Settings in Virtual Box/Ubuntu that do not work.
 

Hi there. It is my second post ever here in the forum. I run Windows 7. I installed Oracle Virtual Box, downloaded and installed Ubuntu as a Guest OS and now I am trying to work with it. If you go to Oracle VM Virtual Box Manager, click on Settings, highlight General and click on Advanced tab you can see two combo boxes: (1) Shared Clipboardand (2) Drag and Drop.. Well, I set both for Bidirectional and they do NOT work. Why? I am not sure this is the right forum for this question since it may be more Virtual Box related. If I am in the wrong, please excuse me and the administrator might delete the question. Thanks.

It's been a while since I've worked with VirtualBox, but I'm pretty sure the functionality you want requires that Guest Additions be installed in the guest operating system. See chapter 4 of the VirtualBox manual for installation instructions. Have you installed that yet?

Well, This is actually my sixth or seventh installation of the Guest OS (Ubuntu). First times I tried to install it in the Virtual Box in Windows Server 2008and all of them failed except one. I don't know why it happened, I mean there were error messages which I do not exactly recall. The one that was successful I subsequently killed because I apparently was unhappy with something but I recall that I did install the additions because they simply popped up by themselves. Then I switched to another OS: Windows 7 (host) and installed the VB and Ubuntu with absolutely no problems. Now I do not remember if I installed the additions on this Ubuntu or not. When I clicked on Help and "Updates" in the VB I got a message: "You are already running the most recent version of Virtual Box. GO figure.

I also want to mention this. My attempts to run some of the commands you guys recommended in this thread and others run into multiple error messages. Some of them say that some part of the installations (when I try to install commands that are not in Ubuntu) failed, etc. I really have to star working on it.

Well, my next (basic) question is: I took a screen snapshot yesterday by my own application (which I wrote in C#), attached it to a couple of posts here and I cannot find the attachments. It seems the attachments went OK, there were no error messages. Where are they?

Thanks, - AlexBB

OK, I went to their website (Virtual Box) and downloaded and installed so called "Extensions." It is the same as additions? I don't think that will change anything. They are talking about mouse not being captures, etc. No word on copying material from one OS to another across this Host/Guest boundary with the clipboard which I want.

Well, here is another question. Suppose I found "Guest Additions" which I haven't so far. Do I install them in the Host OS or Guest OS (Ubuntu). It looks it has to be installed in Windows 7 (Host). because the virtual box is there. Is it right? Thanks, - AlexBB

Please read the documentation. The guest additions should be installed on the guest and do not need to be downloaded seperately.

Well, I found VBoxGuestAdditions.iso file in the directory, The Virtual Box found it also and so far all attempts to install it failed with various error messages. Likewise I took the above-mentioned file and burned it on a DVD with the same negative result: the system cannot mount it.

I want to make a statement that this is NOT a user friendly system. For instance this window with a error message is on the screen now.

Unable to insert the virtual disk C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBGuestAdditions.iso
into the machine Ubuntu-Desktop-VM32.
Would you like to try to force insertion of this disk?
Could not mount the media/drive C:
C:\...\VBoxGuestAdditions.iso

And the choices (buttons) are: "Force Unmount" and "Cancel."

Just read it carefully! It is a totally schizophrenic set of choices.

273, it is a cheap, disingenuous advice. What is behind it: naughtiness, ignorance? If you know that much that you can provide a quick answer, do it, otherwise stay out of this thread. I know that somewhere in the documentation there might be an answer. If everyone would comb the documentation then who would need such forums?

Quote:

The VirtualBox Guest Additions for all supported guest operating systems are provided as a single CD-ROM image file which is called VBoxGuestAdditions.iso. This image file is located in the installation directory of VirtualBox. To install the Guest Additions for a particular VM, you mount this ISO file in your VM as a virtual CD-ROM and install from there.

I did everything this paragraph says and still cannot install additions. The file in question is in my VM, so what?

When you have your VirtualBox window open select, from the media menu, the option of installing guest additions. Then, within the Ubuntu virtual machine you should be asked what to do with the newly inserted disc -- I don't recall the exact question but you should then be able to choose to either open it in the file manager or run something from it. If you can run from it then do so and provide your password when asked, if not open it in the file manager then double-click the autorun.sh file and provide your password when asked.
But you should read the documentation because without doing so you will not understand what you are doing and will not be able to best achieve your goals.

Guest additions in virtual box
 

sudo apt-get install gnome-system-tools
This will install User and Groups ,
Then go to main menu and search for User and Groups.there will be two "User and Groups"( one installed while installing Linux Mint 15(or 16) and other installed after installing gnome-system-tools.Open this there is manage group tab.Press it.Then go to Vbox users -edit it and and user.
It works.I dont no why this "User and Groups ' menu is not offered as default installation by Linux Mint 16.

You may find this link useful
http://askubuntu.com/questions/25596...for-virtualbox
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AlexBB,I am sorry for wrong reply.
While reading questions about Virtualbox guest addtions,I dont know why,but I presume Host is linux.

https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04.html
4.2.2.1. Installing the Linux Guest Additions