Guest Additions Installed But Not Detected

[jcplemons]

I am running Linux Mint 18.3 and have recently installed VirtualBox from the repositories. I am using a Windows 7 guest which was very easy to get up and running, and followed directions to mount the Guest Additions iso from the GUI menu. Guest Additions install went fine with no errors and then system rebooted as designed. After reboot, Machine --> Session Information shows Guest Additions as "Not Detected". However, when I look at installed programs on the Win7 guest, I can clearly see that Guest Additions is installed.

I've searched Google and forums and toyed with every setting I can find. I've also completely uninstalled the repository version of VirtualBox and installed the latest 5.2.2 Ubuntu Xenial package from the virtualbox site (with accompanying 5.2.2. Guest Additions iso), but to no avail. Any assistance would be appreciated. If logs needed, I'd appreciate the path to them (either on the Windows Guest or on the Linux Mint Host). Thanks for your time.

[socratis]

Moving to "Windows Guests" from "Linux Hosts", since you're complaining about an issue in your Win7 guest, not in your Mint host.

Do you see a VirtualBox icon in the Win7 system tray? If you hover over it, what does the tooltip say? And when you say it's not detected in the session information, could you post a screenshot of that window (only)?

With the VM completely shut down, right click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager, Show Log. Save only the first "VBox.log", ZIP it and attach it to your response (see the "Upload attachment" tab below the reply form).

[jcplemons]

- Win7 system tray contains no VirtualBox icon. I clicked on "Customize” to ensure that it was not just hidden, but there is truly no VirtualBox icon at all.
- Session Information screenshot and Vbox.log attached.

[socratis]

The Guest Additions are *not* installed. The log shows that aren't, the icon is missing from the tray, and the session information confirms it. You've got to make sure that the GAs are actually installed. Do you have anything besides the plain vanilla OS installation running on the guest? Did you actually run the GAs installer, or you simply inserted the CD? You say that you do, but apparently they're not getting installed, so something is going on with your guest.

[jcplemons]

I understand your skepticism. When I say that GA is “installed but not detected”, I mean that the Windows "Programs and Features" list contains an entry for "Oracle VM VirtualBox Guest Additions 5.2.2", but that for some reason it is not detected by VirtualBox. Either VirtualBox isn’t detecting a properly installed GA or Windows thinks that GA is installed but it is really not somehow.

Guest Win 7 is about as vanilla as I can make it - in "Programs and Features", only programs listed are Microsoft Windows items, a few system drivers, Adobe Flash, CCleaner, Firefox. No antivirus or anything like that.

Here's the process I have followed numerous times (and am following again as I write this):

- Start from Windows 7 with Guest Additions completely uninstalled/not present in "Programs and Features" list.
- Mount iso in guest's optical drive via GUI "Devices" --> "Insert Guest Additions CD image".
- On the mounted iso, execute "VBoxWindowsAdditions.exe". At all UAC etc. prompts, click Yes/Install/etc.
- Once install program is done, confirm prompt to reboot and system reboots.
- Once it has fully restarted, I check “Machine” --> “Session Information” and see that Guest Additions is listed as "Not Detected". In the guest's "Program's and Features" list, however, there is an entry for "Oracle VM VirtualBox Guest Additions 5.2.2".

Happy to post logs/try any and all suggestions – this is a dummy Windows install for testing purposes, so no big deal if I somehow break it etc.

[socratis]

Either VirtualBox isn’t detecting a properly installed GA or Windows thinks that GA is installed but it is really not somehow.

Forget about the external communication with VirtualBox for a moment and focus on the fact that not even VBoxTray will run in your VM. Something is not going right with the installation of the GAs, and I have no clue what. It's not like we run into this problem every day...

Can you please right click on the GAs installer and select "Run As Administrator", even if you are the Administrator? Next thing, we'll have to check the MSI log files, which is not my forte, but someone else may have an idea/suggestion.

[jcplemons]

Tried running as Administrator, but no change.

However: following up on the comment “something is going on with your guest”, I installed a virtual Linux Mint 18.3 – and Guest Additions loaded automatically without issue. I then dug up an old hard drive with Windows 7 on it and created a vdi from it – and after I ran the same installation procedure from the GA image and rebooted, GA loaded without any issue. Conclusion: there is indeed something going on specifically with my initial Win7 guest, and probably not so much with VirtualBox itself.

This is a forum for VirtualBox, which does not now seem to be the source of my initial Win7 issue. However, if there is interest, I’m still interested in understanding what exactly is happening with my non-GA Win7 guest and trying anyone’s suggestions. If no one is interested in devoting time and energy here, I completely understand.

Thinking through the my initial Win7 instance where GA doesn’t work and my more recent one where GA does work, the only real difference I can think of is that the non-working instance was first virtualized on VMWare, then transferred to VirtualBox via an OVF export tool, while the more recent one was virtualized on VirtualBox directly. I certainly wouldn’t think that this would “break” Win7 from ever working with VirtualBox GA, but stranger things have happened . . .

[erdeslawe]

Did you remove/uninstall VMWare's own tools (or whatever they call their own Guest Additions) from the installation before it was exported? If not, that could well be the problem.

[socratis]

stranger things have happened . . .

Yeah, season 2 is out

Joking aside, I'm thinking more in the permissions front. Something messed up with the permissions, either in the Program Files directory or in the registry. And the former is relatively easy to fix. The registry although, oy... you don't want to start messing with the permissions in the registry, believe me.

If you really want to look into this, I'd start with the MSI installation logs. They might contain a clue.