VirtualBox Guest Additions - Life of a webmaster

Windows stopped booting in Virtual Machine after upgrading to VirtualBox 7 (SOLVED)

Posted by Alex On October 22, 2022

After upgrading to VirtualBox 7 (more precisely, to VirtualBox 7.0.2), the Windows 11 guest OS stopped booting.

Windows 11 guest boot starts as usual, no errors are displayed. Moreover, you can hear the Windows logon sound, but the desktop is not shown.

Boot freezes on the initial screen with UEFI messages.

As a host (main) OS, I use Linux, namely Arch Linux.

The problem was solved in the following way:

1. Shut down the guest OS

2. Go to its settings → Display.

Uncheck “Enable 3D Acceleration”.

3. Boot guest OS with Windows as usual

4. Update Guest Additions.

5. After that, you can again activate the “Enable 3D Acceleration” setting – the guest system will boot without errors.

Hangups while updating Guest Additions

One of the innovations of VirtualBox 7 is the automatic updating of the Guest Addition.

But in my case, after inserting Guest Additions CD image, an error occurred and the virtual computer hung.

In addition to the problem discussed just above, I noticed that the Windows guest OS, after inserting the “Guest Additions CD image”, tried to update them on its own. This led to endless freezes and the need to force a reboot of the guest OS.

Finally, the problem was solved in the following way:

1. Remove Guest Additions (if your guest OS keeps freezing then boot into safe mode)

2. Restart your computer

3. Reinstall the Guest Additions

4. Restart the computer again

Should I upgrade to VirtualBox 7?

At the time of writing, the latest stable version is VirtualBox 7.0.2, which was released just a few days after the release of the first stable version of VirtualBox 7.

However, according to my observations, Windows 11 is still unstable in VirtualBox 7.0.2.

Although VirtualBox 7 brings significant updates, they are not in demand by most users who run virtual machines in VirtualBox. If you do not see anything important in the changelog in VirtualBox 7, then I would recommend waiting a few months before upgrading. During this time, more problems and bugs will be fixed.

Ubuntu in VirtualBox does not stretch to full screen although Guest Additions are installed (SOLVED)

Posted by Alex On March 27, 2021

1. Are the Guest Additions actually installed?

First, make sure you actually have Guest Additions installed.

It is recommended to update the guest OS to the latest package versions:

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

After the update is complete, restart your computer:

reboot

There is a guest additions package in the standard repositories. It can be installed as follows:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install virtualbox-guest-dkms

2. Enabling full screen mode and resizing the guest OS screen

To switch to full screen mode, press Host+A, or go to Menu → View → Full screen mode.

If this did not help either, then maximize the virtual machine window to the maximum, then go to Menu → View → Auto-resize Guest Display.

3. Changing the type of graphics controller

If that doesn't work, try with different graphics controllers. With the virtual machine turned off, you need to go to its settings, then to the Display tab.

On this tab, you need to set VMSVGA or VboxVGA as the Graphics controller - try different controllers and see which one works with “Auto-resize Guest Display”.

4. Reinstallation and reconfiguration of virtualbox-guest-dkms:

sudo apt remove virtualbox-guest-dkms --purge
sudo apt install virtualbox-guest-dkms
sudo dpkg-reconfigure virtualbox-guest-dkms

5. Increase the video memory size

In the settings of the virtual machine, increase the video memory size to the maximum

6. Manually change the screen resolution settings

Go to the screen resolution settings of your guest virtual machine and select another, more appropriate.

So

Some of these methods should help you. Write in the comments – which one, it will help other users who have encountered the exact same problem.

If all else fails, then it is recommended to update VirtualBox to the latest version, and also make a full system update and reboot:

sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade -y
reboot

VirtualBox shared folder is read-only (SOLVED)

Posted by Alex On February 18, 2021

VirtualBox Shared Folder allows you to easily exchange files between a virtual machine and a real computer.

By default, the contents of the Shared Folder are owned by the root user. Therefore, the files in the shared folder are read-only for regular users. The following manual shows how to make the VirtualBox shared folder read/write accessible to regular users.

1. Install VirtualBox Guest Additions.

Without Guest Additions, shared folders won't work properly.

2. Add a Shared Folder if you haven't already.

3. Make sure the “Read-only” checkbox is unchecked in the Shared Folder settings.

4. Add your user to the vboxsf group:

sudo usermod -a -G vboxsf $USER

Restart your computer for the changes (the user is added to the group) to take effect.

In theory, this should be enough for the shared folder to become writable. That is, the point is that the folder is mounted so that the group that it belongs to is vboxsf. Users in this group can edit the contents of the folder.

But on some distributions the folder is mounted as owned by the root user and owned by the root group. In this case, regular users have read permissions to the contents of the shared folder, but they cannot edit files in it, create new files, or delete existing ones.

The vboxsf filesystem has uid= and gid= mount options, you can try them with commands like:

sudo mount -t vboxsf -o 'uid=1000,gid=141' SHARE_NAME /PATH/TO/POINT/MOUNT

Or add a line like this to the /etc/fstab file:

SHARE_NAME	/PATH/TO/POINT/MOUNT	vboxsf	gid=141	0	0

But both of these methods did not work in my case.

I tried to change the owner of the folder and its contents using chown:

echo $USER
mial

sudo chown -R mial /mnt/share

But this did not work either - the owner of this folder was still root.

The only way to make the folder readable was by changing the access rights to it with chmod.

This command will create and modify new files and directories in the shared folder:

sudo chmod 777 /PATH/TO/POINT/MOUNT

Conclusion

Note that changing file permissions changes them not only for the virtual computer, but for the real one too! Therefore, the method described above cannot be considered ideal. If you have any thoughts on how to force the shared folder to be mounted with the vboxsf group, then write in the comments!

How to install VirtualBox Guest Additions in Linux LMDE

Posted by Alex On June 12, 2020

LMDE is the Linux Mint Debian Edition, i.e. Linux Mint based on Debian.

VirtualBox Guest Additions are kernel modules (drivers) that are needed if you run Linux LMDE in a VirtualBox virtual machine.

Thanks to guest additions it is possible:

enable a shared clipboard between the real operating system and the guest OS
enable file drag and drop between host and guest OS
expand the guest OS screen to a larger size or use the guest OS in full screen mode, as well as enable display integration.

Guest Additions are not available in the standard Linux LMDE repositories (Linux Mint Debian Edition).

There are two installation options:

install Guest Additions from the disk that comes with VirtualBox
add a third-party repository

I prefer the first option, so let’s consider it.

Start by fully upgrading and rebooting the system:

sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade -y
reboot

Install the dependencies needed to compile the kernel module:

sudo apt install build-essential module-assistant

Configure the system to build kernel modules:

sudo m-a prepare

Connect the disk with Guest Add-ons, for this, in the VirtualBox menu of the virtual machine, select «Devices» → «Insert Guest Additions CD image»:

Return to the system again and do type in console:

cd /media/*/VBox*
sudo sh VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

Wait for the installation to finish, pay attention that everything goes without errors.

After the installation is complete, reboot again for the changes to take effect:

reboot

In the VirtualBox menu, turn on “Shared Clipboard” and other functions that you need: