Using VirtualBox Additions With Ubuntu 10.04

by Rich Menga on Apr 30, 2010 | 16 comments

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS was released yesterday so feel free to download it. As is my usual practice I installed the OS in VirtualBox to test it out.

The way to get better graphical capabilities in VirtualBox session is to install what’s called VirtualBox Additions. While the session is active, you click Devices then Install Guest Additions, like this:

When using Linux in VirtualBox this doesn’t always work. Support exists, but the automated install is hit-or-miss at best.

The video below will show you how to install Guest Additions with Ubuntu 10.04. Once you see how it’s done it will only take a few minutes and one VirtualBox restart, then you’re good to go.

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Duncan
If you want to avoid some of the typing of the long file name, in the terminal type – sudo nautilus
That will open Nautilus, the graphical file manager, navigate by click to the folder on the cd and double-click the appropriate install file.

Aaron Fournier
If you are going the graphical route using super user privileges, it’s actually better to use the “gksu” command instead of “sudo”. gksu is a GTK+ frontend for sudo. You might not notice a difference most of the time, but there are moments when using sudo won’t work right when needing super user privileges in a program that has a graphical user interface.

Larry
Thanks Rich I had just installed Ubuntu 64 in virtual box and would never even known about this . I followed your instructions and wow full screen .
kazoid
thank you man! total n00b here so you helped a lot!
daryl
Thank you soooo much
I tried the cd /media/cdrom0 and it kept failing
I even tried cd /media/VBOX…blah,blah ,blah
didn’t twig that cd .VBOX… was the key

Todd
If you navigate to a file in nautilus, you can drag the file into a Terminal window and the path to the file will be displayed.
In this case, navigate to: VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run and then drag the icon for this file into your Terminal window.
The full path to this file will now be displayed in the Terminal window like this:
‘/media/VBOXADDITIONS_3.1.6_59338/VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run’

ddangoia
thanks man – this worked perfectly!
Catskul
If you hit ‘tab’ while typing on the console, the shell will attempt to complete the word for you. As in, if you are typing:
cd V[tab]
it would have completed the name of the directory for you. Like wise for running the installer
./VB[tab]
If there is more than one item with the same letters in common, it will complete as much as possible and you’ll have to start typing again to eliminate the ambiguity, but then you can hit ‘tab’ again and it will complete the res.

Brent
I was going to say the same thing! Tab auto-complete is wonderful…works in Windows command window, too.

digitalcraftsman
The included “autorun.sh” file installs the VBox Additions for you. Just double click it and authenticate.

Gumper
Ok, so how does a total noob to this stuff find this autorun.sh file? Where is it at?

Gumper
Never mind I found it now. Right clicked the VBOXADDITIONS icon on the desktop and clicked Open. There it was. It worked too btw. Thank you for that as the terminal method in the video was not working.

gateroman
One word……….Genius
Linkkatz
Awesome Job!!! Spend hours trying to solve this to no avail until I saw your video. Thanks
Efffxed
Thanks for the lucid and informative explanation.
Mika
Installation process has been changed a bit. For me the solution found from http://www.sysprobs.com/install-ubuntu-1004-virtualbox-windows-7-32-bit-guest-additions-ubuntu-1004