How to install VirtualBox Guest Additions for openSUSE guest OS
Posted by admin on June 22nd, 2008
VirtualBox (now Sun xVM) Guest Additions are a set of drivers and utilities that are shipped as a subset of VirtualBox for the purpose of being installed inside a Guest Computer to improve its performance and cooperation with the rest of the Product.
If you are running openSUSE as a guest OS and want to install the VirtualBox Guest Additions then follow the procedure below:
Install GNU C Compiler, Make and Kernel Source
The VirtualBox Guest Additions require the GNU C compiler, make utility and the Kernel-Source packages to be installed if not previously installed.
Switch user to Root and install the packages
saibaba@opensuse:~> su -
password:opensuse:~# yast2 –install gcc gcc-c++ make kernel-source
This installs the GNU C, C++ compilers, Kernel-Source package and the make utility.
Now, from the host OS, on the Guest OS Virtualbox Devices menu, click “Install Guest Additions…” this mounts a virtual CD volume on the openSUSE guest OS under
/media/cdrom/VBOXADDITIONS_<version>
here it is
/media/cdrom/VBOXADDITIONS_1.6.2_31466
Change directory to that window and run the install script
opensuse:~# cd /media/cdrom/VBOXADDITIONS_1.6.2_31466/
opensuse:~# ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run all
This should install the VirtualBox Guest Additions. Now restart the openSUSE guest OS for the additions to take effect. The Guest Additions improve guest performance and user experience including display settings etc.
October 2nd, 2008 at 1:47 am
Will compiz fusion work after installing guest addons ?
November 1st, 2008 at 8:43 am
What Version of openSUSE is this for? I followed these direction in 11.0 to no avail. I also came across this on the Virtualbox site:
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Guest_OSes
openSUSE 11.0 status is- Works partially, Additions do not support X11 yet
So I’m guessing that’s why I’m having issues, unless I did something wrong….
Has anyone else gotten GuestAdditons to work in 11.0?
November 3rd, 2008 at 11:52 am
No dice in 11.0
No such client module –install
The search path follows. It does not include the current directory.
/y2update/clients
/root/.yast2/clients
/usr/share/YaST2/clients
November 8th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
I’ve figured this much out in openSuse,
It should be “opensuse:~# yast2 –install gcc gcc-c++ make kernel-source”
Note the double dash
For me it was “cd /media/VBOXADDITIONS_”
Note the removal of cdrom
I ran into an issue where it said the last kernel build failed,so the Guest Additions didn’t succeed.I then went to the Install Software section and installed the default kernel, and then tried to install guest additions again and it worked.
November 8th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
The comments make the double dash look like one dash, so it should be “opensuse:~# yast2 – -install gcc gcc-c++ make kernel-source” where there are two dashes in front of install, no space in between them.
November 11th, 2008 at 9:03 am
1. Run “Install Software”
2. Press “CTRL+M” to launch Repository Manager”
3. Add “http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Virtualization:/VirtualBox/openSUSE_11.0/” as a new repository
4. Run “Install Software” again
5. Type “virtualbox” in Search Box. (You will see three new updates of VirtualBox)
6. Right click on these new updates and select “Update”
7. Press “Accept” to finish the update progress
8. Restart your system
9. Run “sudo sh ./media/…./VBoxLinux-x86.run”
10. Restart your system
Done! Tested with openSUSE v11 + VirtualBox 2.04
April 1st, 2009 at 11:47 pm
I tried the instructions but I got a fail when i ran the install. The log shows
“*** Error: unable to find the include directory for your current Linux Kerlnel. Specify KERN_INCL=$ and run Make again.
Anybody else experience this?
April 2nd, 2009 at 7:06 pm
I thought I posted this yesturday but it seemed to disappear. I tried all the procedures above for opensuse 11.1 and I get a error each time telling me to look in a log file. I do and it says
“MakeFile:38 *** Error: unable to find the include directory for your current linux kernel. Specify KERN_INCL=”
Anyone else get this?
April 10th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Hello Nicolas,
the following link should help you:
http://www.virtualbox.org/changeset/375
I have the same problem, I will try to fix it during the weekend…let me know if ok
Sergio
April 12th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
I found my problem. The linux kernels were not matching. A new kernel had been installed off the net as an update but linux source was from the CD. I believe grabbing the kernel off the net fixed the problem.
I do have a new linux kernel to put in place and new virtual box update I saw go out. I’ll post back if I have any upgrade issues.
May 9th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
With the 2.2.2 VirtualBox update, I followed the instructions given on the top of the page. The only issue was I manually added each package to be installed through the yast2 program itself, instead of using the terminal. I kept getting some sort of unknown command “n” errors. So manually adding one by one through the Install Software option worked just fine, just search for each program listed above. Once installed and rebooted, the additions installed perfectly, the only issue was the xorg enforcement of a static resolution which the installer will tell you how to edit the xorg.conf to remove this enforcement. Did exactly what it said, had to switch to the root user to be able to edit the conf with no permission issues. Once I edited out what the installer asked. rebooted the guest OS and all was fully functioning!
Hope this helps.
May 26th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
To avoid “yast2: invalid option — ‘n’” problem try to use
yast2 –-install gcc gcc-c++ make kernel-source
command.
May 26th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Interesting site, but much advertisments on him. Shall read as subscription, rss.
