Ubuntu – Unable to mount the CD/DVD image on VirtualBox

guest-additionsmountvirtualbox

I'm trying to develop a website in Python, and have installed VirtualBox on my Ubuntu 13.04 host. The VirtualBox is running an Ubuntu 13.04 Django stack.

I need to be able to edit the files within my VirtualBox from my Host. From what I unerstand, I need to install Guest Additions in order to share my folders from Guest to Host.

When trying to install Guest Additions, after downloading the ISO file, I get the following error :

Picture of the error message.

I've seen a lot of people reporting a similar issue, but have not found a clear fix yet.

Best Answer

The error you get is likely because the Guest Additions CD image is already mounted.

To see all mounted drives open a terminal in the guest to issue mount. This will give you (among others) a line similar to this:

/dev/sr0 on /media/takkat/VBOXADDITIONS_4.2.12_849801 type iso9660 (ro,nosuid,nodev,uid=1000,gid=1000,iocharset=utf8,mode=0400,dmode=0500,uhelper=udisks2)

In the Unity Launcher you will see a CD-ROM icon. To unmount the CD right click on this icon and select "Eject".

enter image description here

We can not unmount the Guest Additions CD from the command line when mounted with the help of then Virtual Box Manager. Please select "Devices -> CD/DVD Devices -> Remove disk from virtual drive" and choose "Force unmount" to remove the CD iso.

To install guest additions we will have to load the CD again from Virtual Box Manager and select the Icon from the Unity Launcher.

See also the following questions which also has a command line method for installing guest additions:

Related Question