James Bannan25 December 2008, 12:00 PM
Want to run Ubuntu Linux within Mac OS X for free -- without paying for Parallels or VMWare? Our step-by-step tutorial will have you up and running in no time!
Page 5 - Step 5 - Install Guest Additions
Most virtualization solutions offer a software package which can be installed on guest machines which provides better access to the host hardware and other resources like shared folders, clipboard, file copying and so on.
Once the Ubuntu VM has been installed and has rebooted, you'll be presented with a GNOME logon screen. GNOME is the desktop interface which Ubuntu uses - you can find out more about it here.
Then, press the host key to release the cursor, then select the Devices menu and then "Install Guest Additions". This mounts the additions image into the VM.
Click back into the Ubuntu VM. The mounted guest additions ISO is set to autorun, but the autorun package will fail. This seems to be a bug in Ubuntu - it's not indicative of any particular problem, but it does mean that you'll have to install the guest additions from the command line.
Click back into Ubuntu and open a terminal - Applications, Accessories, Terminal. Type in the following command:
"sudo /media/cdrom/VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run" and press Enter (assuming you've installed a 32-bit Ubuntu system). This will start the Guest Additions installation script. Type in your password when prompted.
Once complete, reboot the system for the additions to take effect. The shortcut to reboot from the terminal is:
"sudo shutdown -r 0"