virtualbox.org

Hi,
I have an Windows 8.1-64 guest on a VM drive which had been first time installed under VirtualBox 5.0 on a Ubuntu 19.04 host. I updated the host's Ubuntu from 19.04 to 19.10 this week, having VBox 6.0.4 with the Windows guest installed, and updated VirtualBox on the Ubuntu host to 6.0.14. When trying to install the GA 6.0.14 in the guest, I always get an error:

DriverPackageInstallW (0x65B)

I tried reinstalling VirtualBox on the the Ubuntu 19.10 using the disco repository (successfully), and to uninstall the 6.0.4 GA on the Win8.1 guest (not possible, no entry in the Windows System Uninstall list). I assume that the current GA 6.0.4 is corrupt and blocks the installation of GA 6.0.14.

Any ideas how to solve this?

You seem to be confused by the terminology, and you're confusing us as well...

• HOST: your physical computer, the one that you launch VirtualBox Manager.
• GUEST: your virtual computer, the Virtual Machine that runs on top of your Host.

Please edit your message and fix the description, because if I do, I may alter the meaning. Fix the Host/Guest so we know what you mean.

Let me know in a *new* post when you fix your description.

I am sorry about the confusion in my previous post (I read it before posting, but focusing on typos, less the logic of the content - and I had been interrupted by a call...)

Thanks for posting an updated description. I took the updated description that you had in your 2nd post and replaced it with the contents of your 1st post.

Your host shouldn't matter, it's your Guest that has the problem. So, let's focus on that...

The way to properly install the GAs is: with the VM window having the focus, go to the host's menu "Devices" » "Insert Guest Additions CD Image...". If not prompted by auto-run, run "VBoxWindowsAdditions.exe" from the CD.

When I try to load VBoxGuestAdditions_6.0.14.iso via the devices menu, it loads, but briefly before reaching 100%, it stops with an error (network access, unknown reason {1,?} ).

So I downloaded it directly from the Oracle site, expanded it into a temp directory and started it from there (VBoxWindosAdditions_amd64.exe).

The guest behaves strange as well - the mouse is locked to the guest, so I need to press right ctrl to access the vbox menu.

So before searching in the jungle, first step:

Does VirtualBox host run on Ubuntu 19.10 (dist upgrade from 1904)? With my first install attempt, I got problems with the repositories, sudo apt update gave an error that there is no eoan dist for vbox. So I changed the entry in /etc/apt/ from deb-src [arch=amd64] http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian eoan contrib
to deb [arch=amd64] http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian disco contrib, that seemed to work. Installing the VirtualBox extensions worked as usual.

I could load the existing vm drive with Windows 8.1-64, it started OK (but with keyboard and mouse locked locked to the guest window, requiring ctrl right, and a 1024 resolution). When I tried to update the GA from 6.0.4 to 6.0.14, loading it via mounted iso failed (network error above), and when updating it via the manually downloaded iso, the DriverPackageInstallW throws an early exit with error code (0x65B).

Bosse wrote:So I downloaded it directly from the Oracle site

Don't. Never download the stand-alone GAs, unless specifically told to.

Bosse wrote:sudo apt update gave an error that there is no eoan dist for vbox

Bosse wrote:Does VirtualBox host run on Ubuntu 19.10

Not officially. There's no 19.10 specific package, only up to 19.04. So at the moment you're trying an unsupported setup. That's why 'apt' failed...

Thanks. OK, wait and see until the 19.10 version is released.

I found out that I did not had the multiverse repositories enabled. Thus, I completely removed VirtualBox from my Ubuntu 19.10 machine:

$ sudo apt-get remove --purge virtualbox
$ sudo rm ~/"VirtualBox VMs" -Rf
$ sudo rm ~/.config/VirtualBox/ -R
$ sudo apt autoremove

Then I installed it again via apt:

$ sudo apt install virtualbox
$ sudo modprobe vboxdrv

After that, the official release for 19.10 has been installed. It had the Host Extensions installed already, and started without problems. I created a new VM with the existing Windows 8.1.vdi as virtual hard disk. It started up fine. First difference: The mouse has not been locked into the guest screen anymore. However, trying to load the GA iso via the VB Devices menue stopped at 83% throwing the network access error, unknown reason {1,?}, again.
I had the VBoxGuestAdditions_6.0.14.iso downloaded directly from Oracle in my Download folder, so I added it as virtual media (optical media) via the Virtual Media Manager. After that, mounting the iso in the Windows 8.1-64 guest worked without downloading, and started the installation routine via autorun.
Alas, the installation ends again with the 0x65B error (install_drivers.log in C:\Program Files\Oracle\Virtual Box GuestAdditions):

