copy paste in virtualbox ("guest additions" not available) - virtualbox

How can I copy/paste with virtualbox ?
Some talks about "gest additions", but there's no "guest additions" on my "Machine" menu.
So what can I do ?
I selected "Bidirectional" in my vb options-general-advanced-Shared clipboard
But how to copy/paste then
EDIT : sorry for this, but see my answer, I'm sure it will be useful for others.

You should install "Guest Additions" into your guest operating system. You should select "Devices - Insert guest additions CD image". This will insert a virtual CD containing the additions into the virtual CD drive of your guest OS. After that you should be able to install them (the exact steps for installation vary between different guest OSes).

I was not able to copy/paste in my virtual box because my box was a command line, not a user interface.
As Vasily Alexeev pointed out to me, Guest Additions, which allows for copy/poste, only works with user interface.

Related

What is /Library/StagedExtensions for and how to remove extensions [closed]

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I'm trying to uninstall Parallels completely from macOS High Sierra.
I removed everything from the disk except some Parallels extensions that are stored under /Library/StagedExtensions/Parallel Desktop.app
I think the location has to do with user approved extensions, but I'd like to find a way to remove/uninstall those too. If I try to delete the extensions it says operation not permitted despite the root rights.
Any idea?
There is new way to clear the StageExtensions folder as following
sudo kextcache --clear-staging
This command will clear the /Library/StageExtensions folder. We dont need to go to recovery mode and delete manually this folder in case there are some permission errors while installing software.
In my case, deleted kext disappears from StagedExtensions when you invalidate kext cache.
sudo rm -rf /Library/Extensions/Parallel\ Desktop.app # check if the name is correct so you don't delete some other kext
sudo kextcache -invalidate /
# now you should not see your deleted kext here
ls /Library/StagedExtensions/
UPDATE 2019:
See man page for full details: man kextcache.
Excerpt related to -invalidate, -i for short:
-i os_volume, -invalidate os_volume
Rebuild out-of-date caches and update any helper partitions
associated with os_volume.
This option mimics sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions on
os_volume. If kextcache cannot find or make sense of
os_volume/usr/standalone/bootcaches.plist, the volume is treated
as if no caches need updating: success is returned.
There are also new options:
-clear-staging
Clears the kernel extension staging area by removing all staged content.
-prune-staging
Prunes the kernel extension staging area by removing all kernel extensions
no longer present in their original location.
Looks like -prune-staging removes only the deleted extensions, shaving little bit of time from the next kext cache rebuild.
See https://www.unix.com/man-page/mojave/8/KEXTCACHE/ for Mojave man page, which contains these new options.
sudo kextcache --clear-staging
Was in folder HD/Library/
Cheers
Edit: Formatting
Edit2: I believe that Parallels writes some files directly into the bootloader/kernel. After running the command from the CMD+R hold restart Disk Utility Terminal the extension was removed from /Library .
I hope this makes sense.
I had a similar issue in trying to uninstall the TelestreamAudio.kext for ScreenFlow. What might be happening is that the kext in StagedExtensions is currently in use or protected while you're in regular mode. Once you get into Recovery mode, you can delete it without disabling System Integrity Protection. The following steps worked for me, though please use caution.
Click the  menu. Select Restart
Hold down command-R to boot into the Recovery System
Choose Disk Utility from the Recovery Menu
Within Disk Utility click on your main hard drive (e.g. Macintosh HD) and then click on Mount
Exit out of Disk Utility
Click Utilities in the menu bar and select Terminal
Use the following commands:
.
cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Library/StagedExtensions/Library/Extensions/
rm -rf NAME_OF_EXTENSION.kext
Close the Terminal app
Click the  menu and select Restart
From there on, I was able to reinstall ScreenFlow's audio kext and it worked. It may also help you completely remove the Parallels kext.
If you've already deleted the extensions from /Library/Extensions, open the Terminal app from Launchpad, copy/paste the command below and press Enter to run it:
sudo kextcache -prune-staging
As mentioned in another comment, this will only remove the kernel extensions that are no longer present in their original location, i.e., /Library/Extensions.
The extensions you deleted from /Library/Extensions will then disappear from /Library/StagedExtensions/. It won't affect your other kernel staged extensions.
/Library/StagedExtensions/ is an intermediate area where your extensions live after you start your session (like a cache). The staging area won't be immediately affected if changes are made to /Library/Extensions, which I believe is meant to improve stability and security.
This is because of the System Integrity Protection (SIP).
You can disable it (not recommended) and remove the kext manually.
(from https://www.imore.com/el-capitan-system-integrity-protection-helps-keep-malware-away)
Click the  menu. Select Restart...
Hold down command-R to boot into the Recovery System.
Click the Utilities menu and select Terminal.
Type csrutil disable and press return.
Close the Terminal app. Click the  menu and select Restart....
If you decide later you want to re-engage SIP (and I earnestly hope that you do), repeat these steps, use csrutil enable instead.

