[HOWTO] Setup VirtualBox Guest Addition Module, Shared Folders and Clip-board

[moel]

Title: [HOWTO] Setup VirtualBox Guest Addition Module, Shared Folders and Clip-board

Note: Moved from the theme "Intermediate/Advanced User Questions" to this theme "Tutorials"

Guide covers:
- Creating a module for VirtualBox Guest Additions with Porteus tools.
- Accessing a FTP-server (mirror) for downloading Porteus software.
- Setup "Shared folder" between a Windows10 host and Porteus installed in a VirtualBox.
- Setup shared Clip-board between a Windows10 host and Porteus installed in a VirtualBox.
- Setup drag and drop between a Windows10 host and Porteus installed in a VirtualBox.

Background:
- Setup "shared folder" with the ordinary procedure on VirtualBox failed on my system.
- Several contributions in this forum indicates that several users have had the same problem.

Used abbreviations:
Vbox = VirtualBox
W10 = Windows 10 version 22H2

Software and setup used for this tutorial:
Host: Windows 10 version 22H2
Guest: Porteus-LXQT-x86_64.iso
Shared W10 folder: C:\Users\Public\Documents\porteusx

Beware: Porteus desktop is the LXqt (is also used by newer lubuntu)

Porteus is installed on a Vbox drive:
Size: 3.2GB
Partition type: msdos
The file system: ext4
Mounted in Porteus as: /mnt/sda1
Bootloader: installed (Porteus boots from the Vbox disk)

Beware: do NOT load or install the Vbox Additions "VboxGuestAdditions.iso" in Porteus

Reboot from Vbox drive in "Graphics mode"
(Beware: Porteus-LXQT-x86_64.iso must NOT be loaded in the optical drive of Vbox)

Eventually eject any "iso" from the optical disk:
1. In Vbox in "Devices/Optial Drive" use option "Eject" or "Remove" media

Enable data transfer between Porteus in Vbox and W10:
1. In Vbox: "Devices/Drag and Drop", select: "bidirectional"
2. In Vbox: "Devices/Clip board", select: "bidirectional"

Add shared folder in Vbox :
1. In Vbox "Devices/Shared Folder",
select or add path to folder in W10: "C:\Users\Public\Documents\porteusx"
2. Select Options for the shared folder:
[ ] Read only
[x] Automatic
[x] Permanent

Mirrors for download of porteus modules, see:
http://porteus.org/porteus-mirrors.html

Used mirror site for this guide:
http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/dl.porteus.org/

Find IP address of mirror site with, eg. a W10 command prompt, enter:
ping mirrorservice.org

The IP-address displayed by the ping will properly be: 212.219.56.184

Opening FTP server for downloading software for Porteus
With the file manager in Porteus "Accessories/PCManFM-Qt":
1. Use "Go/Connect to Server"
2. In the popup menu "Connect to remote Server", enter
Type: FTP
Host: 212.219.56.184
Path: /sites/dl.porteus.org
(x) Anonymous login
3. When the server opens, then goto folder:
.../sites//dl.porteus.org/x86_64/Porteus-v5.0/kernel/
4. Copy the following files (modules) to the Porteus folder "guest/Downloads"
(apparently used for the building of the Vbox Guest Addition)
05-devel.xzm
06-crippled_sources-5.18.8-64bit.xzm
5. Copy the modules from "guest/Downloads" to "/sda1/mnt/porteus/optional"

Activate the modules mentioned above:
1. Navigate to folder "/sda1/mnt/porteus/optional"
2. Use "Tools/Open Tap in Root instance"
3. Enter password: toor
4. Right mouse click on a module
5. In popup menu select: "Open With/Activate..."

Check the modules are activated in Porteus:
1. Open: "System Tools/Porteus System Info"
2. When prompted, then enter password: toor
3. In popup menu "..Porteus system info..", select: "Porteus" and then "Modules"
4. The following modules are shown as activated in my system:
000-kernel.xzm
001-core.xzm
002-xorg.xzm
002-xtra.xzm
003-lxqt.xzm
05-devel.xzm
06-crippled_sources-5.18.8.64bit.xzm

Building the Vbox Guest Addition Module in Porteus:
1. Open: "System Tools/Vbox builder"
2. When prompted, then enter password: toor
3. In popup menu "Update Vbox Builder" check
(x) Vbox Guest Additions (to be built and used inside the VM)
Press OK
4. In popup menu "vboxguest":
[x] I want to download the Vbox guest addons ISO
5. A popup window "Progress window" is shown. Beware: it takes several minuts!
6. The Vbox Guest Addition Module will be saved to: /tmp/vbox-guest-7.0.4-porteus-v5.0-x86_64-1prt.xzm
7. With root-rights, copy the file to: /mnt/sda1/porteus/modules/
8. After rebooting the Vbox Guest Addition will be activated automatically.

