newbie - extension pack vs guest additions [SOLVED]

[52ROSt]

I am reading through the manual but don't understand if the "guest additions" are included in the "extension pack".

If they are not included, how can I get guest additions for VB 5.0.26,, Linux Host? (I cannot find any link for that.)

Main SW VB 5.0.26 and the related extension pack is installed.

Thanks for clarification!

[Perryg]

It sounds like you have installed the distro fork and we do not support that. Guest additions are included in the official build from virtualbox.org and you can also download the extension pack from there which is not included in the official build.

[52ROSt]

Thanks for this important information about the fork. I will check with the Linux Mint guys to see what kind of experience they made with the direct download of 5.0.26.

[Perryg]

Thanks for this important information about the fork. I will check with the Linux Mint guys to see what kind of experience they made with the direct download of 5.0.26.

I would be considered one of the Mint guys and I can tell you that the official builds up to and including the latest 5.1.4 work fine. One exception is audio which the VBox DEVs are working on.

[52ROSt]

I installed in the meantime 5.0.26 directly from Oracle incl. the related extension pack.

I got the impression that the guest additions are included in the extension pack. Is this correct?

In aforementioned VB a XP VM is running and the SW license dongle (USB) works. This my most important SW Application and requires XP as an OS.(SW application: Metasoftware: Workflow Modeller; Metasoftware does not exist anymore; thus XP)

2 Problems are remaining:

- The fonts in the XP VM have a problem. The distance between 2 characters disappears which makes it difficult to read the text
- The key to switch between English and Japanese doesn' t go through into the guest. ( I am using the zenka-hanku key of a Japanese keyboard)

I will now compare with a installation at a different PC to see what happens there. The installation is again LM 17.3 KDE but with the Oracle VM is 5.0.2 from the LM SW Manager. VM is XP.

The remaining alternative is to create a W7 VM and try to install the Workflow Modeller in W7 VM. Rumors say the application still runs in W7.

[Perryg]

The guest additions are included with the VirtualBox main program and you access them from the device tab on the top title bar. The Extension Pack is a separate download and is installed on the host.

You can read about these in the manual also contained in the main program. Look under help and it will further explain these things. One thing to remember when using the Linux as host is to add your user name to the vboxusers group and follow that up with a log off and on or a reboot.

As for the keyboard this is done in the guest and it should make no difference which is used on the host.

[52ROSt]

Thanks for clarifying also this last question in this thread.

I will have a look under help in the manual as well, to get a better understanding and find a possible solution.

User group and reboot is very important. After adding me to the user group and the USB dongle did not go through into the guest, I got the idea that rebooting might be necessary. This solved the USB problem. Rebooting should be put in the VB manual with bold font. I have now created my own installation notes and there it is bold.

Keyboard - When I use the zenkaku-hanku key the input changes in the host machine but not in the guest. Host key + zenkaku-hanku did, unfortunately, not solve the problem. Having a key to switch is just a bit faster then using the mouse. Using the mouse is what I am doing right now.

Thanks for all your help!