VMWare Player - Error converting to virtual machine

I'm trying to install the CS50 Appliance in VMWare Player, and it gives me an error saying 'Error converting to virtual machine - Unknown Error'.
It advices me to contact VMWare technical support and provide the log file in 'users/AppData', but there is no folder called App Data. Any advice?
well the folder called AppData is located in your Username directory, it's there, just hidden (because normal users shouldn't mess with anything inside it). You either copy, edit and paste this in a file explorer Window:
C:\Documents and Settings\YourUserName\AppData\
Assuming you installed Windows in C, and running Window 7 up.
Where YourUserName is the name you initially gave your account.
The other way you can do it is: go to start > run > type in "%appdata%" (without quotes) and hit OK. This is a better one.
Here's is also a step-by-step tutorial on it doing it another way
As for installing CS50, I've never done it before, but did you follow instructions here?
Also, this questions doesn't really belong in SO, you might want to try Superuser instead.
PS: Welcome to SO! :)

How can I create a link between mnt/sdcard and sdcard on android x86 4.3?

I am trying to give the virtual machine android x86 ultimately have a fake sdcard. It is getting tricky for me and I am running through the multiple scenarios. The problem is stemming from applications that point towards mnt/sdcard for references, but the directory is empty because it is not automatically synching with the sdcard folder.
On the website they say to make 2 partitions, one for the os and the other for the sdcard. I am not making any progress with that method.
My next choice is to copy all files from the sdcard folder into the mnt/sdcard folder. This works unfortunately I must execute a chmod command on mnt/sdcard under su every time the phone starts up. I am trying to make this a one time operation instead.
My last resort is to execute a script that does the remedial commands on start up, copying the contents of the sdcard folder to mnt/sdcard. Still this does not account for anything added to the sdcard folder afterwards. The manual creation of a symlink between the two folders is the best option for longevity.
That doesn't include the partition example. For anyone familiar with android x86 on VM's The process is as follows:
Create two partitions
a. Bootable primary sda1 linux/ntfs
b. primary sda2 fat36
Install android on sda1
reboot device/vm
Set partition 2 in kernel / GRUB, 2 options
a. scroll to vesa and press tab and enter
b. Press A and enter "DATA=/dev/sda1 SDCARD=/dev/sda2"
after setup complete navigate to settings and click storage
a. Mount and format sdcard shazam the sdcard works and is mounted

How to clone a virtualbox guest in link mode along with its saved state?

I'm looking for a way to quickly clone a VirtualBox guest, start it, use for a while, and toss it away. Therefore I think it's best to use link mode so that there is no need to copy the whole vdi file. It will also be nice to clone the saved state as well so that the new cloned guest can be started in a few seconds without the boot process. How can I do that?
Have a look at VBoxManage. It has commands like clonevm, startvm, 'snapshot take...', and
controlvm that should let you put together a script that does what you want.
Eric

Migrating from VMWARE to VirtualBox [closed]

