If I browse to it and click on it all that happens is that Ark comes up and asks what I’d like to do with it. I can unzip it and extract the files into a folder, but none of this lets me install the extension pack. Doesn’t matter whether I’m root or not.
At this point I’m quite frustrated. I think I followed all the instructions carefully, but the extension pack just doesn’t install!
On Wed, 01 Aug 2012 06:36:03 +0000, robertsmits wrote:
> I saved it as a file in my downloads directory.
>
> If I browse to it and click on it all that happens is that Ark comes up
> and asks what I’d like to do with it. I can unzip it and extract the
> files into a folder, but none of this lets me install the extension
> pack. Doesn’t matter whether I’m root or not.
Opening the file doesn’t install it - clearly.
The way I install the extension pack is through the VirtualBox front-end
if you go to File->Preferences->Extensions, you can install it there.
When I do what you suggest, and go to the downloaded file, everything seems OK, but when i actually try to install it it fails with this message:
“The installer failed with exit code 127: Error creating textual authentication agent: Error opening current controlling terminal for the process (`/dev/tty’): No such device or address.”
This error sounds a lot like a permissions problem. If you start off running VirtualBox as root and later try to switch to a standard user this can happen. Or, perhaps you have not made yourself a member of the vboxusers group in:
YaST / Security and Users / User and Group Management / Select your name and pick **Edit **/ Go to Details Tab / Check vboxusers under Additional Groups then log out and back into openSUSE.
If above does not work try starting as in KDE Alt-F2: kdesu VirtualBox Or in Gnome Alt-F2: gnomesu VirtualBox. If either work, you have installed VitualBox resources in a location owned only by root. These mainly include the folder called VirtualBoxVMs OR the VirtualBox vxd files. Normally if these are both in your /home area, you need not be root, but you still need to be a member of vboxusers. For more info have a look at this Article on the subject:
After my first, which I installed as root, all of these files I mention where in the /root folder and can not be used unless you are root. I had to move them all, change their permissions and then VirtualBox would work OK. So, hopefully its just a user goop things, buts lets see.
On Wed, 01 Aug 2012 23:06:03 +0000, robertsmits wrote:
> Thanks for your reply, Jim.
>
> When I do what you suggest, and go to the downloaded file, everything
> seems OK, but when i actually try to install it it fails with this
> message:
> “The installer failed with exit code 127: Error creating textual
> authentication agent: Error opening current controlling terminal for the
> process (`/dev/tty’): No such device or address.”
>
> Where do you suggest I go from here?
I might be inclined to uninstall the Oracle installation of VirtualBox
and install the one in the Build Service’s virtualization repository.
That repo is kept current, and it all just works on my 12.1 systems (got
it running on three separate systems myself).
As James suggests, running as root and then not as root can cause you
some issues with the permissions. The repo version prompts for the root
password when installing the extensions, and it all “just works” without
any hassles.
This problem can be solved with a simple alias which can be used to set back the permission and ownnership whenever a user can not access a virtual machine (because root or another user did):
alias vboxperm='find /srv/vbox -type d -exec chmod 775 "{}" ";" -exec chown "root:vboxusers" "{}" ";" ; find /srv/vbox -type f -exec chmod 664 "{}" ";" -exec chown "root:vboxusers" "{}" ";"'
You need to change /srv/vbox in this alias to the path where you put your virtual machines (including config files and logs).
First off, this tutorial is bad - or at least incomplete. It misses the point that “Install the prerequisite RPMs listed in the tutorial.” won’t be sufficient if users didn’t update the kernel first and assumes that people always run the latest kernel - but they don’t (the problem is not if they should or not). It is easy to demonstrate that following this method step by step won’t lead to success, depending of the time of year (whether the ‘only’ availaible kernel source will match the currently installed kernel). A comment towards the end of this article shows the problem, as well as many threads reporting the same issue and asking for solution.
Bob,
Don’t use this method now - it’s too late - but just to let you know that things could have been easy too. Basically the only command you need to type - as root - is:
# vboxlive --install
and Bob’s your uncle… Oh, sorry, you’re your own grandpa. lol!
Of course, installing the OSE version, as Jim suggests, is another simple option you might want to consider. I’m not sure which advantages the Oracle version still has nowadays. I don’t know if this version installs the Extension pack. It would be easy to implement (I’m not talking about packaging the Extension pack, which I guess is not allowed). A few commands in the post-install scriplet of the rpm package would do the job. But maybe it’s the case already. I don’t know this package.
Does the following command output something on a system with the OSE version installed?
which vboxmanage
If so, you can use VBoxExtensionPack with this version as well. I have been using this script for about a year hundreds of time. It never failed. Just used it on ten machines today. It will work as long as Oracle doesn’t change the base URL of the Extension Pack. You can see the code here (it’s simple): Update VirtualBox-4.0 Extension Pack. - it’s the latest version ; I wasn’t sure but I just compared with the version in my repo.
