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how do I install guest additions, its still downloading atm, seems to freeze after half hour of downloading though, seems odd

In Reply to Andy Moulson on Twitter I figured I would put together a bit more of a detailed post on installing Guest Additions in the Virtual Box 3.0, to enable DirectX in the Guest Machine.

To start I will have to offer a bit of a disclosure as I am aware that DirectX on Virtual Box 3.0 is still in the experimental phase, but what I offer here is what worked for me running Ubuntu “Jaunty Jackalope” v9.04  with two gigabytes of Ram using Windows 7 Ultimate as the Guest Operating System.

Now let’s get to it, really it is a simple process, from the start to the finish but as a relatively new user myself I realize that it is better to keep it simple and straightforward and that is my objective in this post on Ubuntu101.

First and fore most of course it is necessary to install Virtual Box but since @AndyMoulster had already done that I figure I would focus on adding Guest Additions in it’s simplicity though there are some steps involved.

1. First you need to get out of the Guest System, as before Guest additions is installed in order to work with a mouse inside the virtual window you have to enable it to be captured. Now this can also  be a rather frustrating time for someone new to VirtualBox or Ubuntu for that matter, as the mouse just seems to disappear. The simple solution is to simply press the Right Ctrl Button which will bring the mouse back to the host desktop.
2. Once you have the mouse back on the host desktop, move it over to the top menu within virtual box where it says Machine – Devices – Help and click on the Devices dropdown menu and scroll down to “Install Guest Additions” go ahead and click on that. Or a shortcut key for those who are more inclined to keyboard navigation Host (Right Ctrl) key + D
3. Once you have followed the previous step, one of two things will occur, if you have not already installed Guest Additions, virtualbox will try and go online and get the proper Guest Additions and install them depending on the version. Once it is downloaded it is likely you will see a new icon on the desktop or within the computer subfolder if you are using Windows, navigate to the CD-Rom in the file manager, should be something like VirtualBox* (* being replaced with the version)

Additional Update c/o AndyMoulster @ Twitter Thanks for the Update.

@ubuntu101 think iv i’ve solved it, add this line into ur your tutorial (For Windows Hosts) Also, you must install the Guest Additions in “Safe Mode”

• At this point it depends on what the guest os is, but since most virtual machines are usually x86 based or 32 bit you just navigate to the file that is in line with the architecture, usually something x86. If you are using a Windows guest system, just look for the exe files in the CD Rom folder and click and run. Afterwards you will see the usual installer run, if there is anything saying this is not trusted, enable trust or just run it until it finishes, there will be a few prompts, once done, usually should restart the Guest System by pressing Host bringing your mouse back to the desktop and then you can navigate to the Machine drop down and close or reset the client system, give it a few minutes and once the client loads back up you should have Guest Additions working fine.

• Once you have it installed it is probably a good idea to familiarize yourself with the modifications the Guest Additions provides, so take some time and experiment going through the menus, trying out full screen (Ctrl+Home) brings back the menu so you don’t get stuck in full screen and then you are able to go back to regular view. Primarily just remember that everything in the virtual machine can be accessed by the Ctrl+ whatever the key you need is.

The process may seem involved but really you need to only follow steps 1 through 4 to get it installed and step 5 is a chance to just try the different modes;

• Seamless (Integrates the guest os with the host os without the singular window)
• Fullscreen (Is pretty self explanatory, though in fullscreen you only have that window available) so to return to the host desktop you need to press Right Ctrl+Home and a menu should come up, use the machine submenu to change modes, Seamless, Fullscreen and Regular.

Once you get the general navigation right, you can really make some progress and start experimenting, because really that is what a virtualizer such as Virtualbox provides, I would suggest if you plan to have simultaneous operating systems running at the same time you make sure you have at least a gigabyte or more of memory as each os is a separate process but to many with not enough memory can result in a very slow system, or in fact cause a crash.

Otherwise, you may also want to consider how much space is available on the drive where you set the vdi, usually something like /home/.virtualbox/ on Linux systems, because even if the vdi files are dynamically expanding they are still limitted by the space you have available on the hard drive of choice. Any other questions you are welcome to share them via Ubuntu101 @ Twitter or in the comments down below, I look forward to hearing more from you about your journey into Virtualbox.
Updated 07/12/2009 14:00:47 PDT (UTC 7)