Running any operating system on a virtual box takes experience. You have to figure out various issues like connectivity issues and performance issues but out of all of them, the graphical issues is an exercise in patience. Not having fullscreen, shared clipboard, and file sharing limit your efficiency but also destroys the whole experience.
VirtualBox Guest Additions is a beautiful piece of software that solves these issues in a single shot and ensures better display, performance, and overall functionality. Adding Virtualbox Guest Additions used to be very easy but there are a few errors and issues that are coming up with new versions of the operating systems. you have to ensure all the package dependencies are fulfilled.
In this article, You will learn how to install VirtualBox Guest Additions in the up-and-coming Rocky Linux.
Prerequisites
- Terminal access
- A user account with sudo privileges.
Note: The commands in this tutorial are executed on the Rocky Linux 8 system. As Rocky Linux is an extension of the CentOS system, the steps in this tutorial are also valid for CentOS operating systems.
Update the System
It is always recommended to keep your system updated but it is a crucial step for newly installed operating systems as the packages that come with the operating system are not the latest.
To update your operating system, run the following command.
sudo yum update
Resolve and Install Package Dependencies
The new installation lack some much-needed packages right now that are needed to run the
VirtualBox Guest Additions such as gcc, kernel-headers, and kernel-devel packages.
Run the following command to resolve all the needed dependencies in one shot.
sudo yum install tar bzip2 kernel-devel kernel-headers perl gcc make elfutils-libelf-devel
Once you are done with the dependencies you have to reboot your system.
To reboot your system, just type the following in the terminal.
Note: Make sure that the version of dependencies packages of the kernel like kernel-devel and kernel-headers are the same as the core kernel package version. Here all the packages are of 4.18.0.385.25.1.el8_4 version.
sudo reboot
Install VirtualBox Guest Additions
Once your system restarts, Go to the Devices in the VirtualBox toolbar and select the Insert VirtualBox Guest Additions CD image option.
You will be prompted to run the VirtualBox Guest Additions. Press Run.
Enter your password when you are prompted to Authenticate.
You will see the VirtualBox Guest Additions running in the terminal.
Once the VirtualBox Guest Additions are installed. Press Enter and reboot your system.
On the restart, you will immediately notice that your operating system is running on full screen. You can further configure the clipboard and file sharing from the VirtualBox toolbar.
Conclusion
Rocky Linux is a new operating system and the new operating systems usually have some packaging bugs so the dependencies are not included in the original package. You can simply install these packages to counter these issues and proceed.
This article discusses the core issues while installing VirtualBox Guest Additions and how to resolve them in a rocky Linux operating system.