virtualbox.org

I'm using VB 5.1 on a Linux host. Earlier versions depended on DKMS to manage host and guest additions, and one could use the command "dkms status" to see which host or guest additions were installed, and for which kernels. That no longer works, and the current VB documentation only describes the old system using DKMS. I asked on viewtopic.php?f=1&t=78612#p366415 but never got a response. Does anyone know?

First of all there are no host additions, only guest additions. If the question is "How do I know what version of GAs I have installed on my guest?", the answer would be the same as it always has been:

   VBoxClient --version

DKMS was never a requirement, only a convenience, and as such, your way of querying the GAs version would not always work.

Running "VBoxClient --version" in the guest, I get

5.1.0r108711

with no mention of any of the 3 kernels I have installed in the guest. Does this mean that the guest additions no longer need to be compiled for each kernel separately, and I will no longer need to file kernel-specific bugs such as https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/15444 when the GA break for bleeding-edge kernels? Is it still necessary to install specific packages such as gcc to allow the GA to be compiled?

Also, Frank said in the other thread "As of version 5.1, VirtualBox no longer relies on DKMS." implying that it used to. Was this incorrect?

Disclaimer: NOT an expert, NOT a developer.

robatino wrote:Does this mean that the guest additions no longer need to be compiled for each kernel separately

Since the guest additions are kernel modules, doesn't that mean that they had to be compiled separately for each of the kernels you had installed? Or was it that DKMS compiled the GAs for all the installed kernels? I don't know, never had multiple kernels at the same time in a guest.

robatino wrote:I will no longer need to file kernel-specific bugs

I don't see why not. The successful compilation or not of the GAs, has nothing to do with the DKMS. Remember, there are Linux guests that do not have DKMS support. At all.

robatino wrote:Is it still necessary to install specific packages such as gcc to allow the GA to be compiled?

My bet would be a solid yes. How else would you compile something if you don't have a compiler? And the matching headers of course.

robatino wrote:Also, Frank said in the other thread "As of version 5.1, VirtualBox no longer relies on DKMS." implying that it used to. Was this incorrect?

I'm not sure I quite understand the question. From the user manual, prior to version 5.1.0 (emphasis and underlying mine):

[color=#BF0000]FOR THE HOST[/color] wrote:To maintain it with future kernel updates, for those Linux distributions which provide it – most current ones – we recommend installing Dynamic Kernel Module Support (DKMS)

[color=#BF0000]FOR THE GUEST[/color] wrote:If DKMS is not available or not installed, the guest kernel modules will need to be recreated manually whenever the guest kernel is updated

There are no references about this or any other DKMS related info in the 5.1.0 User Manual. Except the fact that VirtualBox no longer relies on DKMS.

After seeing your reference to the 5.1.0 User Manual, I googled and found it at http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualb ... Manual.pdf (I didn't realize an updated version existed). That should help. I wasn't able to find it at all from the VirtualBox home page.

Edit: Actually, it didn't help. It appears that the new manual hasn't been updated regarding the GA. BTW, according to the manual, what I was thinking of as "host additions" is properly referred to as the VirtualBox kernel modules. With the old Virtualbox, I could see the kernel modules for different kernels by running "dkms status" on the host, and the guest additions for different kernels by running "dkms status" on the guest. On the host, the entries would have labels like "vboxhost/5.0.24", and on the guest, "vboxguest/5.0.24". I could also manually install modules for kernels I wasn't currently running using the "dkms install" command.