Installations: VirtualBox instructions need adjusting

[xandora]

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Describe your suggestion

We recommend learners use the unattended install feature to streamline the OS setup in VirtualBox. Recently, there has been problems with the installation of the Guest Additions software in the Guest OS which causes problems with various quality of life features of VirtualBox (resizing display, clipboard, etc).

After investigation, it appears that this problem happens because the unattended process doesn't install a required package to complete the GA install.

Adjusting the following template files that live in C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\UnattendedTemplates resolve this issue:

debian_postinstall.cfg

...
log_command_in_target apt-get -y install build-essential
log_command_in_target apt-get -y install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
+ log_command_in_target apt-get -y install dkms

ubuntu_preseed.cfg

...
# Stuff we need to build additions modules:
- d-i pkgsel/include string build-essential linux-headers-generic perl make
+ d-i pkgsel/include string build-essential linux-headers-generic perl make dkms

ubuntu_autoinstall_user_data

...
@@VBOX_COND_IS_INSTALLING_ADDITIONS@@
  # Stuff we need to build Guest Additions modules.
  packages:
    - build-essential
    - linux-headers-generic
    - perl
    - make
+   - dkms
@@VBOX_COND_END@@

Making these changes requires admin permissions to modify the files. It may not be resilient against updates to VirtualBox.

Tested using:

• VirtualBox 7.1.4
• Xubuntu 22.04.5 iso
• VirtualBox Guest Additions ISO downloaded from https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/7.1.4

Path

Foundations

Lesson Url

https://www.theodinproject.com/lessons/foundations-installations

(Optional) Discord Name

mdfr4nk

(Optional) Additional Comments

No response

[scheals]

This pre-config stuff is worth knowing!

I wonder if just making users run dkms installation & clicking Insert Guest Additions CD and then Upgrade Guest Additions would work better. Could drop the mention to tick "Install Guest Additions" in the process, the screenshot has to be changed anyway due to change in UI (even though they're pretty much 1:1).

The obvious drawback is the fact that this might be unnecessary pretty soon either due to VBox people fixing this OR TOP migrating to 24.04.1 which I'm going to guess bundles gcc-12 in its build-essential package. Actually, I'll test whether 24.04 has the same issue today.