Unable to run guest additions on elementary os

[thebrokecarpenter]

I was able to insert the disk, and it shows up in the file manager, but once it's there, there's no option to run it. Nothing pops up like it does in other Linux distros. Is there a way I can force it to run? Opening the disk and double clicking on the files inside does nothing, as expected.

[scottgus1]

I think you can open a terminal window, redirect to the CD drive, then run:

sudo VBoxLinuxAdditions.run


Note that there are prerequisites, most notably the kernel headers:
https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04. ... ions-linux and https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch02. ... nux-prereq
Also, watch the terminal installation report when running the GAs installer. Error messages will show if the install ran into a problem.

[mpack]

Nothing pops up like it does in other Linux distros.

Auto-running the contents of an inserted CD is not something that all OS's do - you should certainly not expect it in 2023. Or even in 2003! Some distros such as Ubuntu might at least pop up a dialog and ask you what you want to do, but if the distro is minimal or especially security conscious then it might not.

Just browse to the CD and run the Linux installer manually.