Compatibility with VirtualBox Guest Additions

[grahamperrin]

emulators/virtualbox-ose-additions

With VBoxSVGA in use, after starting the required services:

Bugs

1. screen resizing is non-effective
2. the bidirectional shared clipboard does not work
3. maybe more …

Failure to share the clipboard is a significant hindrance to testing and feedback.

Please, can anyone tell what causes these issues?

TIA

---

Background: helloSystem/ISO#87 (closed by me as out of scope).

[probonopd]

What happens if you install to disk, install the VirtualBox additions, and restart the whole system?

[grahamperrin]

Already installed to disk; please note the up-to-date base system with 12.2-RELEASE-p10 userland.

A restart of the OS was probably unnecessary, but I did so before postsing.

Origin: https://github.com/helloSystem/ISO/releases/tag/r0.6.0 preset to latest for packages.

[probonopd]

Origin: https://github.com/helloSystem/ISO/releases/tag/r0.6.0 preset to latest for packages.

Now I am confused. I don't remember that we used latest packages for anything but very experimental FreeBSD 13 based builds.

[grahamperrin]

#219 (reply in thread)

Does 0.7.0 perform better in this regard?

No. Copied text (example below) is not shared with the host.

[grahamperrin]

helloSystem 0.6.0 (12.2-RELEASE r366954): latest packages · Discussion #222 · helloSystem/hello

[probonopd]

True for 0.6.0 as per "Known Issues" in the Release Notes. No longer true for 0.7.0 experimental builds.
Sorry for the confusion.

[probonopd]

Does 0.7.0 perform better in this regard?

[grahamperrin]

At a glance: little or no better.

The absence of a shared clipboard is a massive hindrance :-(

[probonopd]

I am giving VirtualBox a try on my devel system:

FreeBSD% freebsd-version -k -u
12.2-RELEASE-p7
12.2-RELEASE-p10
FreeBSD% pkg search virtualbox
phpvirtualbox-6.1              AJAX Web Interface for VirtualBox
phpvirtualbox-legacy-5.2.1_1   AJAX Web Interface for VirtualBox
virtualbox-ose-6.1.26_3        General-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware
virtualbox-ose-additions-6.1.26_1 VirtualBox additions for FreeBSD guests
virtualbox-ose-additions-legacy-5.2.44_3 VirtualBox additions for FreeBSD guests
virtualbox-ose-additions-nox11-6.1.26_1 VirtualBox additions for FreeBSD guests
virtualbox-ose-additions-nox11-legacy-5.2.44_3 VirtualBox additions for FreeBSD guests
virtualbox-ose-kmod-6.1.26     VirtualBox kernel module for FreeBSD
virtualbox-ose-kmod-legacy-5.2.44_5 VirtualBox kernel module for FreeBSD
virtualbox-ose-legacy-5.2.44_9 General-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware
virtualbox-ose-nox11-6.1.26_3  General-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware
virtualbox-ose-nox11-legacy-5.2.44_9 General-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware

So I am assuming sudo pkg install -y virtualbox-ose virtualbox-ose-additions virtualbox-ose-kmod is the way to go and I don't need -legacy? Then:

FreeBSD% sudo kldload /boot/modules/vboxdrv.ko 
FreeBSD% sudo -A -E VirtualBox

Results in:

When I resize the window, the virtual screen size is not resized. But the vboxguest kernel extension is loaded and the VBoxService process is running.

[grahamperrin]

… assuming sudo pkg install -y virtualbox-ose virtualbox-ose-additions virtualbox-ose-kmod is the way to go …

Not all three. NB https://www.freshports.org/emulators/virtualbox-ose-additions/#description "… Additions are not intended for use on Host machines. …" etc..

In the host:

1. install emulators/virtualbox-ose alone (allow automated installation of dependencies)
2. observe the package message https://www.freshports.org/emulators/virtualbox-ose/#message.

In the guest:

1. install emulators/virtualbox-ose-additions alone
2. observe the package message https://www.freshports.org/emulators/virtualbox-ose-additions/#message.

[probonopd]

OK, thanks, makes sense.

[grahamperrin]

Cross-reference: https://redd.it/xd0zzc

[probonopd]

Since my hardware is not nearly powerful enough to work with virtual machines, I will not be working on this myself but if someone can send a pull request that improves the situation, I'll be happy to merge this.

[probonopd]

I know it took a while, but: VirtualBox Guest Additions are now preinstalled and enabled, providing for seamless resizing of the screen, copy & paste, etc. when running in VirtualBox. Please try the latest experimental build. Thanks for your patience! 👍