IMO, the maintainer of the OSE package could add a function that would download and install the Extension Pack. I believe it’s legal. Or he could include my script in his package and run it. Problem solved. A while ago I used VBoxExtensionPack under ArchLinux. Now it’s not necessary anymore, because they created a package which does exactly the same thing.
On Thu, 02 Aug 2012 20:06:03 +0000, please try again wrote:
> Does the following command output something on a system with the OSE
> version installed?
>
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> which vboxmanage
> --------------------
I did as you suggested and VirtualBox started as the root user, and the extension pack installed just fine. I was a member of vxboxusers.
What should I have done? I’m quite willing to uninstall everything and reinstall it correctly. I want to set it up correctly so I can leave it alone for a long time.
Of course, it is included. It’s the program - actually a symlink - that is used to do everything in VirtualBox from the command line, including installing the extension pack. The script has to make sure that this command is available before using it. Then it queries the version of VirtualBox currently installed (it doesn’t have to be the latest one), downloads the Extension pack for this version and installs it. It sounds simple and it is in fact.
Basically, you need to change the default machine folder to somewhere in your user area such as $HOME/VirtualBoxVMs (/home/yourname/VirtualBoxVMs) if you are the only VirtualBox user on your PC. Start VirtualBox as a yourself (not root) and select File / Preferences /General / Default Machine Folder and enter the correct folder. First, creating a new location for VirtualBoxVMs will lose any machines already setup, but you do not lose the vxd files which can be reused. Second, you need to move the vxd files also into your $HOME area. You can then recreate any previous VM’s and use the existing vxd file. As root, you may need to move the vxd files and change who owns them to you. Finally, if there were more than one user that needed to use the same files, you would have to place the VirtualBoxVMs and vxd files into a place all users have access to. In general, there is no need to uninstall or reinstall VirtualBox, just change its configuration.
On Thu, 02 Aug 2012 22:06:03 +0000, please try again wrote:
> hendersj;2477923 Wrote:
>> On Thu, 02 Aug 2012 20:06:03 +0000, please try again wrote:
>> > Does the following command output something on a system with the OSE
>> > version installed?
>> >
>> >
>> > Code:
>> > --------------------
>> > which vboxmanage
>> > --------------------
>>
>> VBoxManage, but yes, it is included.
>>
> Of course, it is included.
OK, I guess I didn’t understand your question, then.
I guess you did understand my question but misunderstood my intention (I didn’t intend to install this tool). I wanted to know if “vboxmanage” has the same name in the OSE version - because it could have been “VBoxManage” too for example. In fact they are both present (in the Oracle version) and both symlinks to the command VBox. If you had only “VBoxManage” or no symlinks at all, and my script would try to execute “vboxmanage”, it would fail to install the Extension Pack. Those symlinks could have been different between the two versions.
Now that you told me that ‘vboxmanage’ is available on your system, I can tell you or others - without having installed the OSE package myself - that VBoxExtensionPack* will (most likely) install the Extension Pack matching your VirtualBox version (OSE) as well as mine (Oracle). Feel free to try it and tell me if I’m wrong. If you know a faster, easier and more reliable way to install the Extension Pack, please tell me and I will use it. To me, it seems that typing one single command is faster than anything else, especially when you have to do it several time a day on several systems - as im my case. That’s what brought me to automate this task.
But you have to install it first, and I guess that’s what sounds complicated and scares people. However even if you add my repo and install the vmscripts package (or copy/paste the VBoxExtensionPack somewhere in your path and make it executable), it will still be a lot faster than understanding some rough tutorials, going to Oracle website, downloading the Extension pack (hopefully the right version) or/and firing up VirtualBox GUI as root, not knowing where to click, coming back, asking, trying again, failing again, finally succeeding and launching a virtual machine - while you’re still root - out of curiosity and messing up the ownership of the virtual machine, coming back, asking again and learning that you have to move files around and change their permission… My advice is to type VBoxExtensionPack instead. But if it sounds too silly or too scary, then don’t! There are always several ways to achieve things - under Linux and in general - and people should keep spending more time installing the Extension Pack if it makes them happy.
On Fri, 03 Aug 2012 01:26:06 +0000, please try again wrote:
> I guess you did understand my question but misunderstood my intention (I
> didn’t intend to install this tool). I wanted to know if “vboxmanage”
> has the same name in the OSE version - because it could have been
> “VBoxManage”
> too for example. In fact they are both present (in the Oracle version)
> and both symlinks to the command VBox. If you had only “VBoxManage” or
> no symlinks at all, and my script would try to execute “vboxmanage”, it
> would fail to install the Extension Pack. Those symlinks could have been
> different between the two versions.
Ah, I see.
The symlink isn’t there for an all lowercase version of the command with
what I have installed on my systems.
I suspected something like that. So if I understand correctly, you have the command “VBoxManage” but not “vboxmanage”? Is that right? In this case, I will have to change “vboxmanage” into “VBoxManage”, which seems to be present in both versions … But I’m starting to wonder if the two commands do the same thing. I guess I will have to install the OSE version when I get some time (unlikely though) and have a closer look.
