Installing VirtualBox Guest Additions on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Desktop

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Introduction

Yesterday’s article, “Spinning up an Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Desktop VM in VirtualBox,” provided the necessary knowledge to install Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Desktop on a VirtualBox VM (Virtual machine).

Today, we will cover how to install VirtualBox Guest Additions, a package of utilities and drivers that enhances the performance and ease-of-use of VirtualBox VM’s.

Install VirtualBox Guest Additions

In the top left corner of your Ubuntu desktop, click the Activities overview. You can also press the Super key on your keyboard.

Click the search bar that labeled “Type to search“, and begin typing “terminal”. The Terminal application will appear before you finish typing. Click on Terminal to launch it.

Update your Ubuntu system with the following command:

sudo apt update -y

You will get a warning message outputted to the console that reads “Warning: The unit file, source configuration file or drop-ins of apt-news.service changed on disk. Run ‘systemctl daemon -reload‘ to reload units.”

Run the command from the error message above to reload Systemd files:

systemctl daemon-reload

Enter your sudo user’s password and click Authenticate.

Upgrade your Ubuntu system with the following command:

sudo apt upgrade -y

Click Devices > Insert Guest Additions CD Image… in the VirtualBox toolbar.

Select Files from the Ubuntu dock.

In the left-hand menu of Files, click, VBox_GAs…

Click Run Software in the orange banner that reads “Contains software to run” near the top of Files.

Click Run when the next window titled ‘”VBox_GAs_7.0.18″ contains software intended to be automatically started. Would you like to run it?’ appears.

Enter your sudo user’s password and click Authenticate.

You will get a message informing you bzip2 is not installed.

Press Return on your keyboard to close the terminal, then install bzip2 with the following command:

sudo apt install bzip2 -y

Repeat previous steps

1. Open Files
2. Click Devices > Insert Guest Additions CD Image… in the VirtualBox toolbar.
3. Click Run when the next window titled ‘”VBox_GAs_7.0.18″ contains software intended to be automatically started. Would you like to run it?’ appears.
4. Enter your sudo user’s password and click Authenticate.

Once VirtualBox Guest Additions finished installing, it will output some text, informing you “This system is currently not set up to build kernel modules.”, and “Running kernel modules will not be replaced until the system is restarted.”

Run the following command to be able to build kernel modules:

sudo apt install build-essential gcc make
perl dkms

Then power off your system:

Click File > Close… in the VirtualBox toolbar.

Select Power off the machine, then click OK.

Update Your Ubuntu VM’s Display Settings

Your VM will initially have limited VRAM (video random access memory) assigned, and 3D acceleration will be disabled by default . For the best display experience, allocate as much VRAM as possible. Additionally, enable 3D acceleration if your system supports it.

Click the gear icon in the VirtualBox Manager toolbar to launch the VM Settings.

In the left-hand menu, click Display.

1. Increase Video Memory to 128MB or as much as your system can afford.
2. Check Enable 3D Acceleration, if your system supports it.
3. Click OK.

Using VirtualBox Guest Additions

While there are several utilities and additional functionality VirtualBox Guest Additions provides, this guide will focus on auto-resizing your VM for best viewing results.

Start Your Ubuntu VM.

Click View > Auto-resize Guest Display. You may need to repeat this step a few times until the desired effect is achieved. Eventually the VM’s display should stretch across your screen and seamlessly scale clicking and dragging a corner of the window.

Conclusion

As you can see, installing VirtualBox Guest Additions greatly enhances performance and usability. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you’ve created a versatile environment ready for various tasks. Enjoy your enhanced Ubuntu VM experience on VirtualBox!

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