OSX GAs (VBoxDarwinAdditions.pkg): what is working.

Discussions about using Mac OS X guests (on Apple hardware) in VirtualBox.
socratis
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OSX GAs (VBoxDarwinAdditions.pkg): what is working.

Post by socratis »

I just realized that somewhere between 6.0.0 b3 r127164 and r127302, a small "miracle" took place; Guest Additions for OSX! Finally! :D

The question is: what's included? I briefly tested it on a 10.9.5 VM, and Copy/Paste (C/P) works! Drag and Drop (DnD) doesn't, and I couldn't see the Shared Folders (VSF), I looked at the "usual suspect" places. I am *not* expecting any Graphics (3D acceleration) to work, at least at this point.

It is implied that "Shared Clipboard" must be enabled in the "VM Settings" » "General" » "Advanced" » "Shared Clipboard" » "Bidirectional".

I tested quickly the same build on a 10.8.5 and C/P didn't work. So, is there a test-matrix as to what works and what doesn't? Feel free to let me know which features are expected to work, which ones are not. I have guests for the latest of 10.5, .6, .7, .8, .9, .10, .11, .12 and .13. I'd love for the table below to be filled with "+" at some point... ;)
  • [quote]
    +-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
    |  OSX  | C/P | DnD | VSF | VGC |
    +-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
    | 10.5  | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | <-- The installer won't run on anything <10.7
    | 10.6  | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | <-- The installer won't run on anything <10.7
    | 10.7  |  -  |  -  |  -  |  -  |
    | 10.8  |  -  |  -  |  -  |  -  |
    | 10.9  |  +  |  -  |  -  |  +  |
    | 10.10 |  +  |  -  |  -  |  +  |
    | 10.11 |  +  |  -  |  -  |  +  |
    | 10.12 |  +  |  -  |  -  |  +  |
    | 10.13 |  +  |  -  |  -  |  +  | <-- Installer needs kext authorization
    +-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
    
    C/P: Copy/Paste
    Dnd: Drag and Drop
    VSF: VirtualBox Shared Folders
    VGC: Guest Control
    [/quote]
So, the question is, what am I supposed to see working at this first incarnation?
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socratis
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Re: OSX GAs (VBoxDarwinAdditions.pkg): what is working.

Post by socratis »

There are apparently more things going on than just the high level ones; "VBoxControl" is one that comes in mind from within the guest, and a corresponding "VBoxManage guestproperty enumerate" from the host, i.e. guest/host communication.

Seems to work great in a 10.9.5 VM, I can finally see my HostOnly, Internal and NATservice IPs!!! Among other things, like who's logged on for example! 8)

Just tested the "guest properties" thingy, not the shutdown/snapshot/etc. Table updated in the 1st post...
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socratis
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Re: OSX GAs (VBoxDarwinAdditions.pkg): what is working.

Post by socratis »

Matrix from the first post now is filled, tests were done for all OSX versions available.
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mpack
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Re: OSX GAs (VBoxDarwinAdditions.pkg): what is working.

Post by mpack »

Seems rather disappointing to me. As you say I would not have expected graphics acceleration, but without shared folders is there much point?

Whenever I install GAs the features I'm interested in are :-
  • Mouse integration. I don't see your comment on this?
  • Graphics acceleration, some with 3D acceleration in specialized VMs, mostly without.
  • Shared folders.
I guess I can answer my own question: even if the GAs only provided a smarter virtual mouse, I'd probably install them.
socratis
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Re: OSX GAs (VBoxDarwinAdditions.pkg): what is working.

Post by socratis »

mpack wrote:Mouse integration. I don't see your comment on this?
There is (nor there ever was) a need for a specialized mouse integration if you have set the Pointing Device as a "USB Tablet", or "USB Multi-Touch Tablet". The only mouse integration needed is for the PS/2 mouse. That's why every LiveDVD out there "Just works..."™ ;)
mpack wrote:Graphics acceleration, some with 3D acceleration in specialized VMs, mostly without.
That's the toughest one I think, mainly because (AFAIK) you need Apple's help and an NDA, things that don't quite fly in the open-source world. The only option is to reverse-engineer the current drivers, something akin to what the Hackintosh people are doing. That part is perfectly legal BTW, but obviously much more laborious...
mpack wrote:Shared folders.
Even that is not a problem at all. Just enabling the most basic of networking modes (Host-Only) and File Sharing in the guest, makes file sharing so ridiculously easy that it would be a waste of time writing even a single line of code for this. The VM just shows up in your host's Finder and you just connect to it, as a networked resource.

And Shared Folders will become a thing of the past pretty much with the introduction of the File Manager. You can open a session for the guest and you have access to the whole guest filesystem. Copying/moving/deleting/renaming/the whole thing is right there. And yes, these work with the OSX GAs, you just need the "guestcontrol" part working...