After rebooting Porteus in "Graphics mode" the following should now be possible:
1. The screen resolution of Portues in Vbox must be resizable.
2. The clip-board must be shared between Porteus and W10
3. Data Drag-and-drop from W10 to Vbox are copied to "/tmp/VirtualBox Dropped Files"
4. Data Drag-and-drop from Vbox to W10 is apparently not possible. (?? any ideas/knowhow)
5. A shared folder must appear in the Porteus:
- Open Porteus file manager: "Accessories/PCManFM-Qt"
- The following folder must be available: "/media/sf_porteusx"
- "sf_porteusx" must be shown as mounted in the list of the listed devices in the file manager
Beware: properly only the "root" can open the shared folder: "sf_porteusx"

Use Porteus Terminal to give "guest" access to the shared folder with the following commands:
1. Enter: su
2. Enter Password: toor
3. Enter: usermod -aG vboxsf guest
4. Enter: chown -R guest:users /media/
5. Reboot Porteus in "Graphics mode"

Dear Porteuser
Hopefully it worked for you!
Any feedback and additions will be appreciated.

Dear Developer team
Is it possible to ease the setup of "Vbox Guest Additions" and the shared features?

Kind regards
moel

[Rava]

4. The following modules are shown as activated in my system:
000-kernel.xzm
001-core.xzm
002-xtra.xzm
003-lxqt.xzm
05-devl.xzm
06-crippled_sources-5.18.8.64bit.xzm

I am sure you meant "05-devel.xzm", and you do not have a 002-xorg.xzm module activated in your system? You sure only have a 002-xtra.xzm?

Added in 3 minutes 15 seconds:
My core modules 00[0123]-* are these:

000-kernel.xzm
001-core.xzm
002-xorg.xzm
002-xtra.xzm
003-xfce-4.16-20220925.xzm

(I renamed my 003-xfce.xzm since there is also a 003-xfce-4.12 and now even a 003-xfce-4.18 version available)

[moel]

Thank you Rava for the feedback!

You are right!
002-xorg.xzm was missing and
05-devel.xzm was misspelled as 05-devl.xzm

On my system, with lxqt desktop, the modules displayed as activated must be:
000-kernel.xzm
001-core.xzm
002-xorg.xzm
002-xtra.xzm
003-lxqt.xzm
05-devel.xzm
06-crippled_sources-5.18.8.64bit.xzm

The errors will be corrected in the original "HowTo" above

[dreadbird]

This thread is very useful thank you. bumping it

1. setup the .vdi for size 30gb is good or 50gb. not hot pluggable.


2.

For later on I recommend not using 3rd party tools to create an .iso was having some weird problems doing that. more on that below.

boot off the porteus .iso.

once booted off the .iso. go to gparted and create a partition table mdos and format the .vdi to ext4.

install porteus to the .vdi using porteus installer and make the bootloader. then shutdown and uncheck .iso from the virtual box boot order.

you can now boot in and make changes to your /boot folder ect.

go to settings - general - move hard drive to top of boot order uncheck .iso

3.

boot in and find your UUID

sudo su
blkid

setup your /boot/syslinux/porteus.cfg for your UUID like

Code: Select all

 append changes=EXIT:UUID:DFJFDS-45Fdsaf-23423423/  extramod=UUID:DFJFDS-45Fdsaf-23423423/extramod/ 

reboot then proceed to install guest additions.

We need to get the guest additions.xzm and put it in /porteus/modules so it starts on boot.


4.

you have to indeed select download guest additions .iso option. and wait for the terminal to blink. at the first stage it takes a while to run the script from the .iso. wait for the prompt to blink then press ok.

move the new module to /porteus/modules/ and reboot.


then everything should work as it boots the guest addition from the changes folder.

got shared clip board, drag and drop and shared folder working.

to access the shared folder as guest (root can access it currently)



5.

sudo usermod -aG vboxsf $(whoami)
logout and logback in
but you may have to reboot

in virtual box select shared folder give it a name and then select auto mount
you shared folder will be in /media/ unless you auto mounted it to another location


6. Optional if you prefer to boot from an .iso. Create a custom boot .iso.

once you have porteus setup with the right config files.

setup an extramod directory on your .vdi and point to it in your /boot/syslinux/porteus.cfg so you can dump modules into it
cant make those changes after we make the .iso

cd /mnt/mydrive/porteus/
./makeiso.sh porteusmaster.iso #can be any name

drag this to your host pc. if you cant just use a drive like proton or google drive to upload it. or use the shared folder.
retrieve from drive on host.

then you can choose to boot from the .iso in virtualbox you wont be able to edit your default modules thats why we setup the extramod directory before we made the .iso.

best recommendation is dont travel to far into this stuff as it can get confusing very fast.