Installation of Guest Additions (enables seamless mouse movements between host and guest OSes, share folders between host and guest etc) used to be pretty simple and straightforward with the older version of Virtualbox. It all changed with the newer version (I’m not sure which version to be exact). I’m using the latest version available for download and I have listed the steps I followed to install it. I installed Virtualbox in Ubuntu 8.04 and installed Windows XP Pro as guest OS in Virtualbox.
After you started the guest OS using Virtualbox, Click on Devices menu and select �Mount CD/DVD-ROM� and then �CD/DVD-ROM image� under that. This will show you a window as shown below. You’ll see
VBoxGuestAdditions.iso listed under that. If not, you have to look under C:\Program files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox in Windows or /opt/VirtualBox-1.6.2 or /usr/share/virtualbox/ in Linux. Click that ISO file and press the select button.
Then in the guest OS (Windows), open My Computer and double click the CD/DVD drive. For some people, double clicking the drive itself will bring you the guest additions installation wizard. For some, it’ll show
the files under that and you have to double click Virtualbox guest additions setup.exe file. This will get you the wizard. Go with the defaults and complete the wizard. Once it’s completed, you have to reboot the system. The screen resolution might change after rebooting. Go and change the resolution by right clicking on Windows desktop and selecting properties. You should now be able to move the mouse between the host and guest OSes without pressing the right control key.
Update: If you are using Virtualbox 3.0, you can try to install Guest Additions by clicking Devices -> Install Guest Additions. If it doesn’t work, then click Devices -> unmount CD/DVD-ROM and then click Install Guest Additions.
VirtualBox Guest Addition
