Guest Additions 64-bit Centos

dizwell · Post by **dizwell** » 4. Nov 2008, 00:42

I'm running VirtualBox 2.0.4 on a 64-bit Vista host, Centos 5.1 64-bit guest, with all the latest updates.

When I tried to run the VBoxLinuxAdditions-amd64.run script, I get this error:

"Please install the build and header files for your current Linux kernel. The current kernel version is 2.6.18-92.1.13.el5"

I searched Google for that error message and found links to various VirtualBox bug reports, but they seemed to relate to versions 1.5+ or 1.6+ and all claimed to have been fixed.

I also found a reference to installing the kernel-devel package for my kernel version and did that... but to no effect. The same error keeps on being generated.

Any further enlightenment that anyone can give as to how I can install the Additions properly in this guest would be gratefully received.

wabe · Post by **wabe** » 4. Nov 2008, 00:47

You need to install the kernel-source gcc gcc-++ and make
After that run the script file in 'Guestadditions'

dizwell · Post by **dizwell** » 4. Nov 2008, 01:14

Thanks for replying. Can you be more specific?

There is no gcc-++ package for Centos. There is a gcc-c++ package, and that is already installed. So are the others you mentioned, I think:

Code: Select all

[root@sparta ~]rpm -q make gcc gcc-c++
make-3.81-3.el5
gcc-4.1.2-42.el5
gcc-c++-4.1.2-42.el5

As for kernel sources, do I really need them? I've compiled Oracle databases and Lord knows what on Linux boxes aplenty and have never had to do the sort of things described in http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/I_need_the_Kernel_Source in order to get the "true" Kernel Sources. Kernel-devel has always proved sufficient in the past. I don't mind doing their Section 2 if I really have to, but I'd like to be sure that's really the issue rather than one of the bugs I mentioned I'd discovered earlier...

Post by **Sasquatch** » 4. Nov 2008, 01:50

Kernel-devel will be enough for creating kernel modules. That is just the whole problem with the different distro's. One calls them kernel-headers, another calls it kernel-devel and yet another one calls it kernel-sources.
Of course you need the compilers too, next to kernel-devel.

dizwell · Post by **dizwell** » 4. Nov 2008, 01:55

Thanks, that's what I hoped and thought.

But that leaves me up a certain creek without a paddle: I have the sources, I have the compilers and still the additions won't install!

Any other suggestions?

Post by **Sasquatch** » 4. Nov 2008, 22:27

Check the error message and log, do what it says and you should be good to go. Do you still get the same error?

Oh, and do a uname -a to see what kernel you are currently running and check your package manager to see what version of the kernel-devel you installed. They have to be the same.