VirtualBox Headless – Install VirtualBox Guest Additions

This post explains the process of installing the VirtuaBox Guest Additions, in a CentOS 6 Guest (CLI).
The host is CentOS 6 server (CLI) running Headless VirtualBox 4.1 (not OSE version).

This post actually follows the previous post : VirtualBox Headless on CentOS 6 Server

Host Config

Guest Additions iso is in a folder witch your vbox user has no privileges (unless you run with root), so we need to copy it to another location, the vms folder works just fine.

cp /usr/share/virtualbox/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso //

Now let´s mount the iso.
Note:I\’ll assume yout storage controller is named “storage-ctrl”.

VBoxManage storageattach myvmname --storagectl "storage-ctrl" --port 1 --device 0 --type dvddrive --medium /
/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso

Guest Config

Let\’s mount the iso image inside the guest.

mkdir /media/VBoxGuestAdditions
mount -r /dev/cdrom /media/VBoxGuestAdditions

And install DKMS (Dynamic Kernel Module Support)

cd ~
yum -y install wget
rpm --import http://apt.sw.be/RPM-GPG-KEY.dag.txt
wget http://packages.sw.be/rpmforge-release/rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el6.rf.x86_64.rpm
rpm -i rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el6.rf.x86_64.rpm
rm -f rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el6.rf.x86_64.rpm
yum update
yum -y install dkms

Install kernel headers, and some build stuff, gcc and make

yum install make gcc kernel-devel kernel-headers

Let\’s reboot

shutdown -r now

Let\’s fix kernel dir. Probably not needed since we rebooted, but I guess it doesn\’t hurt, run:

KERN_DIR=/usr/src/kernels/`uname -r`-`uname -m`
export KERN_DIR

Then run guest additions:

cd /media/VBoxGuestAdditions
sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

In some case (like mine), you may get this error message, just break (ctrl+c):

The headers for the current running kernel were not found. If the following
module compilation fails then this could be the reason.

Then install the devel kernel for the version you\’re running with:

yum install kernel-devel-`uname -r`

And run guest additions install again

sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

After install unmount the cd drive in the guest:

umount /media/VBoxGuestAdditions
rmdir /media/VBoxGuestAdditions

If you get the message the device is busy, just go berserk and do:

fuser -k /media/VBoxGuestAdditions/

Then unmount

umount /media/VBoxGuestAdditions
rmdir /media/VBoxGuestAdditions

And afterward (at the host) unmount the iso:

VBoxManage storageattach myvmname --storagectl "storage-ctrl" --port 1 --device 0 --type dvddrive --medium none

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