VirtualBox Guest Additions – Can’t Install on Ubuntu Guest

Ubuntuubuntu-10.10virtualboxvirtualization

I'm new to VirtualBox and Linux. I've set up VirtualBox 4.0.4 on Windows 7. Successfully created a virtual machine running Ubuntu server 10.10 64 bit. I'm trying to set up Shared Folders. Prerequisite is Guest Additions. I've followed the Manual, as much as I understand it, and have Googled the heck out of trying to get past this. Here's what I've done:

  1. sudo aptitude update
    sudo aptitude safe-upgrade
    sudo apt-get install dkms
  2. Devices > Install Guest Additions… (nothing apparently happens, but I hear that's ok)
  3. Devices > CD/DVD Devices > [peek at the dropdown: bottom line has Remove disc from virtual drive, so I think that means the ISO is in the virtual CD-ROM drive
  4. Change to directory where your CD-ROM drive is mounted and execute as root, so I:
    cd .., cd .., cd media, cd cdrom. (am I even in the right place?!)

I try sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run and sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
I get

sh: Can't open ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

I try bash ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run and sudo bash ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
I get:

bash ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run no such file or directory

I try chmod +x VBoxLinuxAdditions.run and get no such file or directory

It seems I'm in the wrong directory, the right files aren't where I need them, wrong permissions, or wrong commands. I'm totally lost since every troubleshooting point I've seen on Google either hasn't worked for me when it did for others, or I just don't understand the instructions. Thanks in advance for any help.

This is what mount shows

enter image description here

Best Answer

As I mentioned in the comments, seems the ISO is not mounted. Here's what you can do

  • Ensure that the guest additions ISO is available to the host. You can do this by clicking on Devices menu -> CD/DVD devices and point to the GuestAdditions ISO file. The Guest additions is available in Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox folder

enter image description here

  • With that mounted, type in the below

    cd /media
mkdir vbox
sudo mount /dev/sr0 vbox/
cd vbox/

  • Now, the guest installation ISO is mounted as /media/vbox

enter image description here

  • Run the Guest additions installer by tying ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
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