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I'm trying to migrate an existing VM from VMWARE to VirtualBox. I've made a copy of the Virtual Machine folder for the VM (so I can experiment and not destroy the original) and have successfully created a VM in VirtualBox. I've got everything booting and running, but the issue is that VM is using the "flat" disk image instead of the correct disk image causing the disk image to be from the past (I know this because all the files on the machine have a timestamp of 2009).
To elaborate, in the VM's folder i have the following vmdk files:
Win2003.vmdk (1 K)
Win2003-flat.vmdk (15 gigs)
Win2003-000002.vmdk (10 gigs)
NOTE: the disk is dynamic.
Looking in the configuration of the VM under VMWARE, it says that it's using the win2003-000002.vmdk as the disk image.
When I import the disk image into VirtualBox (the Win2003.vmdk file), it uses the Win2003-flat.vmdk disk image.
My question is, what can I do to either combine or import the Win2003-000002.vmdk disk image into the Win2003-flat.vmdk disk image so that VirtualBox will use the correct disk image?
I've some instructions on using vmware-vdiskmanager.exe to accomplish this, but I get an error stating "The parent of this virtual disk could not be opened."
After many attempts I was finally able to get this working. Essentially what I did was download and use the vmware converter to merge the two disks into one. After that I was able to attach the newly created disk to VitrualBox.
The steps involved are very simple:
BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING!
1) MAKE A BACKUP!!! Even if you follow these instruction, you could screw things up, so make a backup. Just shutdown the VM and then make a copy of the directory where VM resides.
2) Uninstall VMware Tools from the VM that you are going to convert. If for some reason you forget this step, you can still uninstall it after getting everything running under VirtualBox by following these steps. Do yourself the favor and just do it now.
NOW THE FUN PART!!!
1) Download and install the VMware Converter. I used 5.0.1 build-875114, just use the latest.
2) Download and install VirtualBox
3) Fire up VMWare convertor:
4) Click on Convert machine
6) Browse to the .vmx for your VM and click Next.
7) Give the new VM a name and select the location where you want to put it. Click Next
8) Click Next on the Options screen. You shouldn't have to change anything here.
9) Click Finish on the Summary screen to begin the conversion.
10) The conversion should start. This will take a LOOONG time so be patient.
11) Hopefully all went well, if it did, you should see that the conversion is completed:
12) Now open up VirtualBox and click New.
13) Give your VM a name and select what Type and Version it is. Click Next.
14) Select the size of the memory you want to give it. Click Next.
15) For the Hard Drive, click Use and existing hard drive file and select the newly converted .vmdk file.
16) Now Click Settings and select the Storage menu. The issue is that by default VirtualBox will add the drive as an IDE. This won't work and we need as we need to put it on a SCSI controller.
17) Select the IDE controller and the Remove Controller button.
18) Now click the Add Controller button and select Add SCSI Controller
19) Click the Add Hard Disk button.
20) Click Choose existing disk
21) Select your .vmdk file. Click OK
22) Select the System menu.
23) Click Enable IO APIC. Then click OK
24) Congrats!!! Your VM is now confgiured! Click Start to startup the VM!
I will suggest something totally different, we used it at work for many years ago on real computers and it worked perfect.
Boot both old and new machine on linux rescue Cd.
read the disk from one, and write it down to the other one, block by block, effectively copying the dist over the network.
You have to play around a little bit with the command line, but it worked so well that both machine complained about IP-conflict when they both booted :-) :-)
cat /dev/sda | ssh user#othermachine cat - > /dev/sda
QEMU has a fantastic utility called qmeu-img that will translate between all manner of disk image formats. An article on this process is at http://thedarkmaster.wordpress.com/2007/03/12/vmware-virtual-machine-to-virtual-box-conversion-how-to/
I recall in my head that I used qemu-img to roll multiple VMDKs into one, but I don't have that computer with me to retest the process. Even if I'm wrong, the article above includes a section that describes how to convert them with your VMWare tools.
Note: I am not sure this will be of any help to you, but you never know.
I found this link:http://www.ubuntugeek.com/howto-convert-vmware-image-to-virtualbox-image.html
ENJOY :-)
This error occurs because VMware has a bug that uses the absolute path of the disk file in certain situations.
If you look at the top of that small *.vmdk file you'll likely see an incorrect absolute path to the original VMDK file that needs to be corrected.