VirtualBox Guest Additions on Fedora 34/33, CentOS/RHEL 8/7/6/5 - Comment Page: 5

Updated on May 20, 2021 by JR 352 comments

This is guide, howto install Oracle VirtualBox Guest Additions on Fedora, CentOS and Red Hat (RHEL). This guide should work with Fedora 34/33/32/31/30, CentOS 8.2/7.8/6.10/5.11, Red Hat (RHEL) 8.2/7.8/6.10/5.11. VirtualBox Guest Additions is special software that can be installed inside Linux virtual machines to improve performance and make integration much more seamless. Among the features provided by these VirtualBox Guest Additions are mouse pointer integration and arbitrary screen solutions (e.g. by resizing the guest window). Check video version of guide: Watch More Videos and Subscribe to if-not-true-then-false.com Youtube Channel Note: Fedora 34/33/32/31/30...

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352 comments on “VirtualBox Guest Additions on Fedora 34/33, CentOS/RHEL 8/7/6/5 - Comment Page: 5”

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mohand
3rd March 2013, 5:35 pm

The output from terminal after having followed your howto to the letter:
[[email protected] VBOXADDITIONS_4.2.6_82870]# ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
Verifying archive integrity… All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox 4.2.6 Guest Additions for Linux……….
VirtualBox Guest Additions installer
Removing existing VirtualBox DKMS kernel modules [ OK ]
Removing existing VirtualBox non-DKMS kernel modules [ OK ]
Building the VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel modules
Building the main Guest Additions module [Ã‰CHOUÃ‰]
(Look at /var/log/vboxadd-install.log to find out what went wrong)
Doing non-kernel setup of the Guest Additions [ OK ]
Installing the Window System drivers
Installing X.Org Server 1.13 modules [ OK ]
Setting up the Window System to use the Guest Additions [ OK ]
You may need to restart the hal service and the Window System (or just restart
the guest system) to enable the Guest Additions.

Installing graphics libraries and desktop services componen[ OK ]

Is there a workaround?

Thanks for your contribution.

Mohand
Reply
- JR
  3rd March 2013, 8:15 pm
  Hi Mohand,
  
  Could you post content of /var/log/vboxadd-install.log file?
  
  And output of following commands:
```
rpm -qa kernel\* gcc dkms make bzip2

uname -a

lsb_release -a
```
  Reply
mohand
6th March 2013, 11:05 pm

Hi JR (Stetson and big smile?)

Thanks anyway, I managed to solve the issue by updating dkms and everything is OK now with the guest additions.
Reply
David Dyer-Bennet
21st March 2013, 12:08 am

Fails on Centos 6.3 (running in VirtualBox on Windows 7). The mount command responds “you must specify the filesystem type”. (Specifying “-t autofs” or “-t iso9660” give various other failures).

Devices / Install Guest Additions may not be working right for some reason. It does un-grey the CD icon in the bottom of the window, though (whereas Devices / CD / Remove disk greys it out).

This is not an initial installation, I’m attempting to upgrade what’s inside the virtual machine in case it matters, after upgrading to 4.2.10 externally.
Reply
I am new in Linux OS, NEED HELP IN RED HAT 9 INTERNET CONNECTION WITH VMWARE 9
23rd March 2013, 7:05 pm

[…] Since you also asked about virtualbox-guest-additions, follow this guide: http://www.if-not-true-then-false.co…-red-hat-rhel/ […]
Reply
pookieman
25th March 2013, 8:19 pm

Very useful.. thanks for writing up!
Reply
Art
20th April 2013, 4:44 pm

Thanks, needed to figure out what t was needed to get the virtualbox update on openSuse 12.3 so your part on:

yum install gcc kernel-devel kernel-headers dkms make bzip2

solved it

used yast instead ( kernel-headers not needed)

thanks
Reply
Rico
2nd June 2013, 3:09 am

Thanks for these details, very usefull.
But I’m facing another issue on CentOS 5.6 (after installing dkms, using the link Barry provides), in /var/log/vboxadd-install.log:
“DKMS: add Completed
Error! Your kernel headers for kernel 2.6.18-348.6.1.el5xen cannot be found at /lib/modules/2.6.18-348.6.1.el5xen/build or /lib/modules/2.6.18-348.6.1.el5xen/source.
…”
and if I run “yum install kernel-headers”:
“Package kernel-headers-2.6.18-348.6.1.el5.x86_64 already installed and latest version. Nothing to do”

Any suggestions ?
Reply
- JR
  3rd June 2013, 1:28 pm
  Hi Rico,
  
  Run following commands and post output here:
```
uname -a

ls -la /usr/src/kernels
```
  Reply
  - Rico
    5th June 2013, 7:47 pm
    