The biggest improvement with the OSX GAs (for the moment) is the shared clipboard. That one alone really improves the user experience...
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FrancoisD
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Additions for mac OS X guests

Post by FrancoisD »

I discovered by installing the new VB 6.2 that there now exists a Guest OS X addition.

I didn't find any docs about it...

I'm running El Capitan Host (VB 6.2) and High Sierra guest, so what will this extension will allow me to do (ie shared folders) ?

Thanks
socratis
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Re: OSX GAs (VBoxDarwinAdditions.pkg): what is working.

Post by socratis »

@FrancoisD,
I merged your post with the appropriate thread. Read it from the beginning...
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camelspit
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Guest additions problem on High sierra

Post by camelspit »

Hey guys I successfully installed Mac OS High Sierra, I attached the guest additions cd, installed VBoxDarwinAdditions.pkg, I had a security issue, but I allowed Oracle America, and reinstalled successfully, rebooted but my mouse is still jittery, I can't access the shared folder and the screen resolution hasn't changed.. If i recall on the other guest (Kali linux) when i rebooted everything changed but here I rebooted and installed a few times but nothing happened..

Any advice on how to solve this would be greatly appreciated <3
socratis
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Re: OSX GAs (VBoxDarwinAdditions.pkg): what is working.

Post by socratis »

@camelspit,
I merged your post with the appropriate thread. Read it from the beginning... In particular, you won't see any mouse changes (even on other hosts it doesn't apply), you won't see Shared Folders, and you won't see any Graphics related improvements.
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wilber82
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Re: OSX GAs (VBoxDarwinAdditions.pkg): what is working.

Post by wilber82 »

jFYI.

My mouse integration got work after I change 'Pointing Device' from 'USB Mouse' to 'USB Multi-Touch Tablet'.
socratis
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Re: OSX GAs (VBoxDarwinAdditions.pkg): what is working.

Post by socratis »

wilber82 wrote: I change 'Pointing Device' from 'USB Mouse'
Please get the facts straight; there's no "USB Mouse" option. There are 3 options; "PS/2 Mouse", "USB Tablet", "USB Multi-Touch Tablet". So, you couldn't possibly be having a "USB Mouse"... ;)

Plus, this has absolutely nothing to do with the thread, please stick to the subject!!!
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megaspaz
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A "working" VBoxDarwinAdditions.pkg situation

Post by megaspaz »

I have VB 6.0.8 r130520 on the latest Mojave (10.14.5). I created a High Sierra (10.13) guest using the instructions found in [HowTo] Install OSX 10.13 in a VM. Everything worked great. The only head scratching came when installing GAs... There were no issues with installing the VBoxDarwinAdditions.pkg package but copy/pasting bidirectionally wouldn't work. On a previous Mac guest, it worked fine on a previous version of 6.0.X, but stopped working a version later, hence the reason for trying a clean guest OS now. Anyway, after uninstalling/reinstalling VBoxDarwinAdditions.pkg with VBoxDarwinAdditionsUninstall.tool, I looked closer at the file contents to see what file locations it was affecting... Honestly, I had no idea what I was going to do with what I came across but after clicking on /Library/Application Support/VirtualBox Guest Additions/VBoxClient, copy/pasting bidirectionally worked! The state wasn't being saved on restarts, so I ended up putting the VBoxClient script in the guest's Login Items of Users & Groups in System Preferences. Later, I deleted this to see if copying/pasting bidirectionally still worked, and it didn't so re-added in Login Items.

I know there's a fair number of users who have GA working, so I was wondering how many have had to do something wacky like I did? Also, any ideas why I "had" to go through this workaround?

Something else to make your head hurt, I cloned the guest at various times and tried them on my other Macbook Pro, High Sierra using VB 6.0.8 r130520... I couldn't get
bidirection copy/paste to work on the High Sierra host, even doing the steps I did on the Mojave host... although cloning the guest when the guest had bidirection copy/paste on the Mojave host and running that clone on the High Sierra host also resulted in working bidirection copy/paste on the High Sierra host...
Last edited by megaspaz on 19. May 2019, 00:19, edited 2 times in total.
socratis
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Re: OSX GAs (VBoxDarwinAdditions.pkg): what is working.

Post by socratis »

@megaspaz
I merged your post with the appropriate thread. Read it from the beginning... I just updated the state to include the statement that the GAs are broken. So far I can't get Copy/Paste to work. FileManager works.
 Edit: Related icket: https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/18658 
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socratis
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Re: OSX GAs (VBoxDarwinAdditions.pkg): what is working.

Post by socratis »

The GAs are fixed again with 6.0.11 r132749 or later!
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megaspaz
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Re: OSX GAs (VBoxDarwinAdditions.pkg): what is working.

Post by megaspaz »

socratis wrote:The GAs are fixed again with 6.0.11 r132749 or later!
I've upgraded VB to 6.0.12 r133076 (Qt5.6.3) and ran the VBoxDarwinAdditions.pkg. I still have bidirectional copy/paste not working. Is there anything else that needs to be done, like manual steps or anything?
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