Mint 20.3 XFCE Virtualbox Guest does not install virtualbox additions.

[G4x]

Fresh guest install of 20.3 XFCE, runs nice but the lack of guest additions kills it. Inserted the guest additions cd under devices as normal, nothing happens, its mounted, but no auto play/install prompt, but autorun.sh and the other just open in text editor. Other distros sometimes let you right click to run to install, but not this one?

Is this a problem with XFCE or all mint?

[G4x]

Upon further testing, everything works as expected in 20.3 MATE

[Cosmo.]

From the manual:

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3. Change to the directory where your CD-ROM drive is mounted and run the following com-
mand as root:
sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

[G4x]

From the manual:

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3. Change to the directory where your CD-ROM drive is mounted and run the following com-
mand as root:
sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

this?

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# mount /dev/cdrom /mnt 
# cd /mnt 
# ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run 
# reboot

I found this on another page, but it didn't work, perhaps my syntax or path is wrong?

Not sure about manual, the https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_una_xfce.php release notes page for xfce section on virtualbox is a duplicate of the other editions which do work. Perhaps it should be updated?

[Cosmo.]

The desktop environment has not the least to do with VirtualBox. It must be a problem in your system. One of the links might help:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/22743/h ... tualbox-vm
https://superuser.com/questions/261643/ ... n7-host-os

[pbear]

Not sure about manual, the https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_una_xfce.php release notes page for xfce section on virtualbox is a duplicate of the other editions which do work. Perhaps it should be updated?

That's diplomatic. The candid description is that the XFCE Release Notes are wrong and have been for a long time (perhaps forever). The problem is, autorun doesn't work in XFCE and (in my experience) even enabling it in File Manager doesn't solve the problem.

Instead, follow the manual VBox Manual instructions (as Cosmo said). You need to be in the guest additions folder to run the command. There are a couple ways to do that, but I like this one (originally posed by deck_luck) (use copy-and-paste to duplicate path into the cd command):

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pbear@vbox-xfce-20:~$ df -h /dev/sr0
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sr0         59M   59M     0 100% /media/pbear/VBox_GAs_6.1.34
pbear@vbox-xfce-20:~$ cd /media/pbear/VBox_GAs_6.1.34 
pbear@vbox-xfce-20:/media/pbear/VBox_GAs_6.1.34$ sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

Notice the "dot" in front of /VBox. This will install the guest additions. When done, eject the virtual CD and reboot.
Same procedure is required when updating GAs, by the way.

[G4x]

Not sure about manual, the https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_una_xfce.php release notes page for xfce section on virtualbox is a duplicate of the other editions which do work. Perhaps it should be updated?

That's diplomatic. The candid description is that the XFCE Release Notes are wrong and have been for a long time (perhaps forever). The problem is, autorun doesn't work in XFCE and (in my experience) even enabling it in File Manager doesn't solve the problem.

Instead, follow the manual VBox Manual instructions (as Cosmo said). You need to be in the guest additions folder to run the command. There are a couple ways to do that, but I like this one (originally posed by deck_luck) (use copy-and-paste to duplicate path into the cd command):

Code: Select all

pbear@vbox-xfce-20:~$ df -h /dev/sr0
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sr0         59M   59M     0 100% /media/pbear/VBox_GAs_6.1.34
pbear@vbox-xfce-20:~$ cd /media/pbear/VBox_GAs_6.1.34 
pbear@vbox-xfce-20:/media/pbear/VBox_GAs_6.1.34$ sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

Notice the "dot" in front of /VBox. This will install the guest additions. When done, eject the virtual CD and reboot.
Same procedure is required when updating GAs, by the way.

Ah ok that works thanks.

I right clicked inside the folder window to open terminal to the correct path. "sudo sh" works, the previous suggestion of just "sh" doesn't.

In Mate right clicking on the cd icon brings up the menu option for auto run which is easier. There are two listings for auto run which is strange though.


Anyways yea the webpage should probably be updated for this.

[harbinger27]

I have installed Guest Additions on all three versions of Mint 20.3 in Virtual Box.

I can confirm that the most recently offered suggestion indeed works. For some reason the CD mounts on the desktop in MATE and Cinnamon but you have to manually change the directory in the command line and launch from there in XFCE.

Good luck

[markfilipak]

... Is this a problem with XFCE or all mint?

I also am having difficulty with yesterday's clean install of Mint 20.3-XFCE. From one session to another, I don't know whether the virtual CD will be mounted. It varies. I will make a new VM with Mate DM [note] and come back with the results.
[note] I have a lot of experience with the Cinnamon DM. It seems to be a scripted DM and has its problems. I hope Mate is compiled.