June 20th, 2009 at 2:43 am
I type yast2 –install gcc gcc-c++ make kernel-source
Yast2 opens, starts to grab packages, but it says there are 732mb worth of packages? It is also installing things like ‘myspell-british’ and ‘kde4-l10n-en-_GB’
have I done something wrong? It seems a bit weird that gcc, gcc-c++, make, and kernel-source would be 730mb!
July 2nd, 2009 at 10:39 pm
nice job, very thanks
September 20th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
After struggling with this before (VirtualBox 2.x), I now successfully used this on openSuse 11.1 (no updates from the net installed) and VirtualBox 3.0.6:
I did however temporarily change the repository priorities to give the openSuse 11.1 install DVD an important priority (50) and the net (http://download.opensuse..) a less important priority (60), so that the kernel sources wouldn’t be downloaded, but rather, installed from the DVD.
Thanks for this post – it saved me lots of time.
September 25th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Thanks Jan Van Der Watt! Your method helped me, I had been struggling with this all day!
September 29th, 2009 at 8:23 am
Hi!
I’m having the following problem: I’m running openSuse 11 in a VirtualBox on WinVista. I Installed the GuestAdditions (using the *.x86 ISO image, because I couldn’t find an *i586 image), everything seemed to work fine (mouse sharing, desktop resizing, …)… BUT: keyboard layout was changed from German layout to American layout. Well, no big deal, changed it back to German… but after reboot, keyboard isn’t recognized anymore, neither in the login screen nor (using autologin) on the KDE or GNOME desktop.
Have no idea what went wrong, didn’t get any error messages…
Hope any of you guys have an idea or solution for this problem…?
October 6th, 2009 at 6:00 am
Hi,
I am having the same problem as Axel Schroeder. Does anyone know anything?
Booting in failsafe mode gives a ‘us’ (as in american) keyboard layout, which can then be changed in /etc/X11/xconf.conf.install to ‘de’ to give a german layout. But in normal mode the keyboard within the guest machine simply does not react. Outside the guest machine, e.g. the host key, everything works fine.
Host: WinXP (SP2)
Guest: openSUSE 11.1 (with all updates added before adding ‘Guest Additions’)
Thanks to anyone who can add anything here.
October 7th, 2009 at 1:37 am
@Lost in London, Axel Schroeder:
hi,
try this: controlcenter/hardware -> keyboard -> layouts and change settings.
maybe this link helps:
http://www.novell.com/documentation/opensuse103/opensuse103_gnome_user/?page=/documentation/opensuse103/opensuse103_gnome_user/data/bssdjdl.html
October 8th, 2009 at 3:48 am
@Newbee: thanks but I’ve tried that. I’m running a KDE Desktop, not Gnome, and you go over Yast / Sax2 to change the config there. I have even tried changing the xorg.conf without success.
There are two problems here.
1. The keyboard / keyboard input is not recognised, i.e. I can’t type anything. I can use the mouse (copy / paste)
2. The keyboard is not recognised as a german keyboard.
I guess if you fix 1. then 2. will automatically be fixed.
Thanks all the same.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:58 am
Well i did find a way to make keyboard work, you have to install vbox guest additions again in failsafe but you’re resolution will reset to 800×600.
October 23rd, 2009 at 1:39 am
you have to install the same version of your kernel-source as you’re running in order to get virtualbox addon to succeed. My combo is
openSUSE 11.1
Virtualbox 3.0.8
Kernel and Kernel-source version 2.6.27.7-9.1
This combo works as long as you make sure the kernel-source version installed via yast2 is the same as the one you get after running
uname -a
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Hi
First I install openSUSE 11.2 from DVD.
Afterwards I configure install sources temporarily for a initial installation, by set in the repository priorities DVD as only. (Increase installation speed)
openSUSE 11.2
Virtualbox 3.0.12
As packet manager I used zypper instead of yast2.
1. -> sudo zypper install gcc make (compiler)
2. -> automake autoconf (required by Guest Additions 3.0.12)
3. -> sudo zypper install kernel-source kernel-syms (kernel source)
I found out additional that to “kernel-source” kernel-syms” is required too for a successful installation of Guest Additions 3.0.12.
Finally install Guest Additions with
4. -> sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run
With my configuration command line 4. fails if “kernel-syms” is not installed.
November 30th, 2009 at 12:36 am
Thanks, yes, this helped a lot. I previously followed the instructions listed in http://www.myria.de/computer/software/88-opensuse-111-als-virtualbox-gastsystem but it didn’t work. However install kernel-syms made it. Thanks.
December 4th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
I am still having trouble my kernel and kernel-source same level i have kernel-syms installed and still can’t get it so i can type in the log in box. If I select fail safe i can type in the log in box. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Not sure what I am doing wrong.
Also when in fail safe i change desktop to Display Effects all i get is a white screen now.
January 26th, 2011 at 6:43 pm
I would NOT recommend this for people using SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11. I just did it and now my VM can not detect any monitors (I haven’t changed any settings and it does have the proper permissions).
February 20th, 2011 at 6:51 am
Um, its –install!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
October 17th, 2011 at 9:04 am
With OpenSuse 11.4, life is too easy..VirtualBox Additions are already installed for you.
Simply Know this command:mount -t vboxsf [-o OPTIONS] sharename mountpoint
Procedure
Sharename: Devices>Shared Folder>[smith]
Mountpoint: /mnt/documents
Note create the folder: mkdir /mnt/documents
mount -t vboxsf smith /mnt/documents
Enjoy