Minor difference in GUI between Windows and Linux

[evilpenguin]

I'm slightly annoyed by a very minor difference between the GUI for Windows and the one for Linux.

When I upgrade the base VirtualBox on Windows and then lanuch the GUI, it immediately asks if I want to download and upgrade the extension pack, and when I say "Yes", it downloads and installs it.

When I do the same on a Linux host, I get no offer. I usually try to fire up a VM and get the failure because of USB 2.0 support, and then I remember "Oh, yeah! I have to open a browser, download the extension pack, and install it!"

Why is the behavior different? I actually have only a slight preference for the "Windows" host behavior. What bugs me more than anything else is that the behavior is DIFFERENT!

As I said, this is a really minor thing, but it bugs me, because in every other way I love VirtualBox and it makes my life as a developer so much better on any OS!

[mpack]

Is the Linux hosts one really VirtualBox, or is it some distro's fork, installed from their repo?

[Martin]

I've never seen such a message in many years of running VirtualBox from the official virtualbox.org repo for Fedora Linux.

[michaln]

The intended behavior is the same. However, the offer to download a new Extension Pack will only be made when update checks are enabled and working (and an updated ExtPack is available). That could easily be the difference between the two systems.

[evilpenguin]

Both systems are running the same version of the Oracle/VirtualBox provided download. Not a fork, not from a repo. Directly downloaded from virtualbox.org

I have never been offered to download and update the extension from the GUI on a Linux host. Someone said updates enabled: I will look for a difference in settings. If you can give me the menu path you have in mind? I get notifications of the existence of updates to the main app in the same way in both systems. It is after applying such an update that, on a Windows host, I am asked about dowloading and installing the extension update, and on a Linux host, I am NOT...

[socratis]

Someone said updates enabled: I will look for a difference in settings. If you can give me the menu path you have in mind?

VirtualBox Manager » Preferences » Update.

[evilpenguin]

Beautiful theory destroyed by ugly fact: Updates are enabled in both. I just never get the offer on Linux hosts. I still have the experience of either remembering to download and install myself, or getting the error when I try to start or resume a VM and *then* downloading and installing.

It really is a minor thing, but I wish I knew why it was so. It seems it is supposed to work the same. Could it be because I do not run as a root user? I don't run as a root user when I install the self-downloaded file either, but could that somehow be it? I belong to the vboxusers group... Could I need to belong to any others?

I'm willing to believe it is something about my configuration, but I eem to be supported by the Fedora user above...

[Martin]

Mabye we just don't see this message on Linux because we (or the Linux update mechanism / package manager) are always updating as soon as the new version appears on the repo and don't wait till the update notification will get activated a few days later.

Another guess could be that on Fedora the "old" ExtPack just disappears when updating Vbox, there is nothing listed in the settings anymore which could be updated.

[evilpenguin]

No, while automatic update repos are available, I manually download installers for Windows from the Downloads page of the VirtualBox web site, and I manually download .deb and .rpm files from the VirtualBox web site. I install them manually. Then, when I first open the VBoxManager on Windows for the first time after the upgrade (installer run manually by me), it tells me right away, in a pop up dialog box, that there is a new version of the Extensions and it asks me if I want to download and install it. If I say yes, it downloads and installs it (perhaps with a user authority system dialog depending on my local configuration) and I go on my merry way.

The first time I run the VBoxManager UI after upgrade on an Ubuntu, Linux Mint, CentOS, or Fedora system, nothing special happens. No pop up telling me there is a new version of the Extensions and asking if I want to download and install it. Instead, the UI just pops up and the first time I try to open or resume a VM I get an error that I need the new version of the extensions. It doesn't offer to download and install it. I must instead open a browser, download it, and either open the extensions in the UI's configuration screens and import the file from my filesystem, or I must close the UI, browse to the downloaded extensions file, double-click it, and it will then launch the VBoxManager and bring up the extensions install dialog.

As I said, the job gets done. I just don't know why the behavior should be different. I find the Windows UI behavior to be more convenient. And I can love with the difference. But why not make them the same? And this has been true for a VERY long time. Certainly for the whole 5.0 and 5.1 series. I can't remember if either version would automatically alert back in 4.x...

[michaln]

Beautiful theory destroyed by ugly fact: Updates are enabled in both. I just never get the offer on Linux hosts.

No, that actually confirms the theory. For some reason, your Linux host cannot perform the update check. That of course means it won't see any updated Extension Packs, either.

Why the update check doesn't work is a different question. But without knowing exactly what you are running and how everything is configured, there's not much else to say.

[evilpenguin]

No, that actually confirms the theory. For some reason, your Linux host cannot perform the update check. That of course means it won't see any updated Extension Packs, either.

Why the update check doesn't work is a different question. But without knowing exactly what you are running and how everything is configured, there's not much else to say.

Not sure how you conclude that. If there is an update to the core package available, I am notified about it when I start the GUI. So why do you conclude I cannot perform the update check?

[michaln]

Not sure how you conclude that. If there is an update to the core package available, I am notified about it when I start the GUI.

That was not stated in the original post.

So why do you conclude I cannot perform the update check?

I made the assumption that if update checks aren't working, update checks aren't working at all. But what you're clearly saying now is that update checks are partially working for you. For that I have no explanation, sorry.