Fedora 12 and Guest additions.

[gosa]

Hi All!

As you might notice this is my first post in this forum, and my experience of Linux is more or less the same. I've run Backtrack for a while (as a very simple user) and I recently installed Ubuntu 9.10 in Virtualbox, with intentions to learn a bit about working in Linux before I make a "real" installation on my hardware.

Here's my problem. I just installed Fedora 12 in Virtualbox, and after reading through the Guest Additions "guide" here I tried to install those in Feodora 12.

This is the error I get:

Please install the build and header files for your current Linux kernel.
The Current kernel version is 2.6.31.5-127.fc12.i686.PAE
Problems were found which prevent the Guest Additions from installing.
Please correct these problems and try again.

Now - I have no clue whatsoever on how to solve this. I tried searching, but got a message saying it's not possible to search right now.
Soo... can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks in advance!

Edit: MAybe this thread belongs more to the "Linux Guests" forum... sorry about that.

[Sasquatch]

Yeah, it belongs in Linux Guests, will move it.

Now, you followed my guide, did you reboot and checked for updates? Are you sure that the kernel-devel/kernel-headers are the same version as your running kernel?

[gosa]

Yes, I rebooted and I ran "Software update" which told me I was already up to date...

When it comes to your next question - about kernel-devel/kernel-headers - I am lost.

I did check the vboxadd-install.log and got this:

Could not find the Linux kernel header files - the directories /lib/modules/2.6.31.5-127.fc12.i686.PAE/build/include and /usr/src/linux/include
do not exist.
Giving up due to the problems mentioned above.

What can I do with that info?

This is the part where some people mean that Linux and the average user is not meant for each others just yet, and why I've made several failed attempts at really understanding all that's about it.
- I don't want to give up just yet, but the more terminal stuff that gets thrown in my way, the more I like my recently purchased Windows 7.

[Sasquatch]

There was a post here recently that described the possible problems and fixes. I think it was in Linux Hosts.

[Gauge]

Open up a terminal window and enter "su" and your password to get to root access. Then use the following commands:

yum install gcc
yum install kernel-devel
yum install kernel-headers

These are the bits the installer needs in order to compile the drivers. The Guest Additions should install now. Before this, however, I'd strongly recommend installing and running the Display Config manager as this will create a file that, if not present, will cause you big headaches once the guest additions are installed:

yum install system-config-display
system-config-display

[Sasquatch]

The GA will create the xorg.conf file with the needed driver configuration. So please don't install system-config-display unless you really have to.

[gosa]

Open up a terminal window and enter "su" and your password to get to root access. Then use the following commands:

yum install gcc
yum install kernel-devel
yum install kernel-headers

These are the bits the installer needs in order to compile the drivers. The Guest Additions should install now. Before this, however, I'd strongly recommend installing and running the Display Config manager as this will create a file that, if not present, will cause you big headaches once the guest additions are installed:

yum install system-config-display
system-config-display

Thanks for the help, but these files already got installed when I followed the guide of Sasquatch. Just to make sure I actually tried to install them again, but got told by Fedora that they were already there.

Now - Sasquatch gave me a reference to a page in the Linux Hosts-part of the forum. I think I might have found the thread (http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=20967) and the info quoted below (please correct me if I'm wrong about that):

the main problem why the kernel modules are not compiling is because it can't find the kernel source here "/lib/modules/2.6.29.4-167.fc11.i686.PAE/build" or here "/lib/modules/2.6.29.4-167.fc11.i686.PAE/source"

it seams these two are links pointing out to "/usr/src/kernels/kernelver" and the shortcut is wrong the destination is not there
and when u use yum to install the kernel devel and headers it always installs the wrong ver so the shortcut remains pointing no were

so what u have to do is this use the command "uname -r" to find the kernel ver and then search for the kernel devel rpm for this kernel and download it and install it, if its a PAE kernel then it looks like this kernel 2.6.29.4-167.fc11.i686.PAE.rpm
after u install it make sure the shortcuts point to the right place then run "/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup" it will take a little while and then presto ur in business no restart needed

I did the "uname -r" and it answered: 2.6.31.5-127.fc.i686.PAE
Then I'm stuck - again. I simply don't know where/how to find this thing. (marked in italics in my quote?)

- Did I say "thank you guys for your patience"?

[Sasquatch]

You have to look for the packages in your package manager (yast?). The version that is installed need to match the kernel you are running. Headers, devel and image (or whatever name they gave the actual kernel) need to be the same version. And of course you need to boot to that kernel.

[gosa]

Ok... I get it... not.

Sorry for taking your time, but you and me are obviously not speaking about this on the same "level".

- I give up. I just don't understand what you're trying to say. To much of a windows-guy I guess.

