How to uninstall Guest Additions in Ubuntu guest?

Discussions about using Linux guests in VirtualBox.
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riobard
Posts: 7
Joined: 10. Jul 2008, 23:07

How to uninstall Guest Additions in Ubuntu guest?

Post by riobard »

I installed Guest Additions in Ubuntu guest. Now I copied the Ubuntu guest to a real harddisk and used it on a separate machine, so I no longer need the Guest Additions. How do I uninstall it? Thanks in advance!
stefan.becker
Volunteer
Posts: 7639
Joined: 7. Jun 2007, 21:53

Post by stefan.becker »

Dont really know it exact.

Little Tip: Start the installer with "--help". That shows possible Parameters.
riobard
Posts: 7
Joined: 10. Jul 2008, 23:07

Post by riobard »

I tried --help option but it does not say anything about uninstallation

here is what I got:
-------------------------------------------------
Makeself version 2.1.4
1) Getting help or info about ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run :
./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run --help Print this message
./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run --info Print embedded info : title, default target directory, embedded script ...
./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run --lsm Print embedded lsm entry (or no LSM)
./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run --list Print the list of files in the archive
./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run --check Checks integrity of the archive

2) Running ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run :
./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run [options] [--] [additional arguments to embedded script]
with following options (in that order)
--confirm Ask before running embedded script
--noexec Do not run embedded script
--keep Do not erase target directory after running
the embedded script
--nox11 Do not spawn an xterm
--nochown Do not give the extracted files to the current user
--target NewDirectory Extract in NewDirectory
--tar arg1 [arg2 ...] Access the contents of the archive through the tar command
-- Following arguments will be passed to the embedded script
Sasquatch
Volunteer
Posts: 17798
Joined: 17. Mar 2008, 13:41
Primary OS: Debian other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows XP, Windows 7, Linux
Location: /dev/random

Post by Sasquatch »

All I know is that after a kernel upgrade you need to reinstall the GA if you want to have most things working again, like shared folders. That takes my assumption that it only installs a few kernel modules. A 'find' or 'locate' should give you some idea of where any virtualbox files might be and you can then remove them. Do not forget to modify your xorg.conf file if you haven't done so already for your mouse and video driver (video has to be, else you wouldn't have X).
Read the Forum Posting Guide before opening a topic.
VirtualBox FAQ: Check this before asking questions.
Online User Manual: A must read if you want to know what we're talking about.
Howto: Install Linux Guest Additions
Howto: Use Shared Folders on Linux Guest
See the Tutorials and FAQ section at the top of the Forum for more guides.
Try searching the forums first with Google and add the site filter for this forum.
E.g. install guest additions site:forums.virtualbox.org

Retired from this Forum since OSSO introduction.
riobard
Posts: 7
Joined: 10. Jul 2008, 23:07

Post by riobard »

I guess it is much more complicated than just deleting kernel modules. I even found a /dev/vboxadd :| any hints about this? Thanks! :)
TerryE
Volunteer
Posts: 3572
Joined: 28. May 2008, 08:40
Primary OS: Ubuntu other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Ubuntu 10.04 & 11.10, both Svr&Wstn, Debian, CentOS
Contact:

Post by TerryE »

You are correct in that their isn't a proper remove utility but the vbox device drivers and the ubuntu forum give simple instructions on how to remove them.

