SOLVED (Sort of): Installing extension packs via console

[GyroTech]

Hi all,

I recently upgraded my VirtualBox 3.2 to 4.0.2 (running on Ubuntu 10.10) and am trying to install the extension pack for RDP & USB 2.0 support.
The box is headless, so I'm doing this over shh...
Installing the pack goes as follows

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virtualbox@gnosis:#$ VBoxManage extpack install Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.0.2-69518.vbox-extpack
0%...
Progress state: NS_ERROR_FAILURE
VBoxManage: error: Failed to install "/var/lib/virtualbox/Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.0.2-69518.vbox-extpack": The installer failed with exit code 1: No protocol specified

VBoxManage: error: (gksu:10398): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: :0.0

So, for some reason it's trying to kick up gksu even though it's headless...
So I try with sudo

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virtualbox@gnosis:#$ sudo !!
sudo VBoxManage extpack install Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.0.2-69518.vbox-extpack
[sudo] password for virtualbox:
0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%
Successfully installed "Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack".

Which seems all well and good until I check

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virtualbox@gnosis:#$ VBoxManage list extpacks
Extension Packs: 0

but sudo finds them

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virtualbox@gnosis:#$ sudo !!
sudo VBoxManage list extpacks
Extension Packs: 1
Pack no. 0:   Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack
Version:      4.0.2
Revision:     69518
Description:  USB 2.0 Host Controller, VirtualBox RDP, PXE ROM with E1000 support.
VRDE Module:  VBoxVRDP
Usable:       true
Why unusable:

So I'm guessing that the extension packs are only being installed for root, rather than the virtualbox account that the daemons run under. Has anyone got any ideas on how to install the extensions correctly??

Many thanks.

[GyroTech]

So it seems that the extensions need to be installed as root (see http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/8110) but I couldn't find out why the regular user account wasn't picking them up.

Eventually I just restarted the entire box and when it came back up, the regular user account listed the extensions and everything worked as expected. I would love to know the exact service that needed the restart to avoid this in the future if possible...

[Sasquatch]

VB was still running for the normal user and didn't refresh the state of possible extpack installations yet. Only when VB starts again, or reinitializes, will it detect the new extpack. When you install it from the GUI, this is done automatically as the refresh is forced. But when done from the CLI, this doesn't happen if there is still an instance running (like a VM).