions back again.

Is anyone able to help with this? Do you know where I could look for that guest additions .ISO file? Do you know why I can't simply insert it into the virtual CD drive from the VirtualBox Devices sub menu anymore? I'm currently stuck in a 1024x768 video resolution for that VM, and although I can operate the editor for my label maker at that size, I'd much rather be able to make it bigger. Thanks for any help.

Staudey

WetGeek And if I check with eopkg, these are all the VirtualBox components that are available. It lists guest additions for the LTS kernel, but not for the current kernel. I suspect this may indicate when something changed, but I don't want to go back to using an LTS kernel just to get the guest additions back again.

As our Help Center explains, the -common package is for the linux-current kernel (i.e. it has no separate package like the one for linux-lts)
https://help.getsol.us/docs/user/software/virtualization/virtualbox#solus-as-guest

I guess that naming is a bit confusing.

WetGeek

Staudey I guess that naming is a bit confusing.

Agreed. But even when virtualbox-guest-common is installed, when I try to install the guest additions into a Windows 10 VM, this is as far as I get. And then it continues on to fail at fetching them online.

That's why I was hoping that I could find them somewhere in the file system, and look for another way to insert them into the virtual CD drive. I know I've seen them before while browsing the file system, but I'm not having any luck with that now.

I can't even accomplish this in Boxes. Even though I tell it to create a VM based on the Windows 10 .ISO file, it insists on creating one for Windows 11 instead, and I'd rather catch an STD. There's no way I could find to get it to create a Windows 10 VM, although that's still a viable OS.

By the way, taking a Boxes VM to full-screen on a Wayland session does NOT lock up both systems, as happens with any VirtualBox VM. So the lockup problem is apparently upstream at Oracle, not KDE.

Staudey

WetGeek Agreed. But even when virtualbox-guest-common is installed, when I try to install the guest additions into a Windows 10 VM, this is as far as I get. And then it continues on to fail at fetching them online.

I think you're confusing some things here. The virtualbox-guest(-common) packages are for running Solus as the guest system, and have no use at all when Solus is the host OS. I was only correcting some information in your original post, not suggesting they have anything to do with the Windows VM issue.

I'm not sure what is going wrong with mounting the Guest Additions disk image file. Maybe someone else has experience in that regard

Staudey

WetGeek I can't even accomplish this in Boxes. Even though I tell it to create a VM based on the Windows 10 .ISO file, it insists on creating one for Windows 11 instead, and I'd rather catch an STD. There's no way I could find to get it to create a Windows 10 VM, although that's still a viable OS.

I can simply select it from the dropdown menu, is that not the case for you?

WetGeek

Staudey I can simply select it from the dropdown menu, is that not the case for you?

That's a huge list, and I might have missed it because I didn't use the search feature. I thought that telling it to install from an .ISO file, and giving it the Windows 10 .ISO file to use would cause it to do what I wanted.

Thanks for suggesting a different way. I'll try that now.

That doesn't immediately help, so I'll keep trying to figure out why.

Staudey

So, I couldn't really get a sensible error message out of VirtualBox, and all workarounds online just talk about downloading the file manually (https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/7.0.8/VBoxGuestAdditions_7.0.8.iso)

WetGeek

WetGeek That doesn't immediately help, so I'll keep trying to figure out why.

And I did figure it out, with your help. I was looking at the search feature when I'd selected to do an online installation. When I selected to install based on the Windows 10 .ISO file, and it insisted on Windows 11 instead, I used THAT dropdown instead, and gotthe same thing you did.

Thanks for your help with this. I never would have figured it out if you hadn't shown me that dropdown full of Windows editions!

WetGeek

@tomscharbach : When I looked at gnome-boxes a long while ago, I wasn't very impressed with it. With the problem of total lockup when a VirtualBox is taken to full-screen in a Wayland session, though, I thought I'd take another look at Boxes, and I must say I'm impressed. It's come a long way.

I have a couple questions for a Boxes expert, if you have time for this.

(1) I haven't found a way yet to create an EFI version of any Solus edition. Is this just not possible, or have I just not found the secret yet, and should keep looking? I could choose to create an EFI VM of Windows 11, but not Windows 10, and not a non-Windows OS.