You also need to remove the /etc/rc1.d/ entries. After the reboot, I think that you'll find all vbox entries are related to VirtualBox and can be removed
Read the Forum Posting Guide
Google your Q site:VirtualBox.org or search for the answer before posting.
riobard
Posts: 7
Joined: 10. Jul 2008, 23:07

Problem solved

Post by riobard »

I tried the following lines and it turned out to be OK now. Thanks guys for your help! :)

Code: Select all

sudo find /etc -name "*vboxadd*" -exec rm {} \;
sudo find /etc -name "*vboxvfs*" -exec rm {} \;
sudo rm -r /usr/src/vboxadd-*
sudo rm -r /usr/src/vboxvfs-*
sudo rm /usr/sbin/vboxadd-timesync
sudo rm /lib/modules/`uname -r`/misc/vboxadd.ko
sudo rm /lib/modules/`uname -r`/misc/vboxvfs.ko
A little explanation:
1. All vboxadd* entries belongs to Guest Additions
2. All vboxvfs* entries are related to Shared Folder feature which is also part of Guest Additions
TheBigKahoona
Posts: 1
Joined: 27. May 2011, 12:26
Primary OS: MS Windows 7
VBox Version: OSE Debian
Guest OSses: Ubuntu 11.04

Re: How to uninstall Guest Additions in Ubuntu guest?

Post by TheBigKahoona »

for everyone how ends up here by googleing this matter:
/opt/[VboxAddonsFolder]/uninstall.sh
Z3Px
Posts: 1
Joined: 7. Aug 2014, 22:36

Re: How to uninstall Guest Additions in Ubuntu guest?

Post by Z3Px »

TheBigKahoona wrote:for everyone how ends up here by googleing this matter:
/opt/[VboxAddonsFolder]/uninstall.sh
Thanks!!!!
Jack@flowertown
Posts: 1
Joined: 21. Sep 2015, 17:56

Re: How to uninstall Guest Additions in Ubuntu guest?

Post by Jack@flowertown »

Besides the unistall
/opt/[VboxAddonsFolder]/uninstall.sh
I also had to remove /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Dix mix
Posts: 1
Joined: 10. Mar 2016, 13:21

Re: How to uninstall Guest Additions in Ubuntu guest?

Post by Dix mix »

Jack@flowertown wrote:Besides the unistall
/opt/[VboxAddonsFolder]/uninstall.sh
I also had to remove /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Doing both the uninstall.sh and removing the xorg.conf file :

This solution Worked for me! :D :D :D
virtualbox-guest-remover
Posts: 1
Joined: 24. Mar 2016, 22:53

Re: How to uninstall Guest Additions in Ubuntu guest?

Post by virtualbox-guest-remover »

On an Ubuntu host that is not a VM, do:

aptitude purge virtualbox-guest-utils virtualbox-guest-x11

That stopped the messages for me.
jabbott2
Posts: 1
Joined: 26. Jan 2017, 14:15

Re: How to uninstall Guest Additions in Ubuntu guest?

Post by jabbott2 »

virtualbox-guest-remover wrote:On an Ubuntu host that is not a VM, do:

aptitude purge virtualbox-guest-utils virtualbox-guest-x11

That stopped the messages for me.
Folks,
Thank you, thank you, thank you. This line , aptitude purge virtualbox-guest-utils virtualbox-guest-x11, removed the startup texts that plagued me each time I logged in. However, I have no idea what I did when I entered the line in the terminal.
Being slow I need an entry level step by step how to before I can get this kind of good stuff stuck in my gray matter. So I want to thank the person who added the post. Should I need help in the future I will heed this users posts.
God bless you.
sashsz
Posts: 1
Joined: 25. Feb 2018, 21:47

Re: How to uninstall Guest Additions in Ubuntu guest?

Post by sashsz »

Hello all,

On fedora 26 I was missing /opt/[VirtualBoxAddons version] (deleted previously by hand) directory, so I did the following:

find / -iname "*vbox*" -exec rm -rf {} \;

and I needed:

dnf install elfutils-libelf-devel-static-0.169-1.fc26.x86_64

In order to re-install the new addons
TechMan99
Posts: 1
Joined: 2. Dec 2018, 08:41

Re: How to uninstall Guest Additions in Ubuntu guest?

Post by TechMan99 »

TheBigKahoona wrote:for everyone how ends up here by googleing this matter:
/opt/[VboxAddonsFolder]/uninstall.sh
You are the real hero. Thank you.
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