virtualbox.org

I've just updated my virtualbox in Linux to version 5.2.18. Normally, when I run the Windows 7 guest, I get a menu selection: Devices > Insert Guest Additions CD image. This is not there this time. The Manual 4.2.1.1. Installation, also says, "If you prefer to mount the additions manually, ... Select "Mount CD/DVD-ROM" from the "Devices" menu in the virtual machine's menu bar ..." I do not have this selection either.

Advice?

The Devices|Insert Guest Additions CD image... menu item is still there in 5.2.18, I'm looking at it right now.

If you don't see it then you must have turn it off in VirtualBox preferences, or you switched to fullscreen mode.

Show me a picture of the VM running, Devices pulldown menu visible?

Also, to continue this discussion I'll need to see a VM log. With the VM fully shut down, right click and "Show Log" in the GUI, save "VBox.log" (no other file) to a zip, and attach the zip here.

See image.

Note the final sentence of my previous response.

You might also like to look at the user interface configuration: in the manager entry for this VM go to <VM settings>|User Interface|Devices, and make sure that the appropriate menu items are enabled, as they are by default.

I checked VM settings>|User Interface|Devices and sure enough, the Guest Additions checkbox was unchecked. I check it and started the VM. I've never even looked at this setting -- didn't know it was there, and I don't know how it got unchecked. However, when it finally came up there was no Devices menu at all! It had ... View Input Help, skipping right over Devices. So, still not able to install Guest Additions.

It was also taking and EXTREMELY long time to start the VM, 15+ minutes. The rest of my system was completely unresponsive (mouse, keyboard) during this time. I couldn't even start a terminal session to check CPU usage. This is a fairly fast machine: AMD FX-8320E and 8G of memory. The VM has 4G allocated. Another settings that appeared off was the VM had 1 of 16 CPU allocated. I was sure I had that set to 8 of 16 over a year ago. When I set it to 8, the VM fired up quickly, as it used to. Something about this 5.2.18 update has apparently messed with my settings.

I've posted the log file as you request. Sorry, I missed that line in your previous post. Hopefully you can help me sort out the Guest Additions problem.

I would also like to see the "recipe" of the VM, the ".vbox" file:

1. Right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager. Select "Show in Finder/Explorer/Whatever".
2. ZIP the selected ".vbox" file and attach it to your response.

Perhaps too late for the "recipe" file (if not, let me know). I got things working, sort of. With the VM off, I unchecked the User Interface > Devices > Insert Guest Additions box. I restarted the VM, but still no Devices menu. I shut it down, re-checked User Interface > Devices > Insert Guest Additions, and restarted the VM. Volia! The Devices menu was back and I could now install the Guest Additions. Between this an my changed CPU count, I think there must be some flakiness to 5.2.18. I've updated this VM regularly for more than a year and not had this kind of trouble.

One more thing ... I have multiple monitors on my system. With the previous version, CTRL-F opened the full-screen on my rightmost monitor, which is where I want it. Now, CTRL-F opens full-screen on my main monitor, not where I want it. This is true even if non-full-screen mode was on my other monitor -- doing CTRL-F moved the fullscreen to my main console. I did figure out to use CTRL-Home > View > Virtual Screen 1 > Use Host Screen 3, but again, this is not something I've ever had to do before.

I believe, after much pain and suffering, I'm back in action on my VM. Is there anything you would like to see before I move on from this?

MarkFoley wrote:Perhaps too late for the "recipe" file

Sounds like it. You managed to fix it.

MarkFoley wrote:Is there anything you would like to see before I move on from this?

Personally, no. The issue has been addressed. Sounds like you somehow had a corrupted recipe, that's why you were seeing all these weird symptoms. All of them are part of the recipe. But, you managed to sort them out, so case closed, marking as [Solved].