    Hi JR,
    Many thanks for your interest in this topic.
    uname -a:
    Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.18-348.6.1.el5xen #1 SMP Tue May 21 16:10:52 EDT 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
    
    ls -al /usr/src/kernels:
    drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 juin 2 00:27 .
    drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 juin 3 13:45 ..
    drwxr-xr-x 19 root root 4096 juin 3 13:34 2.6.18-348.6.1.el5-x86_64
    
    (I hope there is no mistake because I can’t copy/paste)
    Reply
    - JR
      5th June 2013, 11:26 pm
      
      Hi Rico,
      
      Try following:
      
      KERN_DIR=/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-348.6.1.el5-x86_64 ## Export KERN_DIR ## export KERN_DIR cd /media/VirtualBoxGuestAdditions # 32-bit and 64-bit systems run following ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
      
      Is it working then?
      Reply
      - Rico
        5th June 2013, 11:45 pm
        
        Already done, the result of my first post was running with this environment variable (I also try to put it in .bashrc file)
        Reply
        
        Rico
        6th June 2013, 12:24 am
        
        I also try to change the link in /lib/modules/2.6.18-348.6.1.el5xen/build that was not correct to make it works:
        Build -> /usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-348.6.1.el5-x86_64
        
        The result seems to be a little bit better, but guest additions still not working after running VBoxLinuxAdditions.run:
        Verifying archive integrity… All good
        Uncompressing VirtualBox 4.2.12 Guest Additions for Linux ………
        VirtualBox Guest Additions installer
        Removing installer version 4.2.12 od VirtualBox GuestAdditions …
        Copying additional installer modules …
        Installing additional modules …
        Removing existing VirtualBox DKMS kernel modules [OK]
        Removing existing VirtualBox non-DKMS kernel modules [OK]
        Building the VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel modules [OK]
        Doing non-kernel setup of the Guest Additions [OK]
        Starting the VirtualBox Guest Additions [FAILED]
        (modprobe vboxguest failed)
        Installing the window System drivers
        Installing X.Org 7.1 modules [OK]
        Setting up the Window System to use the Guest Additions [OK]
        You may need to restart the hal service and the window System (or just restart the guest system) to enable the Guest Additions.
        
        Installing graphics libraries and desktop services componen[OK]
        
        And if I restart the CentOS machine, it still not work ( can see in boot log that guest additions failed.
        Reply
        
        JR
        6th June 2013, 10:41 am
        
        Could you post output of following command:
        
        modinfo vboxguest
        Reply
        
        Rico
        6th June 2013, 10:55 pm
        
        One time again, thanks you JR.
        modinfo vboxguest :
        filename: /lib/modules/2.6.18-348.6.1.el5xen/extra/vboxguest.ko
        version: 4.2.12
        license: GPL
        description: Oracle VM VirtualBox Guest Additions for Linux Module
        author: Oracle Corporation
        srcversion: 1EDD4C0A2A67D428711D0C7
        alias: pci:v000080EEd0000CAFEsv00000000sd00000000bc*sc*i*
        depends:
        vermagic: 2.6.18-348.6.1.el5 SMP mod_unload gcc-4.1
        Reply
        
        JR
        7th June 2013, 12:14 pm
        
        This looks interesting. This problem might be related to xen kernel version, but could you also try what you get when you try modprobe this module:
        
        modprobe vboxguest
        Reply
        
        Rico
        7th June 2013, 5:11 pm
        
        modprobe vboxguest
        FATAL: Error inserting vboxguest (/lib/modules/2.6.18-348.6.1.el5xen/extra/vboxguest.ko): Invalid module format
JR
10th June 2013, 10:31 am

Hi again Rico,

I tested this little bit more.

First do you need that xen kernel what you are using?
Reply
- Rico
  12th June 2013, 12:26 pm
  
  Hi JR,
  Today, I’m happy. I relaunch all the install procedure from scratch by creating a new VM and the VBox Additions work fine after following step by step your advices.
  
  So i would like to adress you many and big thanks to you for helping me to do this work.
  Reply
  - JR
    13th June 2013, 9:59 am
    
    You are very welcome! Excellent to hear that you got it working!
    Reply
Jose
13th June 2013, 12:08 am

Hi JR,

Excelent guides, thank you!

I have a couple of questions:

1. In your second step you have click Devices > Install Guest Additons; I don’t have a Devices menu in my VirtualBox, only File, Machine and Help.

2. I have a netbook and don’t have a cdrom drive, so when I type mount -r /dev/cdrom /media/VirtualBoxGuestAdditions I get the error:
mount: special device /dev/cdrom does not exist

Thanks again!
Reply
- JR
  13th June 2013, 9:56 am
  Hi Jose,
  
  Thanks!
  
  1. What version of VirtualBox (check Help > About VirtualBox…) you are running and what operating system you are using? Could you probably post screenshot of your VirtualBox window?
  
