Can't install new additions in Ubuntu 10.04 (in VBox)

deenie · 06-17-2010, 06:34 AM

I am running Ubuntu 10.04 (the guest) in VBox 3.2.4 which is running in Vista (in a dual core AMD Athlon). Ubuntu works okay except the screen size is one-quarter of the space available on the 22" widescreen monitor. I read that installing VBoxAdditions_3.2.4_62467 can solve the problem. When I run the terminal command (using the appropriate file)
sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-amd64.run
I get an error message --> sh: Can't open .VBoxLinuxAdditions-amd64.run
So, I am stuck at this point. Any help/feedback will be appreciated...
Peace, deenie

camorri · 06-17-2010, 09:47 AM

Did you follow the install instructions in Vbox? There is a detailed set there. Open Vbox, and press F1 for Help. Search for additions, there are instructions there for both windows guests, and linux guests.

Did you change to the directory where the Additions file is? The './' tells linux to look only in the current directory for the file.

tiemen3r · 06-17-2010, 06:50 PM

Seems like a permissions problem. Did you check if the file has the executable bit set? You can do so by issuing

Code:

ls -l filename

It should look something like this:

Code:

-rwxr-xr-x 1 user   user       35232 2010-03-05 04:41 filename

the x-es signify in this case that the file is executable for respectively user, the group user and anyone.
If you don't see any x-es, type

Code:

chmod +x filename

user & filename are variables of course.

deenie · 06-17-2010, 06:53 PM

Hi Cliff,
It seems that the instructions in the VBox help are for an older version of it. I think that the change to the directory containing Additions is
something I did not do and so will give that a try. That'll keep me busy as Ubuntu (Linux) is still strange to me. I was raised on MS-DOS and then have
gone through all the iterations (or gyrations) up to Win7. In some ways Ubuntu (Linux) is a throwback to the MS-DOS days as it still is heavily reliant
on the terminal. I think being a newbie in Linux is the beginning of a long exciting adventure.
Thanks for the feedback!!!

deenie

deenie · 06-17-2010, 07:00 PM

Tiemen,
I just now saw your reply. I will try your idea first as it's simpler than Cammori's.
Danka, deenie

deenie · 06-17-2010, 09:52 PM

Ok, it looks like I needed to get to the correct directory.
I did a properties on the CD Logo for the additions and
it said it was under media So, I used cd to move over
to that location. I did an ls there:
ls -1 VBOXADDITIONS_3.2.4_62467
and got
32BIT
64BIT
...
VBoxLinuxAdditions-amd64.run
VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run
...
I did a cd command: cd VBOXADDITIONS_3.2.4_62467
then
I did the sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-amd64.run
and got a message:
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox 3.2.4 Guest Additions for Linux.........
VirtualBox Guest Additions installer
Detected unsupported x86 environment.
Hmm, I think it is calling for the x86 environment to be installed too, is that correct?

deenie · 06-17-2010, 10:08 PM

I was too curious to wait. I did the additions for the x86 and viola, I can now do fullscreen. No more tiny viewport into Ubuntu. I got all 22" of the monitor filled. Hip, hip, hooray!
Thanks to you two, camorri and tiemen.

Now I got to

more about the terminal and those commands.

camorri · 06-18-2010, 08:58 AM

I'm glad you got it working. The terminal is a faster way to get things done. You can do a lot with current distros of linux in the gui. It is by no means a requirement any more to use the terminal. The advantage of the terminal is it is the same on any linux system, so if I don't use your distro, I can still help you get things done.