Missing VBoxGuestAdditions.ISO?

[deleted] You can mount the guest additions ISO like you would any other disc image.

No one so far has explained why this .ISO is not present in the VirtualBox installation folder, so VirtualBox can install it on guest OSs, except @EbonJaeger , who says it's not there because it's not in the package. The question then becomes, "why isn't it in the package"? It's supposed to be there, according to the VirtualBox documentation.

When it's been downloaded directly from virtualbox.org in the past (not a good idea, according to Solus), it's always been opened by VirtualBox after the download, and installed in its installation folder. This time, it was opened by default by Ark.

So, VirtualBox is not working the way it should, because it's installation is not putting the guest additions where they should be installed. It's not putting it anywhere.

EbonJaeger The guest additions iso has definitely never been included by us;

I realize that now. And I remember downloading versions of it from virtualbox.org in the past, after which VirtualBox was the default application to open it. That's apparently how it got installed in the same folder as VirtualBox, itself.

That didn't happen this time. I'm sorry for any stress I might have created in my attempts to get to the bottom of this. I suspect it may not have been installed on Solus together with VirtualBox is because the guest additions probably contains non-FOSS drivers and such. Thus, on systems that strive to be FOSS-only, VirtualBox can be installed without the additions.

Why the web site no longer includes a link to download the guest additions is a mystery I don't want to pursue. My Windows 10 VM is now a pleasure to use, and I thank everyone who was involved in making it so.

EbonJaeger I would encourage you to file a package inclusion request.

Done. I don't know how strongly Solus attempts to be 100% FOSS, so I don't know whether it can be installed by default with VirtualBox, but I figured it's worth asking. Perhaps it could be installed to the same location (per the user manual), but from a separate package that Solus provides? I don't think there's any ethical difference between that and requiring that users go somewhere else on the Internet and download it from there.

Both of the locations you mentioned have sub-folders, such that I'm not confident that I could get the .ISO in the right place -- the place where VirtualBox looks for it -- so I didn't copy it anywhere.

@EbonJaeger : I've discussed the problem with using VirtualBox VMs full-screen on a Wayland session. (Total lockup of the host and guest). I know I asked in the forum so I could find out whether anyone else could reproduce the problem, but I don't remember getting a confirmation.

I don't believe that I've written a bug report in Dev Tracker for this, and I couldn't find it there. But you've been able to locate entries before that I couldn't. Can you tell if such a bug authored by me is there? If so, what's its status? If a bug isn't there already, I'll create one now.

This seems to be a VirtualBox problem, but it needs to be investigated. I can use a Boxes VM at full screen in a Wayland session with no such problem. Doing that with a VirtualBox VM immediately causes a lockup.

I understand it's been what we used to call "crunch time" where I worked, and I can sympathize. I've slept at my desk a time or two.

If you talk to @ermo, please tell him I just finished reading "Prepare for Packaging" in the Help Center. He locked our discussion before I could reply to him. I have a good development workstation that's been getting lonely these last few years, and I've used tools like make and git at work. My ambition is to help with the packaging, but right now I need to make sure my ambition doesn't exceed my current ability.

I plan to set up a development environment on that workstation, and further evaluate the idea. Is there currently no packager for VirtualBox?

ermo If you want to try your hand at packaging, I encourage you to join the -devel matrix room so you can get feedback and tips in real time from other packagers.

I'm not sure how to do that. In fact, I have little experience with Mastodon, Fosstodon, etc. Do I get to matrix from there, or do I need to start from somewhere else, like dev.getsol.us?

I've finished all the steps in setting up my server for packaging, but when I tried to make virtualbox, I got an error message about "Failed to load package: open pspec.xml: no such file or directory", so obviously I must have missed a step, or didn't understand something.

It sounds like I need to get into the -devel matrix room to get some help with this.