Mon Jun 27, 2022
I'm back.

Mate seems no better than Cinnamon, but it is better than XFCE. The mount for the virtual CD is reliable.

The menuing system is awful, but then, all of the Mint menuing systems are bad.

[Reddog1]

Just go to devices and click on Insert Guest Additions CD Image

Xfce will mount it at /media/yourusername/VBox_GAs_6.1.34/ (If that is your VBox version)

Open a terminal and:

cd /media/yourusername/VBox_GAs_6.1.34

sudo ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

Mint, unlike many other distributions, doesn't detect when it is being installed as a virtual machine, so we have to go through this. Quite a few other distributions, Debian-based, Arch-based, and even Suse, detect a virtual machine and automagically install the GuestAdditions package. At first boot of your new VM, you have a complete virtual machine, without the aggravation. Maybe, in its next iteration, Mint will 'get with the program' and do what many other distributions do.

[pbear]

Maybe, in its next iteration, Mint will 'get with the program' and do what many other distributions do.

Goodness, I hope not. And, frankly, if it hasn't happened by now, it's probably not on the road map. Thing is, automagical is great when it works, but a nightmare when it doesn't. I've given up installing Manjaro in VBox, for example.

Let's bear in mind, how Mint handles guest additions derives through Ubuntu. And it's how VirtualBox is designed to work.

[Cosmo.]

Maybe, in its next iteration, Mint will 'get with the program' and do what many other distributions do.

A bad, bad, bad suggestion, out of 2 reasons:

#1 The VB manual recommends to remove the preinstalled guest additions. See chapter 4.2.2.

#2 The guest additions came in previous versions of Mint preinstalled and gave regularly trouble and user needed help how to get rid of them.
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=215115&hilit=guest+additions
viewtopic.php?f=47&t=188924&hilit=guest+additions
There was much trouble at that time because of the preinstalled nonsense.

[Reddog1]

I've done dozens of VM installs. The problem is never with GA, the problem is that the version of VBox being used on the host is not what the distribution expects. An example, which I've run into myself, is running a very out of date VBox (version 5 when version 6 has been out for months). The solution is to keep VBox up-to-date. If I choose to install the newest verson of GA, a query pops up to ask to uninstall the old version. That's it. If that's too much, then VBox isn't for you. As for Manjaro, I've never had a single problem with it, and I have it running on 3 machines right now. In fact, I'm typing this in a Manjaro VM, and I never manually installed guest additions. If you want a 'new' GA in Manjaro, you can click on the Devices and the Load GA and a box will pop up and ask you if you want to download it. I add and subtract virtual machines all the time and have the .iso for several dozen distributions on a backup disk, including various Windows and BSD. In other words, the distributions auto-install of GA 'just works', and most of my installs are Xfce, because i like Xfce and it runs excellent as a VM. I have a real gripe with distributions that do not install GA and do not install the kernel headers by default, which means installing GA requires jumping through hoops to figure out how the distribution packaging system catalogues them. Mint as a VM doesn't have that problem. My basic host is Mint, but I also use OSX, and I'm convinced there would be fewer headaches for newbies, who by definition are still using training wheels, if Mint just installed GA when a VM.

[Cosmo.]

I'm convinced there would be fewer headaches for newbies

I will surely not discuss about your conviction. I see this as a kind of believe. I have the experience with the problems, which the preinstalled GAs gave in the older Mint versions, and that had been more than 1 dozen cases. Those help requests are not conviction, but fact. And they demonstrated, that there was something wrong, because the affected users did not do anything wrong and it was also not any hardware related issue. So the issues were foreseeable and that is nothing than bad.

You try to impress with the number of installations. Fruitless. How much installation experience do you think has Oracle? Hard to say, how much dozens of dozens that will be. They did dis-advice to use those preinstalled GAs out of a reason, not out of a believe.

Another fact is, that about 90 % of all users, which we "see" here, use Mint on metal and not virtualized. They get a piece of software, which they do not need. And if they need GA, it is - taken from statistics - outdated, as a LTS system a Mint version has up to 5 years life time. No VB version got only nearly as old. Also this is a simple fact. No conviction can beat the facts.

And at the end: Even with a preinstalled GA Mint with Cinnamon in a VM would not work with full support for the graphics, because the user has at first to select the proper graphics controller and also select to enable hardware acceleration. The installation of GA inside of a new VM is the very most easy step; I don't think, that I have to explain that. With your words: "If that's too much, then VBox isn't for you."

[pbear]

I've done dozens of VM installs.

Me too. We're way off-topic in this thread, though, so I'll leave the debate to another day.