(2) I haven't found a way to prepare a disk prior to installation, and assign mount points during the installation. I can create one the size I need, but with either an EFI partition or a SWAP partition, the installer complains that it doesn't have any place to put a boot loader. So I can't get a Boxes VM to hibernate, for lack of swap space.

If you have any suggestions to get around these apparent limitations, I'd appreciate it. If not, I'll still use Boxes in Wayland, until Oracle solves their lockup problem, because it allows me to use the VMs at full-screen. As I said, Boxes has come a long way.

Staudey

WetGeek (1) I haven't found a way yet to create an EFI version of any Solus edition. Is this just not possible, or have I just not found the secret yet, and should keep looking? I could choose to create an EFI VM of Windows 11, but not Windows 10, and not a non-Windows OS.

Interesting, that should work the same way as for Windows. Make sure to select something like "Generic Linux 2022" as a system type and then the switch for UEFI should appear

WetGeek (2) I haven't found a way to prepare a disk prior to installation, and assign mount points during the installation. I can create one the size I need, but with either an EFI partition or a SWAP partition, the installer complains that it doesn't have any place to put a boot loader. So I can't get a Boxes VM to hibernate, for lack of swap space.

That should work basically the same as in VirtualBox or on real hardware. Theoretically at least, because I haven't tried as I just use the whole disk in VM installs.

WetGeek

Staudey Make sure to select something like "Generic Linux 2022" as a system type and then the switch for UEFI should appear

I'll give that a try, thanks.

Staudey Interesting, that should work the same way as for Windows.

I've gotta quit believing that providing an .ISO file tells Boxes all it needs to know about an OS. That seems to work just fine for VirtualBox, so it's a very old habit. I've been using Boxes now for one day, and slowly catching on, but I'm no expert yet.

The third thing I forgot to put into that message was (3) can a Boxes VM connect with one of its hosts resources, such as VirtualBox VMs can?

My one and only reason for having a Windows VM at all is to operate a label printer that connects to the host via USB, and only works with Windows and Mac. My VirtualBox Windows 10 VM can do that, of course, but it sucks for other reasons. If a Boxes VM can also do that, I'd be very happy, because it doesn't have VirtualBox's other issues. So far, though, I haven't seen anything that indicates it's possible.

WetGeek

Staudey Make sure to select something like "Generic Linux 2022" as a system type and then the switch for UEFI should appear

You're right again! This is a Boxes VM I created using Generic Linux 2022, and it uses EFI, it has 6 GiB of swap, and the installer had no problem at all assigning a boot loader. With that much swap, I have no doubt it will hibernate gracefully, once it finishes its updates.

Once again, thanks for your help with this. I feel like I've accomplished a lot for my first day with Boxes. Now, if I could just figure out how to get a Boxes VM to access a USB device connected to its host ...

ermo

@wetgeek:

You may want to check out virt-manager. It still uses qemu/kvm like GNOME Boxes, but it exposes more knobs for the user to tweak, including doing host USB passthrough IIRC.

If you go the virt-manager route, the internet has tips on how to do the USB pass-through setup, GPU acceleration etc.

Best of luck.

ReillyBrogan

ermo More than just using qemu/kvm like GNOME Boxes they are both using libvirtd behind the scenes. This means that if you open virt-manager you should see the GNOME Boxes VMs and vice versa.

WetGeek

ermo You may want to check out virt-manager.

I looked at that quite a while ago, and it didn't interest me. I'll take another look now. If it enables me to run my VirtualBox VMs at full-screen in a Wauland session, I'll be glad I did.

WetGeek

ermo You may want to check out virt-manager

ReillyBrogan More than just using qemu/kvm like GNOME Boxes they are both using libvirtd behind the scenes.

I created a Budgie VM using this thing, and confirmed that I can take a VM to full-screen in a Wayland session without anything locking up. That was true of Boxes, too, but that app was a bit light on configuration options. I'll need to study virt-manager a while longer when II get some free time, but if it doesn't have Boxes' limitations, I'll move to it from VirtualBox. I've got a feeling Wayland is here to stay.

Ironic, I know. The guy who might be maintaining VirtualBox might not use it anymore.

elfprince

WetGeek Ironic, I know. The guy who might be maintaining VirtualBox might not use it anymore.

Life is funny, eh? 🤣