Ubuntu VM won't work, but Debian & Windows do

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Hey so I've used Oracle Virtual Machines in the past with Debian VMs and Microsoft Windows and it works fine. (I'm using Linux Mint as the host)

I can copy/paste using the setting's advanced features, and share folders. (little longer setup on windows)

But when I setup Ubuntu on the VM, it won't copy paste or share folders. Does Ubuntu have special requirements?
 


Are you saying once you have installed Ubuntu in a VM, you are unable to copy/paste files/folders within Ubuntu? Or are you saying you're unable to share folders/files between the VM client (Ubuntu) and the host OS (Mint)?

I'm unaware of any reason you wouldn't be able to manage your Ubuntu filesystem as normal.
 
Are you saying once you have installed Ubuntu in a VM, you are unable to copy/paste files/folders within Ubuntu? Or are you saying you're unable to share folders/files between the VM client (Ubuntu) and the host OS (Mint)?

I'm unaware of any reason you wouldn't be able to manage your Ubuntu filesystem as normal.
Thanks for the reply. It's the second choice. So a VM client of Ubuntu with a host OS of Mint
 
For Oracle VirtualBox

1) install guest additions you generally insert the Guest Additions first the open it then Install it
2) Now that you have installed the guest additions, select your Ubuntu virtual machine then click on Settings on the menu bar. a popup will show and select the Shared Folders item
3) On the right hand side, click on the icon with the Add sign. The dialog box will be displayed
4) Once you click on the Folder Path drop-down list, select the ‘Other’ item.
5) You will be able to select a folder to be shared with your VirtualBox
6) Once the folder is chosen, its full path will be inserted. Tick the checkbox Auto-mount If you want to make it Permanent put a check mark in Make Permanent
 
For Oracle VirtualBox

1) install guest additions you generally insert the Guest Additions first the open it then Install it
2) Now that you have installed the guest additions, select your Ubuntu virtual machine then click on Settings on the menu bar. a popup will show and select the Shared Folders item
3) On the right hand side, click on the icon with the Add sign. The dialog box will be displayed
4) Once you click on the Folder Path drop-down list, select the ‘Other’ item.
5) You will be able to select a folder to be shared with your VirtualBox
6) Once the folder is chosen, its full path will be inserted. Tick the checkbox Auto-mount If you want to make it Permanent put a check mark in Make Permanent
Thanks so much for your reply. So trying to insert the guest additions gave this terminal error:

"This system is not currently setup to build kernel modules.
Please install the gcc make perl packages for your distribution."

So then I did a:
sudo apt install gcc perl make


that worked... I got all excited only to get this error as a pop up GUI...

Unable to insert the virtual optical disk /usr/share/virtualbox/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso into the machine Ubuntu.

Could not mount the media/drive '/usr/share/virtualbox/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso' (VERR_PDM_MEDIA_LOCKED).

Result Code: NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component: ConsoleWrap
Interface: IConsole {872da645-4a9b-1727-bee2-5585105b9eed}
Callee: IMachine {85632c68-b5bb-4316-a900-5eb28d3413df}
 
Go to the directory /media/username/VBox_GAs and look for VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

If it is there right click and open a terminal inside that folder and run
Code:
sudo ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
 
Have you added yourself to the vbox user group?
 
There are some good videos on youtube about Virtualbox...might be worth a look.
happy0034.gif


If the Host is Linux you need to add yourself to the vboxuser group...otherwise your Flash Drives wont work in the VM. That also applies to a windwoes VM too.

The easiest way to do this (I'm using Linux Mint)...have your VM running...minimise it to the Panel...on your Mint Desktop open a Terminal and use the command Lord Boltar gave you.
Then close the Terminal...maximise your VM and shut it down and re-boot your computer...now when you plug in a Flash Drive it will open in the VM. :)
 
There is checkmark by Name?

Usually I do
Code:
sudo usermod -a -G vboxusers USERNAME
Ok I did this and like sam44 said, shut down VM and rebooted after. The USB Flash drive does work, but not the copy paste or share folders. Still have the same error on gcc make perl packages.

I don't see a checkmark in the users GUI? Maybe I'm looking in the wrong spot, but from here it's just a username, then you click on groups and none of these have checks. (I'm on Mint host)
 
This video will show you how to create a Shared Folder in Virtualbox...

I'm not sure what you mean with copy and paste...I think you mean Drag n Drop...this enables you to drag a file, folder, video etc from your Linux Desktop to your VM. :)
Go to General...Advanced... and set Shared Clipboard and Drop n Drag as shown...


I don't use Ubuntu but the above will work, you can do other things as well...Clone you VM...Import/Export the VM...Increase the size and more...hope this helps.
happy0034.gif
 
This video will show you how to create a Shared Folder in Virtualbox...

I'm not sure what you mean with copy and paste...I think you mean Drag n Drop...this enables you to drag a file, folder, video etc from your Linux Desktop to your VM. :)
Go to General...Advanced... and set Shared Clipboard and Drop n Drag as shown...


I don't use Ubuntu but the above will work, you can do other things as well...Clone you VM...Import/Export the VM...Increase the size and more...hope this helps.
happy0034.gif
I am doing what he said in the video but having issues.

Maybe the problem is the guest additions install is wrong for my distro. Since I'm using Mint, I downloaded the Ubuntu one since that's all they had:

 
Yes that is correct should be the one for Ubuntu 20.04, since Mint 20.3 is based on that
Okay thanks for clarifying. I thought it might be a distro mismatch because I was getting this error I outlined above:

"This system is not currently setup to build kernel modules.
Please install the gcc make perl packages for your distribution."
 
Kinda a shot in the dark, but have you tried installing the full meta package 'build-essential'?
 
Kinda a shot in the dark, but have you tried installing the full meta package 'build-essential'?
sudo apt install build-essential

build-essential is already the newest version (12.8ubuntu1.1).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.


gcc --version

gcc (Ubuntu 9.4.0-1ubuntu1~20.04.1) 9.4.0
Copyright (C) 2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 
Yes that is correct should be the one for Ubuntu 20.04, since Mint 20.3 is based on that
Maybe the problem is that I did the Guest Additions with Windows first. And now it's using a "windows" guest additions CD for the Linux ones. Look at this GUI screenshot. Not sure how to change it to Linux though
 

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Kinda a shot in the dark, but have you tried installing the full meta package 'build-essential'?
Oh I am a doofus, I originally thought you meant this on the host. I did it on the VM and it worked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now the Guest Additions CD pops up and I ran it! We got copy paste working and there's a share folder. Great work guys, this forum is truly impressive.
 
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