(1) 0 - ENTER:  DriverPackageInstallW
(1) 0 - RETURN: DriverPackageInstallW  (0x65B)
(1) 0 - ENTER:  DriverPackageInstallW
(1) 0 - Installing INF file 'C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox Guest Additions\VBoxGuest.inf' (Plug and Play).
(1) 0 - Looking for Model Section [VBoxGuest.NTamd64]...
(1) 0 - Installing devices with Id "PCI\VEN_80EE&DEV_CAFE&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_00" using INF "C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\vboxguest.inf_amd64_c50a273df32834ff\vboxguest.inf".
(1) 0 - Will force install because driver is not better and force flag is set.
(1) 0 - ENTER UpdateDriverForPlugAndPlayDevices...
(0) 0 - RETURN UpdateDriverForPlugAndPlayDevices.
(1) 0 - Installation was successful.
(0) 0 - Install completed
(1) 0 - RETURN: DriverPackageInstallW  (0x0)
(1) 0 - ENTER:  DriverPackageInstallW
...
(1) 0 - ENTER:  DriverPackageInstallW
(1) 0 - RETURN: DriverPackageInstallW  (0x65B)

VBoxControl.exe -V on the guest gives the version 6.0.14r133895, thus it had been installed, but obviously necessary drivers not.

Remaining problems: Shared drives and shared clipboard do not work, guest display does not adapt to the virtual monitor, only standard resolutions are available.

I suspect that the GA 6.0.14 iso I downloaded from the Oracle site does not fit to the 6.0.14 revision installed via apt. How to access the correct revision of GA 6.0.14 (it should be somewhere on the ubuntu host, downloaded with the apt installation, but I cannot find it)?

Bosse wrote:Thus, I completely removed VirtualBox from my Ubuntu 19.10 machine:

• $ sudo apt-get remove --purge virtualbox
  $ sudo rm ~/"VirtualBox VMs" -Rf       <-- DANGER 1.
  $ sudo rm ~/.config/VirtualBox/ -R     <-- DANGER 2.
  $ sudo apt autoremove

1. Do you realize that you just removed all the "root" user's VMs?
2. Do you realize that you just removed all the "root" user's configuration files?

Why would you want to remove someone else's files and configuration files? It's like wanting to remove your spreadsheets if you want to update LibreOffice! Because that's what a VM is to VirtualBox; data.

Bosse wrote:Then I installed it again via apt:

Unless you specifically added the VirtualBox PPA, you just got yourself the Ubuntu-fork. Not supported in these forums.

Bosse wrote:I had the VBoxGuestAdditions_6.0.14.iso downloaded directly from Oracle in my Download folder

Don't do that! The GAs ISO is bundled with each and every VirtualBox installation, so that the users don't screw up and install a different version from what they're supposed to.

This also answers the questions from your last post's last paragraph...

I was aware about removing other users' VB confs - on the host had been only some attempts of setting up confs for two other users for testing purposes which did not work well and had not been used (I still have to find out how to set up different user accounts with an automatic login into the corresponding Win8.1 accounts). Since I likely will set up a windows domain for that purpose, I left the experiment uncompleted, and the other accounts have not been used at all. Better to start from the scratch, but thank you for the warning to prevent other readers to do the same resulting in serious data loss, I should have pointed that out myself for just that reason.

I did not add the VirtualBox PPA - is there a version already supporting ubuntu 19.10? Does the VirtualBox installation downloaded also contain the required GA release? Is there an alternative to the autorun in the mounted GA iso, i.e. by installing the GA via elevated cmd on the Win8.1 guest? Would you recommend to uninstall VirtualBox again, adding the VirtualBox ppa and then install it via sudo apt-get virtualbox using the official release?

Sorry if my questions should be annyoing, but I found VirtualBox excellent, using it centrally for my everyday work - handling seamlessly the best of Linux and M$ Windows without any glitches is very good. So I simply want to have it up again asap.

Bosse wrote:but thank you for the warning to prevent other readers to do the same resulting in serious data loss, I should have pointed that out myself for just that reason.

I edited your original message to strike-through the offending commands.

Bosse wrote:I did not add the VirtualBox PPA - is there a version already supporting ubuntu 19.10?

No, not yet, my (wild) guess is with 6.0.14. Until then, you got to use the "All Distributions" generic version as a standalone file, not with 'apt'.

Bosse wrote:Does the VirtualBox installation downloaded also contain the required GA release?

All official VirtualBox releases, official/test/development/beta, include the matching GAs. There's no need to download them separately.

Bosse wrote:Is there an alternative to the autorun in the mounted GA iso, i.e. by installing the GA via elevated cmd on the Win8.1 guest?

With the VM window having the focus, go to the host's menu "Devices" » "Insert Guest Additions CD Image...". If not prompted by auto-run, run "VBoxWindowsAdditions.exe" from the CD. You can run it with Run-As-Administrator if you wish...

Bosse wrote:Would you recommend to uninstall VirtualBox again, adding the VirtualBox ppa and then install it via sudo apt-get virtualbox using the official release?

As I mentioned, there's no official release for Ubuntu 19.10, so that won't work for the moment, but generally speaking, that's the idea. Instructions in the page that I linked above...

Bosse wrote:Sorry if my questions should be annyoing

What? No, not at all...