jammrk
November 26th, 2007, 02:17 AM
just wanted to make the masses aware of an issue I faced regarding virtualbox and guest addition. I used a guest addition package from the google project page instead of going about it the normal way:
4.2.1.1 Mounting the Additions ISO file
In the “Devices” menu in the virtual machine’s menu bar, VirtualBox has a handy menu
item named “Install guest additions”, which will automatically bring up the Additions
in your VM window.
If you prefer to mount the additions manually, you can perform the following steps:
1. Start the virtual machine where you have installed a Windows guest operating
system.
2. Select “Mount CD/DVD-ROM” from the “Devices” menu in the virtual machine’s
menu bar and then “CD/DVD-ROM image”. This brings up the Virtual Disk Man-
ager described in chapter 3.5, The Virtual Disk Manager, page 34.
3. In the Virtual Disk Manager, press the “Add” button and browse your host file
system for the VBoxGuestAdditions.iso file:
• On a Windows host, you can find this file in the VirtualBox installation
directory (usually under C:\Program files\innotek VirtualBox).
• On a Linux host, you can find this file in the additions folder under where
you installed VirtualBox (normally /opt/VirtualBox-1.5.2).
4. Back in the Virtual Disk Manager, select that ISO file and press the “Select” but-
ton. This will mount the ISO file and present it to your Windows guest as a
CD-ROM.
4.2.1.2 Running the installer
Unless you have the Autostart feature disabled in your Windows guest, Windows will
now autostart the VirtualBox Guest Additions installation program from the Additions
ISO. If the Autostart feature has been turned off, choose setup.exe from the CD/DVD
drive inside the guest to start the installer.
The installer will add several device drivers to the Windows driver database and
then invoke the hardware detection wizard.
Depending on your configuration, it might display warnings that the drivers are
not digitally signed. You must confirm these in order to continue the installation and
properly install the Additions.
After installation, reboot your guest operating system to activate the Additions. (taked from vbox user manual)
It way very convenient, it was a windows executable, it installed without error, I had seamless desktop, full-screen etc... However I was unable to access my shared folder. In case you dont know how here is the process for windows guest:
• In a Windows guest, starting with VirtualBox 1.5.0, shared folders are
browseable and are therefore visible in Windows Explorer. So, to attach the
host’s shared folder to your Windows guest, open Windows Explorer and look
for it under “My Networking Places” -> “Entire Network” -> “VirtualBox Shared
Folders”. By right-clicking on a shared folder and selecting “Map network drive”
from the menu that pops up, you can assign a drive letter to that shared folder.
Alternatively, on the Windows command line, use the following:
net use x: \\vboxsvr\sharename
While vboxsvr is a fixed name (note that vboxsrv would also work), replace
“x:“ with the drive letter that you want to use for the share, and sharename
with the share name specified with VBoxManage. (taken from vbox manual)
Then it occurred to me that might be I should try to install the addition the normal way, I removed the previous version (control panel-> add/remove program...). As it turns out that solved the problem. Sorry for the length of this post, but I just wanted to pass that on.
vbox manual can be downloaded here:
http://www.virtualbox.org/download/UserManual.pdf (I included the link location, so you can just use you favorite downloader. if you are wondering how, in my case the command would be "wget http://www.virtualbox.org/download/UserManual.pdf"
Jammrk
4.2.1.1 Mounting the Additions ISO file
In the “Devices” menu in the virtual machine’s menu bar, VirtualBox has a handy menu
item named “Install guest additions”, which will automatically bring up the Additions
in your VM window.
If you prefer to mount the additions manually, you can perform the following steps:
1. Start the virtual machine where you have installed a Windows guest operating
system.
2. Select “Mount CD/DVD-ROM” from the “Devices” menu in the virtual machine’s
menu bar and then “CD/DVD-ROM image”. This brings up the Virtual Disk Man-
ager described in chapter 3.5, The Virtual Disk Manager, page 34.
3. In the Virtual Disk Manager, press the “Add” button and browse your host file
system for the VBoxGuestAdditions.iso file:
• On a Windows host, you can find this file in the VirtualBox installation
directory (usually under C:\Program files\innotek VirtualBox).
• On a Linux host, you can find this file in the additions folder under where
you installed VirtualBox (normally /opt/VirtualBox-1.5.2).
4. Back in the Virtual Disk Manager, select that ISO file and press the “Select” but-
ton. This will mount the ISO file and present it to your Windows guest as a
CD-ROM.
4.2.1.2 Running the installer
Unless you have the Autostart feature disabled in your Windows guest, Windows will
now autostart the VirtualBox Guest Additions installation program from the Additions
ISO. If the Autostart feature has been turned off, choose setup.exe from the CD/DVD
drive inside the guest to start the installer.
The installer will add several device drivers to the Windows driver database and
then invoke the hardware detection wizard.
Depending on your configuration, it might display warnings that the drivers are
not digitally signed. You must confirm these in order to continue the installation and
properly install the Additions.
After installation, reboot your guest operating system to activate the Additions. (taked from vbox user manual)
It way very convenient, it was a windows executable, it installed without error, I had seamless desktop, full-screen etc... However I was unable to access my shared folder. In case you dont know how here is the process for windows guest:
• In a Windows guest, starting with VirtualBox 1.5.0, shared folders are
browseable and are therefore visible in Windows Explorer. So, to attach the
host’s shared folder to your Windows guest, open Windows Explorer and look
for it under “My Networking Places” -> “Entire Network” -> “VirtualBox Shared
Folders”. By right-clicking on a shared folder and selecting “Map network drive”
from the menu that pops up, you can assign a drive letter to that shared folder.
Alternatively, on the Windows command line, use the following:
net use x: \\vboxsvr\sharename
While vboxsvr is a fixed name (note that vboxsrv would also work), replace
“x:“ with the drive letter that you want to use for the share, and sharename
with the share name specified with VBoxManage. (taken from vbox manual)
Then it occurred to me that might be I should try to install the addition the normal way, I removed the previous version (control panel-> add/remove program...). As it turns out that solved the problem. Sorry for the length of this post, but I just wanted to pass that on.
vbox manual can be downloaded here:
http://www.virtualbox.org/download/UserManual.pdf (I included the link location, so you can just use you favorite downloader. if you are wondering how, in my case the command would be "wget http://www.virtualbox.org/download/UserManual.pdf"
Jammrk