How to upgrade to VirtualBox Guest Additions on VM box?

Question

I've got the latest version of VirtualBox installed on my desktop (4.3.4).

I'm using Vagrant to run a VM based on the example 64-bit Ubuntu 12.04 LTS box at:

http://files.vagrantup.com/precise64.box

Everytime I run vagrant up, I get the following warning:

The guest additions on this VM do not match the installed version of
VirtualBox! In most cases this is fine, but in rare cases it can
cause things such as shared folders to not work properly. If you see
shared folder errors, please update the guest additions within the
virtual machine and reload your VM.

Guest Additions Version: 4.2.0
VirtualBox Version: 4.3

I've googled, but I can't find a way to upgrade to Guest Additions v4.3. The latest version in the Ubuntu repository for precise is 4.1, and there's no download link on the official VirtualBox download page.

Doublestop

This one solved the issue and is simple: github.com/TryGhost/… – Disoperation

Best one can do is point new topic to the original one and close the new, then then original one if really valid will get more eyeballs and reviews, then hopefully stackoverflow allows reopens - if not, at least there would be more additional comments in one place. – Disoperation

Answer 1

You can check out the following plugin, it should suit your needs:

https://github.com/dotless-de/vagrant-vbguest

For Vagrant ≥ 1.1

vagrant plugin install vagrant-vbguest

Vagrant 1.0 and older

vagrant gem install vagrant-vbguest

Kaule

Thanks for the link! It worked. (mostly -- still getting some annoying warnings, will file issue on github) – Doublestop

There was already a relevant issue opened, which I commented on: github.com/dotless-de/vagrant-vbguest/issues/95 – Doublestop

This is the best option IMO. Totally automatic! – Myrt

I did vagrant plugin install vagrant-vbguest and I still get the warning Installing Virtualbox Guest Additions 6.1.32 - guest version is 6.1.30. – Scribner

Answer 2

Existing VM

Check your host and guest version by:

vagrant vbguest --status

or for specific VM:

VBoxManage guestproperty get <UUID> /VirtualBox/GuestAdd/Version

where <UUID> can be found by VBoxManage list vms.

Then try updating your guest additions by:

VBoxManage guestcontrol <uuid/vmname> updatega|updateguestadditions|updateadditions

or by installing it again in VM:

vagrant vbguest --do install

Alternatively set the version which is recorded in VBox by:

/Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VBoxManage guestproperty set "new_version" /VirtualBox/GuestAdd/Version

^{Note: Change new_version into the right one}

To uninstall guets addition in VM (vagrant ssh), do the following:

/opt/VirtualBoxGuestAdditions/uninstall.sh
rm -rf /tmp/Virtualbox; sudo reboot;

To install it again:

VAGRANT_LOG=info vagrant vbguest --do install

Finally re-check by: vagrant vbguest --status.

Source: Issues removing and updating box additions with Virtualbox 4.3 #95 at GitHub

---

New VMs

If above won't help and this mismatch warning happening for all new VMs, you need to either upgrade your VirtualBox or download VBoxGuestAdditions ISO file from VirtualBox website (with the right version, so they can match) and replace it manually.

On OS X it's in /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS, so the command would be:

sudo wget -O /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/5.0.14/VBoxGuestAdditions_5.0.14.iso

where version of VBoxGuestAdditions should match installed VirtualBox binaries.

Consider also upgrading Vagrant, if was installed via Homebrew, try:

brew cask update
brew install Caskroom/cask/vagrant # Or: brew cask install Caskroom/cask/vagrant

---

New VMs (with existing Vagrantfile)

If this start happening for new VMs with existing Vagrantfile which was working before, the problem could be with downloading the metadata for your box (e.g. box was removed from your provider, e.g. Atlas) and this could cause fallback to the default settings, so make sure your config.vm.box in your Vagrantfile is pointing to the valid VM box or you've some temporary network problems.

---

For more details and Troubleshooting, check: Oracle VM VirtualBox User Manual PDF.

Nonconformist

This is best answer IMO because the vb-guest plugin will NOT upgrade guest additions that were already installed in a base image in some cases – Remitter

/Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VBoxManage guestproperty set "new_version" /VirtualBox/GuestAdd/Version "Note: Change new_version into the right one" <- what the heck is the right one? I had Installing Virtualbox Guest Additions 6.0.2 - guest version is 5.0.20 - so I ran /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VBoxManage guestproperty set "5.0.20" /VirtualBox/GuestAdd/Version => VBoxManage: error: Could not find a registered machine named '5.0.20' so I though maybe it's the name of my machine? => so I entered 'default' now it doesn't know what the guest version is – Tombstone

Seems like the correct command is: /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VBoxManage guestproperty set [VAGRANT_BOX_NAME] /VirtualBox/GuestAdd/Version [VALUE] - I don't know what I should use for value, what is actually installed or what I want to get? docs.oracle.com/cd/E97728_01/E97727/html/… – Tombstone

Answer 3

This worked for me very well.
Assuming the VM is running (otherwise start it).
Assuming you are in the directory where the Vagrant file is.
Do:

# vagrant plugin install vagrant-vbguest 
# vagrant halt
# vagrant up
# vagrant halt
# vagrant up

Yes I did the halt/up twice because vagrant needs to fix some inconsistencies.
I also had a link to the VBoxGuestAdditions_6.0.20.iso in the directory
But I don't think it matters.
Good luck!

Tortoiseshell

Answer 4

Here you can download the Official 4.3.8 VBox Guest Additions ISO:

http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.3.8/VBoxGuestAdditions_4.3.8.iso

Barrow

While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes. - From Review – Digitalin

Thank you @GauravDave, you are right, the problem is that Stack Overflow don't let me comment the above answer cause of my lack of reputation. – Barrow

Answer 5

I had same issue. It happened when I updated VirtualBox and Vagrant. Initially I had my VM running on the: VirtualBox version v5.x and Vagrant v2.0.3 (all was working) After updating VirtualBox to v6.1.36 and Vagrant to v2.2.16 and when I tried to "vagrant up" my previously working VM project, it resulted in following error:

[default] GuestAdditions versions on your host (6.1.36) and guest (6.1.12) do not match.

The fix for me was to add following to the VagrantFile:

if Vagrant.has_plugin?("vagrant-vbguest")
  config.vbguest.auto_update = false
end

Hope this helps someone as well.

Lowney