Guest Additions Install

[TrdK]

Hi,

Before I start, please be aware that I am aware that I am using a VERY OLD version of Linux. Whilst it would be helpful to be able to update to a newer version, for commercial reasons which are far to boring to discuss, this will not happen. Suggestions that I simply "upgrade to xxxx" while well-meaning I'm sure, are of no use. Thank you anyway

Right, here's the situation:

Host OS: Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit
VirtualBox: 5.1.10 r112026 (Qt5.6.2)
Guest OS: RHEL3 Update 4 (kernel 2.4.21-27, 32-bit)

I'm trying to install the Guest Additions, but don't get very far. When I run VBoxLinuxAdditions.run I get:

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Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox 5.1.10 Guest Additions for Linux............
VirtualBox Guest Additions installer
Copying additional installer modules ...
Installing additional modules ...
vboxadd.sh: Building Guest Additions kernel modules.
Failed to set up service, please check the log file
/var/log/VBoxGuestAdditions.log for details.

The log file VBoxLinuxAdditions.log says:

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vboxadd.sh: failed: Look at /var/log/vboxadd-install.log to find out what went wrong.
vboxadd.sh: failed: Please check that you have gcc, make, the header files for your Linux kernel and possibly perl installed..

vboxadd-install.log says:

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make: the '-j' option requires a positive integral argument
<the contents of the make help>

I'm by no means a Linux expert and could do with some advice on how to proceed from here.

Thanks in advance

[Kraj011]

Having the same issue! Very annoying. I tried using the old and new repositories but nothing. Please help

[socratis]

Suggestions that I simply "upgrade to xxxx" while well-meaning I'm sure, are of no use.

OK, how about a suggestion to downgrade your VirtualBox version then? You can't honestly expect your installation to work with the current VirtualBox, do you? Or even if it isn't that it's going to get fixed?

According to RedHat, RHEL 3 Update 4 (2.4.21-27) was released on 2004-12-12.

According to Wikipedia VirtualBox 1.0 was released on 2007-01-15. Today it is 2017-02-02. That's 10 years later. That's a lot of lifetimes, even in long term releases. I can bet that VirtualBox does not support RHEL 3 today. You'll have to go in the archives and see which version was supported, if any at all...

[socratis]

Having the same issue

Are you running RHEL 3 as well? If so, I already replied to the question above this post. My feeling is that you're not running RHEL3 and you're simply piggybacking in TrdK's thread.

[TrdK]

Thank you socratis, that is a fair suggestion.

I have looked in the archive but it only goes back to version 4 as far as I can tell, which is not far enough. Are you aware of anywhere that might have earlier versions?

[socratis]

I really don't know. I'll try and ask the admins if they keep a copy someplace, but I wouldn't be too optimistic about it...

[socratis]

From the developers' mailing list:

RHEL 3 guest is supported, host is not. (vbox 5.0)

which I guess it means that VirtualBox 5.0.x could work on your RHEL3 guest. Give it a shot...

If that doesn't work, keep on going back. Actually I would start with the earliest release that supports Win7 as a host, and move upwards.

[Technologov]

Here you go...

Make sure you have kernel-sources (or kernel-src) package *and* gcc + make. Kernel-devel (aka kernel-headers is NOT enough for RHEL3 guest).

NOTE: that I tested RHEL 3.9 (RHEL 3 update 9) guest and is known to work, including most guest addition modules.

[TrdK]

That sounds a bit more positive, thanks Technologov.

I've definitely got gcc and make installed, any idea where I might find kernel-headers and kernel-devel for this version?

[TrdK]

From the developers' mailing list:

RHEL 3 guest is supported, host is not. (vbox 5.0)

which I guess it means that VirtualBox 5.0.x could work on your RHEL3 guest. Give it a shot...

If that doesn't work, keep on going back. Actually I would start with the earliest release that supports Win7 as a host, and move upwards.

I'm probably a bit thick (actually, I'm certainly a bit thick!) but I'm not sure I understand - are you suggesting that although VBox 5.0 supports RHEL3 as a guest, not with Win7 as host?

If so, what host would I be able to use?

[TrdK]

Just had a look back through the archive to v4.0.0 and they all say the same thing in the manual - limited support for kernel 2.4

[socratis]

limited support for kernel 2.4

As a host or as a guest? Huge difference...

[TrdK]

Guest, or at least it's listed in section 3.1 of the manual under "Supported guest operating systems"

[TrdK]

Right, latest news is that I found a copy of VirtualBox v3.2.0 r61806 and installed that.

The good news is that Guest Additions for that version installed almost completely

The bad news is that the primary feature that I wanted from Guest Additions, OpenGL support, does not install

The message that comes up says:

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Your guest system does not seem to have sufficient OpenGL support to enable accelerated 3D effects (this requires Linux 2.6.27 or later in the guest system). This Guest Additions feature will be disabled.

Other than installing a later kernel, is there a way around this? Would something like Mesa help?