  2. Actually this is your virtual machine /dev/cdrom and it’s not depending on your host machine. So if your netbook doesn’t have cdrom drive (which is normal case nowadays), it’s not problem, because you can add virtual CD/DVD device under Storage options. If you have not removed that device, then it should be there already.
  
  And when you could click that “Install Guest Additions” (you can also try Host+D command) then you should be able to mount that device with following command:
```
mount -r /dev/cdrom /media/VirtualBoxGuestAdditions
```
  This is probably even auto-mounted (under /media), but I use here just this command because, then path is exactly same even if you run some older version of VirtualBox or if it’s not auto-mounted some reason.
  Reply
  - Jose
    13th June 2013, 9:44 pm
    
    Hi JR,
    
    Thamks for the quick reply!
    
    I realise now that it was me being dumb. I need to do this in the Virtual Machine, not in the Virtual Box window. I can see the option Devices and Install Guest Additions in the Virtual Machine window.
    
    Cheers,
    
    Jose
    Reply
    - JR
      14th June 2013, 11:40 pm
      
      Hi Jose,
      
      Excellent, really nice to hear that you got VirtualBox Guest Additions installed!
      Reply
Brandon
13th June 2013, 6:18 pm

FYI…
*On a fresh install of CentOS 6.4, without updating kernel…

`uname -r` reports “2.6.32-358.el6.x86_64” NOT “2.6.32-358.11.1.el6.x86_64” (actual path in /usr/src/kernels)

So, I did additional step:

ln -s /usr/src/kernels/2.6.32-358.11.1.el6.x86_64/ /usr/src/kernels/2.6.32-358.el6.x86_64

This also fixes the broken symlinks in /lib/modules/2.6.32-358.el6.x86_64
Reply
Nikhil
10th July 2013, 3:54 pm

i get a black screen after fedora 19 loads, after completing all procedure successfully. i don’t see login screen
Reply
- AMI
  11th July 2013, 2:22 pm
  
  same result – Black Screen Of Death :]
  VB 4.2.12 on Win7ENT64
  Fedora 19 kernel was updated to the latest version 3.9.9-301.fc19.i686.PAE
  trying to upgrade VB to 4.2.16…
  Reply
James Selvakumar
11th July 2013, 11:29 am

Thank you very much. It worked like a charm.
Reply
tatiana
7th August 2013, 2:07 pm

I executed the commands
[email protected] cdrom]# cat /etc/*-release
CentOS release 5.6 (Final)
[[email protected] cdrom]# KERN_DIR=/usr/src/kernels/`uname -r`-`uname -m`
[[email protected] cdrom]# export KERN_DIR
[[email protected] cdrom]# ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
but I get an error at the end:
Verifying archive integrity… All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox 4.2.12 Guest Additions for Linux…………
VirtualBox Guest Additions installer
Removing installed version 4.2.12 of VirtualBox Guest Additions…
Copying additional installer modules …
Installing additional modules …
Removing existing VirtualBox DKMS kernel modules [ OK ]
Removing existing VirtualBox non-DKMS kernel modules [ OK ]
Building the VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel modules [ OK ]
Doing non-kernel setup of the Guest Additions [ OK ]
You should restart your guest to make sure the new modules are actually used

Installing the Window System drivers [FAILED]
(Could not find the X.Org or XFree86 Window System.)
I’m not sure what
Window System drivers
is.
suggestions?
Reply
- JR
  7th August 2013, 8:17 pm
  
  Hi tatiana,
  
  Do you have server installation?
  
  VirtualBox Guest Additions try to install some desktop features, like seamless mode, copy and paste, etc. but actually you don’t need those on server installation. If you want it run without errors (and install Window System drivers), then you have to install Xorg first.
  Reply
hillct
29th October 2013, 11:55 pm

While this is likely not an issue for most users, the minimal install of Centos 6 does not include perl, which is (ridiculously) a dependency of the VirtualBox linux additions as of v4.3 and possibly earlier, so you might add perl to your yum install line (only the base modules are required) to be safe.
Reply
- JR
  30th October 2013, 12:46 am
  
  Hi hillct,
  
  Thanks, excellent addition, guide updated.
  Reply
Daniel Fonseca
26th December 2013, 9:19 pm

Hi!

Thanks for this guide, it’s helped me install those precious vbox guest additions here on the Retina MBP. ;)

Just a quick note, on Fedora 20, at least in my case (32bit) I needed this extra bit:
yum install kernel-PAE-devel

Some people might be needing it too, the PAE kernel (was somehow installed by default, with 3GB RAM) let’s you use over 4GB on 32bit.

Unfortunately Linux doesn’t seem to go over 2048×1280 but it’s already huge on a 13″! :)

Cheers.
Reply

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352 comments on “VirtualBox Guest Additions on Fedora 34/33, CentOS/RHEL 8/7/6/5 - Comment Page: 5”

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