The VirtualBox Guest Additions contain several different drivers. If for any reason you do not wish to set them all up, you can install the Guest Additions using the following command:
sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run no_setup
After this, you will need to at least compile the kernel modules by running the command
rcvboxadd setup
as root (you will need to replace lib by lib64 on some 64bit guests), and on older guests without the udev service you will need to add the vboxadd service to the default runlevel to ensure that the modules get loaded.
To setup the time synchronization service, add the service vboxadd-service to the default runlevel. To set up the X11 and OpenGL part of the Guest Additions, run the command
rcvboxadd-x11 setup
(you do not need to enable any services for this).
To recompile the guest kernel modules, use this command:
rcvboxadd setup
After compilation you should reboot your guest to ensure that the new modules are actually used.
This section assumes that you are familiar with configuring the X.Org server using xorg.conf and optionally the newer mechanisms using hal or udev and xorg.conf.d. If not you can learn about them by studying the documentation which comes with X.Org.
The VirtualBox Guest Additions come with drivers for X.Org versions
-
X11R6.8/X11R6.9 and XFree86 version 4.3 (vboxvideo_drv_68.o and vboxmouse_drv_68.o)
-
X11R7.0 (vboxvideo_drv_70.so and vboxmouse_drv_70.so)
-
X11R7.1 (vboxvideo_drv_71.so and vboxmouse_drv_71.so)
-
X.Org Server versions 1.3 and later (vboxvideo_drv_13.so and vboxmouse_drv_13.so and so on).
By default these drivers can be found in the directory
/opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-<version>/other/
and the correct versions for the X server are symbolically linked into the X.Org driver directories.
For graphics integration to work correctly, the X server must load the vboxvideo driver (many recent X server versions look for it automatically if they see that they are running in VirtualBox) and for an optimal user experience the guest kernel drivers must be loaded and the Guest Additions tool VBoxClient must be running as a client in the X session. For mouse integration to work correctly, the guest kernel drivers must be loaded and in addition, in X servers from X.Org X11R6.8 to X11R7.1 and in XFree86 version 4.3 the right vboxmouse driver must be loaded and associated with /dev/mouse or /dev/psaux; in X.Org server 1.3 or later a driver for a PS/2 mouse must be loaded and the right vboxmouse driver must be associated with /dev/vboxguest.
The VirtualBox guest graphics driver can use any graphics configuration for which the virtual resolution fits into the virtual video memory allocated to the virtual machine (minus a small amount used by the guest driver) as described in Section 3.6, “Display settings”. The driver will offer a range of standard modes at least up to the default guest resolution for all active guest monitors. In X.Org Server 1.3 and later the default mode can be changed by setting the output property VBOX_MODE to "<width>x<height>" for any guest monitor. When VBoxClient and the kernel drivers are active this is done automatically when the host requests a mode change. The driver for older versions can only receive new modes by querying the host for requests at regular intervals.
With pre-1.3 X Servers you can also add your own modes to the X server configuration file. You simply need to add them to the "Modes" list in the "Display" subsection of the "Screen" section. For example, the section shown here has a custom 2048x800 resolution mode added:
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "VirtualBox graphics card"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "2048x800" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection