VirtualBox Auto-resize Guest Display not working!

[New2VB]

Hi. I hope someone out there can offer a suggestion or two on a problem I'm having with Auto-resize Guest Additions & Full Screen, bidirectional clip board & drag and drop in Linux Xfce/VirtualBox.

I've installed Xfce along with Mate & Cinnamon on two different computers & host os's and everything seems to work ok with one exception. I can't get Full Screen or drag & drop in Xfce. It simply will not start the Guest Additions install like Mate & Cinnamon does. I get the same results a win 10 HP laptop & iMac w/macos X!

I should note that during one installation of Mate it reacted the same way as Xfce but I discovered that in Mate & Cinnamon you can right click on desktop icon VBox_GA_6.X.X which will give an option to "Open With Autorun Prompt". Xfce doesn't not put the VBox_GA_6.X.X icon on the desk top, just in the Linux/Xfce/Devices folder and I haven't been able to find a way to make it Autorun or start the installation of Guest Additions.

Has any one got any ideas on how to get to Guest Additions to work with Xfce? Any questions or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

[multiOS]

You seem to be a little bit confused. Xfce, Mate and Cinnamon are just Desktop Environments and not full Linux distributions, so you don't install software directly to them. Think Windows 20+ years ago, when the underpinning Operating System was some flavour of DOS

What matters is the underpinning Linux Distribution you are using with those desktop environments, not the desktop itself. The precise distribution name would help someone to assist more positively, as command line usage varies across Debian/Ubuntu-based, RHEL/RPM-based, Arch-based, SUSE-based etc.

Also, do you get any warning/error message(s) in the Linux Terminal app when you attempt to install the Guest Additions?

[New2VB]

You seem to be a little bit confused. Xfce, Mate and Cinnamon are just Desktop Environments and not full Linux distributions, so you don't install software directly to them.

Hi multiOS and thanks for the response. I'll certainly not deny that I'm frequently easily confused by some of this stuff. With that said I'm not sure how you came to think that the problem I was trying to describe was installing software to the vm because that's not the problem, too wordy maybe?

My problem, very simply stated is: I can't get Xfce 20 to go to full screen mode in VirtualBox. Both Cinnamon 20 & Mate 20 do go to full screen! For what ever reason Xfce (or VirtualBox ) is not able to start VBoxGuestAdditions.iso which, supposedly, is available as shown in screen shot of "VB Manager". But screen shot "Xfce 20 VBox GAs" shows it's not installed at all! And yes, if I click on Device/Insert Guest Additions CD Image to try the install again, I do get an error/warning, screen shot "Xfce GA Insert Fail",

Any idea how I can get Guest Additions installed and running correctly in Xfce?

Thank you.

P.S. Screen shots are in reverse order!

[New2VB]

Just an FYI update and I don't want to get too excited just yet but I think I got it working, at least looks good so far anyway!

I found that I had to open the Home folder and under Devices right click VBox_GAs_6.x.xx, hit Unmount & Eject (not sure if both were required but that's what worked). That removed the VBox GAs that was originally installed when I first clicked on VirtualBox VM/Devices/Insert Guest Additions CD images. Then I reinserted it but still not able to get full screen. But, then I was able to go into the terminal and follow some manual installation instructions I found in the Linux forum and now it seems to be working fine, so far, on both my hp laptop and the imac!

I'm guessing there must be something different or wrong with the insertion of VBox GAs between Xfce and Mate & Cinnamon. Or maybe it was the way I did it but I followed the same procedure in all installations. So, go figure!

Thanks.

[scottgus1]

I found that I had to open the Home folder and under Devices right click VBox_GAs_6.x.xx, hit Unmount & Eject (not sure if both were required but that's what worked).

Linux does sometimes grab really hard on a mounted ISO, thus the VERR_PDM_MEDIA_LOCKED error.

I would try shutting the guest down completely, not save-state, then removing the Guest Additions from every CD drive the guest has (It really only needs one). Then restart the guest and try inserting the GAs ISO again.

Inserting the GAs image only puts the "CD" into the guest's CD drive. You need to run the installer. Installed Guest Additions are required to get full-screen and Auto-resize Guest Display.

[New2VB]

I would try shutting the guest down completely, not save-state, then removing the Guest Additions from every CD drive the guest has (It really only needs one). Then restart the guest and try inserting the GAs ISO again.

Thanks scottgus1. I guess I'm not sure I follow your reasoning for removing the GA? And, do you mean remove the VBoxGuestAdditions.iso from the (Optical Drive ) in VirtualBox Manager/Storage. And why would I want to do that as everything seems to be working well, so far? What would be the harm in just leaving things as they are?

[scottgus1]

remove the VBoxGuestAdditions.iso from the (Optical Drive ) in VirtualBox Manager/Storage

Doing this after shutting down the guest should clear up why the guest OS thinks it already has the Guest Additions CD loaded, make the guest OS let go of the Guest Additions CD so you can insert it again, then install Guest Additions so you can get full-screen and Auto-resize Guest Display.

What would be the harm in just leaving things as they are?

If you have got Guest Additions installed, then you should be good.

Do you now have full-screen and Auto-resize Guest Display?

[New2VB]

Do you now have full-screen and Auto-resize Guest Display?

Yes, we're good. I've now got three Linux 20 isos, Cinnamon, Mate & Xfce, running seemingly pretty well in VB w/full screen, bidirectional, usb, etc. I've just always just left the Vbox GAs in place as it didn't seem to cause any problems that I could tell. I just don't recall running across anything that said it was best to remove them but if that's considered best then I'll start doing it.

As always thanks for your input.

[scottgus1]

Great! Glad you're up and running.