Sparky Wiki

https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04.html#idp94103856

4.2.2.1. Installing the Linux Guest Additions

The VirtualBox Guest Additions for Linux are provided on the same virtual CD-ROM file as the Guest Additions for Windows described above. They also come with an installation program guiding you through the setup process, although, due to the significant differences between Linux distributions, installation may be slightly more complex.

Installation generally involves the following steps:

Before installing the Guest Additions, you will have to prepare your guest system for building external kernel modules. This works similarly as described in Section 2.3.2, “The VirtualBox kernel module”, except that this step must now be performed in your Linux guest instead of on a Linux host system, as described there.

1. In Virtualbox Settings > Display, change “Graphics Controller” to “VBoxSVGA” and enable 3D Acceleration.

2. Install Linux headers with command

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Again, as with Linux hosts, we recommend using DKMS if it is available for the guest system. If it is not installed, use this command for Ubuntu/Debian systems:

sudo apt-get install dkms

Be sure to install DKMS before installing the Linux Guest Additions. If DKMS is not available or not installed, the guest kernel modules will need to be recreated manually whenever the guest kernel is updated using the command

/etc/init.d/vboxadd setup

as root (sudo).

Insert the VBoxGuestAdditions.iso CD file into your Linux guest's virtual CD-ROM drive, exactly the same way as described for a Windows guest in Section 4.2.1.1, “Installation”.

Change to the directory where your CD-ROM drive is mounted and execute as root:

sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

For your convenience, we provide the following step-by-step instructions for freshly installed copies of recent versions of the most popular Linux distributions. After these preparational steps, you can execute the VirtualBox Guest Additions installer as described above.