Debian Jessie and Guest Additions

[horridohobbies]

I installed Debian 8.8 with the Debian GUI using VirtualBox 5.1.22 under macOS. I tried to install Guest Additions from the Device menu. I got "Unable to locate the program."

When I tried again from the Device menu, I got:

Unable to insert the virtual optical disk /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso into the machine Debian.

Further details gave me:

Could not mount the media/drive '/Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso' (VERR_PDM_MEDIA_LOCKED).

Result Code: NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component: ConsoleWrap
Interface: IConsole {872da645-4a9b-1727-bee2-5585105b9eed}
Callee: IMachine {b2547866-a0a1-4391-8b86-6952d82efaa0}

How the devil do I install Guest Additions???

[Perryg]

"VERR_PDM_MEDIA_LOCKED" means that something is already in the virtual cd drive. Eject it first and then use the insert guest additions.

[horridohobbies]

Eject it first and then use the insert guest additions.

That's not it. There was nothing in the virtual CD drive.

I tried again to be sure. Nothing in the drive. Same outcome: "Oop! There was a problem running this software. Unable to locate the program."

I don't have this issue with Linux Mint, so this is very specific to Debian.

[Perryg]

"Unable to locate the program" is not the same error as "VERR_PDM_MEDIA_LOCKED" and is telling you something different.

This should not have anything to do with what the guest OS is as it is saying the guest can not find the install media. If a different guest can in fact see the media but the debian one can not you need to see if the the drive section in the main manager can see the guestadditions.iso.

[horridohobbies]

I should've been clear. The FIRST error message is "Unable to locate the program." Only after I click on "Insert Guest Additions CD image..." immediately afterward did I get the SECOND error message about VERR_PDM_MEDIA_LOCKED. I guess I shouldn't have done the second attempt – it was misleading.

So, really, it's only the FIRST error message we should be looking at.

[Perryg]

Open the main manager and look in the media manager under Optical Disks. Do you see the guest additions there?
If so then go to the guest settings and storage. On the right when you click on the cd icon do you see a pull down where you can select the guest additions?

[horridohobbies]

I'm not sure what you mean. The Guest Additions CD image is already selected in the optical drive. I could show you a screenshot but I'm not allowed to post URLs yet.

[Perryg]

Images can in fact be posted here using the upload attachment button below the reply window.

[horridohobbies]

See attachment. (I had to reduce the image size to make it less than 128KB.)

[Perryg]

Then the guest additions are already mounted. Now start the guest and open a terminal. Go to the guests cd and run the additions.

Note: they should be located at /media/cdrom

[horridohobbies]

What exactly do I run??? As far as I can tell, the .exe is a decompressor.

[horridohobbies]

I keep getting Permission Denied when I run anything, even if I su in. This is waaaaay too complicated.

[Perryg]

It really depends on if the guest is 32 or 64 bit, but for debian 64 bit would be the following:

Code: Select all

sh sudo /media/cdrom/VBoxLinuxAdditions-amd64.run

[horridohobbies]

Actually, it's

Code: Select all

su
sh VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

but yes, this is essentially correct. Thanks.

Odd that Linux Mint works but Debian doesn't. The Debian folks should really take a look at this.

[Perryg]

Naw. All deb distros are built on Debian. Debian just has a way of doing things different, called the Debian way...