Newby solution to Guest failures :-)
Posted: 3. Jul 2012, 04:04
Greetings from down under in more ways than one! 
I have just completed a major struggle with trying to install and setup the latest Ubuntu inside VBox running Windows 7 host on a 4 GB On a Samsung R 780.
Warning:
running the latest version of Ubuntu Is a whole new ball game and very few LINUX users wi'll have any clue about it. it represents the first really decent advent of user friendliness that I have seen. Having said that, it is a bit of a memory hog.(something entirely new to LINUX users).
This turned out to be a major source of all my troubles in coming back to give LINUX another try.
Shock horror! I allocated a whole gigabyte of memory to the install and all of the problems with the new floating menu etc, etc, went away.
To me there is no point in having a dual installation unless I can share files between them. First thing I encountered was the fact that due to my earlier low memory problems (?) The guest additions had failed. There was an easy way to check the situation of my machine in the first place.
When you start up and hit the Sign in screen, there is a tiny little image alongside The sign in box.
Right click on this and it will open up an option to run "unity 2-D" which is a fallback to the earlier version which will allow you to determine with far greater accuracy what sort of problem you have, viz: the memory allocation mentioned above.
Shared folders
make sure that you do have Guest Additions installed. (dead easy In the newest version) go to the new heads up display (first option on top of screen image stack) type into the search box "Additional Drivers" (remember to use caps and smalls-this is LINUX
) Select the option, go there and the install option comes up If you haven't actually got it installed!. Get it and it will auto start/install itself.
To check if it is actually enabled simply select Host + G .
I am not sure here, but you may have to shut the box down to go back into the setup of VBOX and allocate your shared folder/s.
Addendum
As somebody with severe memory retention problems the arcane world of black screens and even Windows has created many problems for me in the past and let me to using many workarounds. Coupled with my need to be able to use DragonDictate (I do an awful lot of writing) I have been basically trapped inside Windows for years. Hallelujah!
Not only is the new user interface a brilliantly forward idea, I was prepared to forego being able to use Dragon in order to use the publishing capability of the latest astounding version of Libre OpenOfficewhen by a typical type of mistake of mine already mentioned, I accidentally set up and began to dictate into the LINUX version and it worked! Even better, its performance is without question better than it was in Windows??
So, even from an initial experience, as a decades long sufferer with operating systems, I heartily recommend that you try this one. It is much closer to a Windows experience than any prior LINUX, so interestingly enough, the transition will be more difficult for a current LINUX user
but, just do it!
I have just completed a major struggle with trying to install and setup the latest Ubuntu inside VBox running Windows 7 host on a 4 GB On a Samsung R 780.
Warning:
running the latest version of Ubuntu Is a whole new ball game and very few LINUX users wi'll have any clue about it. it represents the first really decent advent of user friendliness that I have seen. Having said that, it is a bit of a memory hog.(something entirely new to LINUX users).
This turned out to be a major source of all my troubles in coming back to give LINUX another try.
Shock horror! I allocated a whole gigabyte of memory to the install and all of the problems with the new floating menu etc, etc, went away.
To me there is no point in having a dual installation unless I can share files between them. First thing I encountered was the fact that due to my earlier low memory problems (?) The guest additions had failed. There was an easy way to check the situation of my machine in the first place.
When you start up and hit the Sign in screen, there is a tiny little image alongside The sign in box.
Right click on this and it will open up an option to run "unity 2-D" which is a fallback to the earlier version which will allow you to determine with far greater accuracy what sort of problem you have, viz: the memory allocation mentioned above.
Shared folders
make sure that you do have Guest Additions installed. (dead easy In the newest version) go to the new heads up display (first option on top of screen image stack) type into the search box "Additional Drivers" (remember to use caps and smalls-this is LINUX
) Select the option, go there and the install option comes up If you haven't actually got it installed!. Get it and it will auto start/install itself.To check if it is actually enabled simply select Host + G .
I am not sure here, but you may have to shut the box down to go back into the setup of VBOX and allocate your shared folder/s.
Addendum
As somebody with severe memory retention problems the arcane world of black screens and even Windows has created many problems for me in the past and let me to using many workarounds. Coupled with my need to be able to use DragonDictate (I do an awful lot of writing) I have been basically trapped inside Windows for years. Hallelujah!
Not only is the new user interface a brilliantly forward idea, I was prepared to forego being able to use Dragon in order to use the publishing capability of the latest astounding version of Libre OpenOfficewhen by a typical type of mistake of mine already mentioned, I accidentally set up and began to dictate into the LINUX version and it worked! Even better, its performance is without question better than it was in Windows??
So, even from an initial experience, as a decades long sufferer with operating systems, I heartily recommend that you try this one. It is much closer to a Windows experience than any prior LINUX, so interestingly enough, the transition will be more difficult for a current LINUX user
but, just do it!