(And yeah, if someone wants to rant about "spoon-feeding" - go ahead)

I'm just sorry for Fedora's developers that the task of getting GA to work in my virtual drive will be in the way of me - possibly - using their OS for real. (Or maybe they don't give a ---- about loosing a noob that never really got it in the first place.)

At least I got Ubuntu to install the GA, so I guess I'll continue playing around in that environment instead.

Thanks again for your time, sorry I couldn't give it a bit more value.

[Sasquatch]

No worries. We have to start at some place. I haven't used other distro's than Ubuntu. Some are for the more hardcore users, not the new guys like you. Fedora is bleeding edge, but it's also a bit of a difficult distro if you pick it as first choice. Starting with Ubuntu or Debian wil get you around Linux some more, then after you've learned more you can try other, more advanced distro's.

[jamateur]

As Gauge said, you need to to this first:

yum install system-config-display
system-config-display

then open the terminal, switch to root account (su root) and do:

Code: Select all

yum search kernel-PAE-devel

(because of 2.6.31.5-127.fc.i686.PAE )

I think the result after searching will be kernel-PAE-devel.i686, and you can install it to meet the requirements of VirtualBox additions installation.

Code: Select all

yum install kernel-PAE-devel.i686

(My virtual machine is Fedora 12, 32-bit version, in Windows 2003 host, VirtualBox 3.0.12)

[Gauge]

The GA will create the xorg.conf file with the needed driver configuration. So please don't install system-config-display unless you really have to.

Sasquatch, Guest Additions did NOT create an xorg.conf file for me. I had to create my own which, for the sake of simplicity for other users, is best achieved by installing the display config module.

[Sasquatch]

The GA will create the xorg.conf file with the needed driver configuration. So please don't install system-config-display unless you really have to.

Sasquatch, Guest Additions did NOT create an xorg.conf file for me. I had to create my own which, for the sake of simplicity for other users, is best achieved by installing the display config module.

Hence my part "unless it's really needed" .

[firebug]

I had similar problem (never used fedora before, mostly ubuntu and some non-admin redhat awhile ago) and it did go away in the way I don't understand, but hey maybe it helps someone.

So I had a fresh fedora/kde 12 install in virtualbox. First I tried to install additions by mounting the iso, copying the VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run to local folder, switching to root (su, learned in the process that sudo on fedora is su -c 'command') and running it from command line.

First it complained that I don't have GNU compiler, so I did

yum install gcc

and since I found somewhere that kernel headers will be needed, I also did

yum install kernel-devel

Then, just as others describe, it started bitching about lack of kernel headers for an older version. This seems to be the problem with additions installer, but I followed suggestion made in this thread to find the rpm for that kernel headers and installed. On my system, it wanted kernel-devel-2.6.31.5-127.fc12.i686.rpm instead of the current version (kernel-devel-2.6.31.6-162.fc12.i686). I found the rpm via rpm.pbone.net (first google hit for rpmsearch) and tried

rpm -i kernel-devel-2.6.31.5-127.fc12.i686.rpm

but that failed and told me that I already have a newer version.

I am not very careful person (plus this is a virtualbox install, so who cares if I destroy it) so I guessed that
something like this should work:

rpm --force -i kernel-devel-2.6.31.5-127.fc12.i686.rpm

It started doing something, but then it seemed to hang, so I got impatient and killed it with Ctrl-C.

Then I retry installation of additions and it tells me *again* that I don't have GNU compiler. So I installed gcc again and kernel-devel and then bingo! Additions installer worked fine. What I see is that now /lib/modules has headers for both kernels. I don't know how important is the fact that I interrupted it, perhaps if you just force older kernel version and then reinstall the latest headers, everything will be OK. I don't thnk that older headers may destabilize the system, they are just headers after all and in my quite limited understanding are needed only if you are compiling something.

[simon.hibbs]

I was able to fix this using a similar process to firebug. My kernel is 2.6.31.5-127.fc12.i686

1. First uninstall some stuff I'd tried installing already using Kpackagekit:
rpm -e dkms
rpm -e kernel-devel

2. Then get yum to install the correct versions:
yum install kernel-devel-2.6.31.5-127.fc12.i686

3. Then install the guest additions again and reboot. Voila!

The problem is that even though I had the headers for 2.6.31.5-127 installed, I also had the headers for 2.6.31.6 installed and these seemed to take precedence. By uninstalling kernel-devel completely and then installing specifically the correct version, it got the directories and links straight.

This isn't realy a Virtualbox problem, it's the fact that Fedora 12 comes with the 2.6.31.5 kernel by default, but kernel-devel comes in the 2.6.31.6 flavour by default so you have to specifically install the one for your kernel and eliminate with prejudice the wrong one if you installed it by accident.

Simon Hibbs