virtualbox.org

I'm running into issues trying to upgrade the Guest Additions on a Linux Mint 17.3 64-bit guest. I've updated the Host VBox (Mac OS X 10.8.3) to 5.0.26r108824 from 4.3.34 r104062.

To update the GA in Mint 17.3, I open Synaptic and search for "virtualbox-guest", which returns:

S | Package                | Installed Version                   | Latest Version
!   virtualbox-guest-dkms    4.3.34-dfsg-1+deb8u1ubuntu1.14.04.1   5.0.4-dfsg-2
!   virtualbox-guest-utils   4.3.34-dfsg-1+deb8u1ubuntu1.14.04.1   5.0.4-dfsg-2
!   virtualbox-guest-x11     4.3.34-dfsg-1+deb8u1ubuntu1.14.04.1   5.0.4-dfsg-2

Since the Status is "!", I can only "Force Version" install to the latest version, but that doesn't match the 5.0.26r108824 of the Host.

Should I use the "Force Version" or just try to uninstall the 4.3.34 GA and manually install 5.0.26 from the GA CD image?

Thanks.
Drew

You shouldn't be using the Synaptic package manager for this at all. AFAIK that will install the Ubuntu fork of the GAs, not the genuine article, meaning not the version we support here.

If you want to update the GAs then just choose "Insert Guest Additions CD" from the "Devices" menu. A more detailed discussion can be found in chapter 4 of the user manual.

So according the Chapter 4 of the UG, I need to uninstall GA:
So to me, it suggests using the Software Manager or Synaptic to remove them... correct?

Thanks!
Drew

Use synaptic to purge the current install of the guest additions and then install the proper guest additions using the device tab at the top title bar -> insert guest additions.

Mint has taken to installing a version of their own GAs and it is not compatible with the official version from VirtualBox. So you have two options. Stay with their version or remove it and convert to the official version if you want the GAs to be newer because your VirtualBox is a newer version.

By the way the software center is total junk in my opinion and you need to stay clear of it .

OK, I used Synaptic to completely remove vitualbox-guest-*

Then I used Update Manager to remove old installed kernels (there were 3 to be removed).

Then I followed the Chapter 4 guidelines for installing, by updating apt-get, upgrading, restarting, then install GA via the script off the CD image (sudo sh .VBoxLinuxAdditions.run).

Install seemed to go well — no errors. Rebooted.

GA is installed and working, but both Chrome and Opera are completely unusable due to the fact their respective windows are just a jumbly mess:

Opera:


What's even more funny is it's grabbing bits of screen from my Host OS, where I'm typing this into...

Any thoughts?

Looks like a vbox 5.0.26 rendering error...

Other applications, like LibreOffice 5 Writer & Firefox, seem to be rendering fine.

...and when I go back to the OS (close out of Opera, for instance), the main menu is hosed until I reboot:


Thanks!
Drew

Drew5316 wrote: but both Chrome and Opera are completely unusable

But that would be a new topic, wouldn't it? I don't want to continue this here but disable 3D acceleration in the VM settings, or OpenGL in the browsers. If that doesn't work, please do not reply here, but search for it and if you don't find a related topic open a new one with the appropriate title.

Isn't it all related to Guest Additions?

Drew

There are a lot of things related to GAs. Should all of them have the title "Force Guest Additions 5.0.4"?