Ubuntu – ubuntu gnome 17.04 boot failure in VirtualBox after installing guest additions

I was having similar problems with virtualbox-guest-utils virtualbox-guest-x11 error messages. Then found this. I did the three steps, restarted and the screen is perfect.

I did: sudo apt-get remove libcheese-gtk23

Then: sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-core

And finally: sudo apt-get install -f virtualbox-guest-x11.

It solved the problems for me.

For a GUI-less server the shared clipboard functionality of Virtual Box can not work. A text-based server does not have a clipboard.

We may still want to install guest additions in an Ubuntu server for the following features they provide:

• Shared folders using vboxsf filesystem
• Time sync with the host
• generic host-guest communication via VBoxManage guestproperty
• automatic guest logon (passing credentials on booting the VM)

Installing guest additions needs access to build tools such as gcc or make.

Also see: How do I install Guest Additions in a VirtualBox VM?

For copy and pasting commands from the host to the guest I would recommend an SSH session, which would also give you many additional features for remote guest control.