Solved How to install Virtualbox Guest additions?

J

Joe76000

Hello,

I'm completely new to BSD but not to GNU/Linux distros. I'm living in Normandy - France.
Talking with Unix friends and after some investigations, I have chosen FreeBSD. But it was a little bit hard to implement it. So, I have chosen PC-BSD 10.1.1 which is built on FreeBSD.

I installed PC-BSD 10.1.1 as a guest in VirtualBox 4.3.26 under an Ubuntu 14.04.1 host, all in 64-bit. Everything went well, except...

The only one issue left is with the Guest additions I cannot install at all! When with Linux guests, everything is okay. I spend a few weeks searching on the Web in several forums, but with no success!

Question 1: Are FreeBSD / PC-BSD working as guests in VirtualBox with "Resizing the machine's window" for matching the host resolution, as with GNU/Linux distros?

Question 2: If the answer is yes, what is the right procedure for doing so?

You can have a look at my following post (in French): PC-BSD 10.1.1 Joule | Bureau KDE Plasma 4.14.2.

Many thanks for your help.
Joe
 
Install emulators/virtualbox-ose-additions, then create /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf with only these contents:
Code: 
Section "ServerLayout"
  Identifier "xfce"
  InputDevice "Mouse1"
  Option "AIGLX" "Off" # disable AIGLX for VirtualBox Additions
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
  Identifier "Mouse1"
  Driver "vboxmouse"
EndSection
 
I'm not sure to be honest. I don't have it in my local rc.conf file and devd(8) starts up fine. I can't remember how long I've been not using the setting but it has been for quite some time. Looking at the man page for rc.conf in 11-CURRENT it still mentions devd_enable as well so I'm not sure what the deal is. Maybe the man page needs updating, or of course I could just be wrong...
 
asteriskRoss said:
Further to wblock@'s guidance, have a look at section 22.2.4 in the FreeBSD handbook for required changes to rc.conf(5). The page is slightly out of date as Virtual Box uses devd(8) now rather than hald(8) so instead of hald_enable, put devd_enable.
Click to expand...

VirtualBox does not much care what is used for X. The X server (x11-servers/xorg-server) itself no longer requires HAL, so that option can be disabled. However, it does not require devd(8), either. That is, the DEVD option for the server is just another way to detect input devices, not an either/or with HAL.
 
wblock@, my mistake, I was thinking about VirtualBox running on a FreeBSD host, which used to need sysutils/hal for guest access to host devices but now doesn't. As far as I'm aware, the other configuration details in the Handbook are still relevant for providing full functionality in the guest system.
 
Hello JRM and Folks,

Thank you very much for helping me to solve my issue.

@ jrm
I will have a look at your link: emulators/virtualbox-ose-additions
I perhaps saw it but was not sure if this could be a solution as for the time being my FreeBSD understanding is still (very) poor.
As asteriskRoss wrote it: "Every day is a school day!" Yes, it is, at least for me!

I was not sure about my today afternoon agenda, now I know on what I will spend my time.
I will keep you posted...

PS: It would be nice if the FreeBSD community could ask (request) VirtualBox to update its End-user docs (specially the User manual) regarding BSD and Guest additions installation as of today there is nothing in it. This could improve the usage - adoption of FreeBSD.

Kind regards.
 
The latest full version of PC-BSD 10.1.1 installs everything. No need to do anything. I would suggest checking their installation documentation.
 
Hello rhsbsd,

Well... I already red several times the "PC-BSD 10.1.1 Handbook En.pdf" of 328 pages. Chapter 2.6 "Using VirtualBox" is not enough documented regarding Guest additions. So, it's not helpful at all.

And yes, I have already made several times the full guest installation within VirtualBox 4.3.26 using the latest "PCBSD10.1.1-RELEASE-01-31-2015-x64-DVD-USB.iso" image from PC-BSD.

But, my issue is still the same. The best I can have is a guest screen resolution of only 1,024 x 768 instead of 1,920 x 1,080.
Even if I am able to change the screen resolution (i.e. guest = host resolution) when booting PC-BSD, at the reboot, I'm getting 2 black screens which are playing "yo-yo" and I'm stuck!

Then, the only current solution is to force PC-BSD to « Run X in vesa mode » but with guest screen resolution limited to 1,024 x 768! This make PC-BSD not usable at all, the usage guest screen having the size of a postage stamp!

Cheers.
 
Hello,

After a lot of trials, I found my work around for fixing this display auto sizing issue. In fact it's "very simple":
- "Turned OFF 3D Acceleration" in the guest machine settings under VirtualBox!
- At the boot of the guest machine in PC-BSD BootLoader choose: "Run the Display Wizard" which will launch the "Start the X-Configuration Utility".
- The next "Resolution confirmation" screen will display (for me): 1,871 x 1,034 using vboxvideo driver (and not 1,920 x 1,080 as my host screen has a top dashboard and Unity launch bar on the left). Press the OK button to confirm it and it's done!

But obviously, I lost the 3D Acceleration capability. What a shame!
"The VirtualBox Guest Additions contain experimental hardware 3D support for Windows, Linux and Solaris guests.
With this feature, if an application inside your virtual machine uses 3D features through the OpenGL or Direct3D 8/9 programming interfaces, instead of emulating them in software (which would be slow), VirtualBox will attempt to use your host's 3D hardware. This works for all supported host platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris), provided that your host operating system can make use of your accelerated 3D hardware in the first place."

I will also report this to the PC-BSD community as there is room for improvement.

Thanks again for your contributions and have a great week-end!
 
But virtualbox doesn't recognize any iso with guest additions and guest system needs drivers anyway, so what shut be done after additions installation to install drivers on guest system such as vga, usb etc.
 
litk said:
But I need guest additions for windows XP guest on FreeBSD host.
Click to expand...
Just in case, If we’re talking FreeBSD as HOST, I’m lucky to have keep up with my same Windows_XP.vdi and the configuration file. Without it, it would be HISTORY, for all Windows in my book. I got Oracle Virtualbox guest addition installed in Windows Program Files, so it must have been needed or else it would not be there.
1:
First Install virtualbox-ose from packages and this is what I got.
Code: 
virtualbox-ose-4.3.38_1        General-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware
virtualbox-ose-kmod-4.3.38     VirtualBox kernel module for FreeBSD
I don't know why this is not listed in my pkg info.
Code: 
pkg install virtualbox-ose-additions
I DID NOT install virtualbox-ose-kmod, but could have installed additions... Maybe that is where kmod came in.

2:
Install Windows XP as your FreeBSD guest.

3:
Then download from VirtualBox.org the Guest Additions for Windows, and install it. If it's gone from there, hunt it down.

It all works well with FreeBSD as host. You might need pkg over ports if that port still has bugs.

Good Luck!
 
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