How to Install Virtualbox Guest Additions in Fedora 18

By | August 16, 2020

Virtualbox guest additions on Fedora

If you are trying out Fedora inside Virtualbox then you need to install the Virtualbox Guest Additions in order to get better hardware support like proper screen resolution, mouse scroller support and shared clipboard.

Installing virtualbox guest additions on fedora 18 is pretty simple.

First prepare the system by installing the following.

1. Update all packages

First of all update all the packages, so that the newest versions are installed.

$ sudo yum distro-sync

2. Install kernel headers and make utilities

Next thing to install is the kernel headers and other utilities needed in order to compile and build virtualbox guest additions.

$ yum -y install kernel-devel kernel-headers dkms gcc gcc-c++

3. Install VirtualBox guest additions

Now click Devices > Install Guest additions in virtualbox to mound the guest addition cd image inside fedora.
The disk should get mounted to the following location.

/var/run/media/

Check the directory contents and it should look something like this

[silver@localhost VBOXADDITIONS_4.2.12_84980]$ ls
32Bit        cert                    VBoxSolarisAdditions.pkg
64Bit        OS2                     VBoxWindowsAdditions-amd64.exe
AUTORUN.INF  runasroot.sh            VBoxWindowsAdditions.exe
autorun.sh   VBoxLinuxAdditions.run  VBoxWindowsAdditions-x86.exe

We have to run the the linux installer named VBoxLinuxAdditions.run.

[silver@localhost VBOXADDITIONS_4.2.12_84980]$ sudo ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

The output should look something like this

[silver@localhost VBOXADDITIONS_4.2.12_84980]$ sudo ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run 
[sudo] password for silver: 
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...
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                   [  OK  ]
Building the shared folder support module                  [  OK  ]
Building the OpenGL support module                         [  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
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  ]

[silver@localhost VBOXADDITIONS_4.2.12_84980]$

The most important line in the above output is the following which must show OK.

Building the main Guest Additions module                   [  OK  ]

Now virtualbox guest additions shall be compiled and installed.

Once the installation completes, restart your system and everything should look better.

About Silver Moon

A Tech Enthusiast, Blogger, Linux Fan and a Software Developer. Writes about Computer hardware, Linux and Open Source software and coding in Python, Php and Javascript. He can be reached at [email protected].

One Comment

How to Install Virtualbox Guest Additions in Fedora 18
  1. q

    OMG, thank you for saving (what’s left of) my sanity!

    This information seems to be elsewhere, but in separate parts and threads that run off in tangents and discuss multiple issues.

    For others finding this, this solution worked (and was required) for me to BOTH use the shared clipboard (bi-directional) and view full-screened goodness in my Fedora instance, from my Windows 7 host.

    The important step was not just to ‘Insert Guest Additions CD Image’ from the Devices menu in the host container, but also to go ahead into the Fedora (guest) instance and run (as sudo):

    /var/run/media/(myuser)/VBOXADDITIONS(etc.)/VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
    And then power off/restart the image.

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