Install VirtualBox Guest Additions on Fedora 16/15, CentOS/RHEL 6/5.7

Updated by JR on Nov 29, 2011 in CentOS, Desktop Guides, Featured, Fedora, Linux, Programs, Red Hat (RHEL) | 25 comments

This is guide, howto install Oracle VirtualBox Guest Additions on Fedora, CentOS and Red Hat (RHEL). This guide should work with Fedora 16, Fedora 15, Fedora 14, Fedora 13, Fedora 12, CentOS 6/5.7, Red Hat (RHEL) 6.1/6/5.7.

VirtualBox Guest Additions is special software that can be installed inside Linux virtual machines to improve performance and make integration much more seamless. Among the features provided by these VirtualBox Guest Additions are mouse pointer integration and arbitrary screen solutions (e.g. by resizing the guest window).

Install VirtualBox Guest Additions on Fedora, CentOS and Red Hat (RHEL)

1. Change root user

su -
## OR ##
sudo -i

2. Mount VirtualBox Guest Additions

Click Devices > Install Guest Additions… on VirtualBox

Mount VirtualBox Guest Additions device

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

3. Make sure that you are running latest kernel

Update virtual machine kernel and reboot

yum update kernel*
reboot

4. Install following packages

yum install gcc kernel-devel kernel-headers

5. Add KERN_DIR environment variable

## Current running kernel on Fedora ##
KERN_DIR=/usr/src/kernels/`uname -r`
 
## Current running kernel on CentOS and Red Hat (RHEL) ##
KERN_DIR=/usr/src/kernels/`uname -r`-`uname -m`
 
## Fedora example ##
KERN_DIR=/usr/src/kernels/2.6.33.5-124.fc13.i686
 
## CentOS and Red Hat (RHEL) example ##
KERN_DIR=/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-194.11.1.el5-x86_64
 
## Export KERN_DIR ##
export KERN_DIR

6. Install Guest Additions

cd /media/VirtualBoxGuestAdditions
 
# 32-bit and 64-bit systems run following
./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

Output looks like following:

[root@fedora VBoxGuestAdditions]# ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox 4.1.6 Guest Additions for Linux.........
VirtualBox Guest Additions installer
Removing installed version 4.1.6 of VirtualBox Guest Additions...
Removing existing VirtualBox DKMS kernel modules           [  OK  ]
Removing existing VirtualBox non-DKMS kernel modules       [  OK  ]
Building the VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel modules
Building the main Guest Additions module                   [  OK  ]
Building the shared folder support module                  [  OK  ]
Building the OpenGL support module                         [  OK  ]
Doing non-kernel setup of the Guest Additions              [  OK  ]
You should restart your guest to make sure the new modules are actually used

Installing the Window System drivers
Installing X.Org Server 1.11 modules                       [  OK  ]
Setting up the Window System to use the Guest Additions    [  OK  ]
You may need to restart the hal service and the Window System (or just restart
the guest system) to enable the Guest Additions.

Installing graphics libraries and desktop services componen[  OK  ]

7. Reboot guest system

reboot

Then VirtualBox Guest Additions install is ready.