Do guest additions & extension pack have to be updated going from 5.1.18 to 5.1.20?

[bctf1]

I am a new Virtualbox user running VB 5.1.18 on a Linux Mint host with windows 10 and linux guest vm's. Mint's update manager is offering me the 5.1.20 VB update. Do I need to download and install new guest additions for my guests & extension pack for VB? If the answer is yes, do I need to uninstall these 2 items first? If so, brief instructions would be appreciated.

[socratis]

• The Extension Pack (ExtPack) get installed on the host and it has to match the VirtualBox version. It provides functionality such as USB2-3, Webcam, VRDP, PXE, Encryption. You have to download it and install it separately from the main VirtualBox program.
• The Guest Additions (GAs) get installed on the guest and it would be good to match the VirtualBox version. It provides functionality such as shared folders, shared clipboard, drag and drop, pointer sharing, enhanced graphics support. You do not have to download it separately from the main VirtualBox program, since it comes bundled with it.

[bctf1]

Thank you socratis for your reply. Do I need to uninstall the existing extension pack on the host and the guest additions from each guest before installing the updated versions, or can I just install the updated versions over the existing versions? If I need to uninstall the extension pack and guest additions first, I would appreciate some guidance on how to do so.

[socratis]

For the ExtPack it's either/or. You can uninstall it before you uninstall VirtualBox by going to VirtualBox Manager preferences » Extensions. Or you can uninstall it after you've installed the new VirtualBox, the same way. I'd go for the first one, just to be sure, but I've done it both ways, multiple times. No problem.

For the GAs. There's no need to uninstall them, just use the menu Devices » Insert Guest Additions CD » proceed with the install. The installer is smart enough to be aware of the existence of the previous version and uninstalls them in any event. You could do it manually if you were so inclined to. Or in really rare cases you were instructed to do so by the developers.

To tell you the truth, I've been updating guest VMs since VirtualBox 3.x and I've never uninstalled the GAs, before updating them. Not once...

[Martin]

On my Fedora Linux the "old" extension pack just disappears when updating Vbox. The list in the preferences is empty and I just install the new ExtPack.

[bctf1]

Thank you both for your replies. I uninstalled the EXTpack before upgrading VB and installed the new one after the upgrade. On launching each guest VM I was informed that there was a new guest additions and the 5.1.18 addition was automatically uninstalled before the 5.1.20 addition was installed. This worked perfectly on my windows 10 VM and my ubuntu-mate VM.

However on my KDE Neon VM, the additions installer did not autostart. I had to run "sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run" from terminal launched from the VBoxGuestAdditions_5.1.20.iso cd-rom drive window in order for the additions to install. I'm guessing this must be due to the fact that KDE Neon is not fully supported.

[socratis]

On my Fedora Linux the "old" extension pack just disappears when updating Vbox.

Same thing happens on OSX as well. I thought for some reason that I was in the Windows hosts section. Oops...

I'm guessing this must be due to the fact that KDE Neon is not fully supported.

Or the fact that "autorun" is disabled?