LAPTOP-R4N50FC5 Omnibook, Ubuntu, and Guest Additions

[Cathy_B]

I'm have a horrible time getting guest additions to load on Ubuntu 24.04 without getting what I'm told from other forums are driver issues, which may stem from an incompatibility with NVIDIA.

I'm way out of my wheelhouse--I'm a user with no knowledge of the internal workings of my laptop.

These are the error messages?

Is there anything I can do to resolve this, or am I stuck?

[haythamkha]

Hi Cathy,

You are not necessarily stuck. This is usually not an HP hardware problem. It is more often a VirtualBox Guest Additions build issue inside Ubuntu, especially when the required Linux kernel headers or build tools are missing.

First, please make sure the VM is updated, then install the required packages inside Ubuntu:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install build-essential dkms linux-headers-$(uname -r)

After that, reboot Ubuntu, then try installing Guest Additions again from the VirtualBox menu:

Devices > Insert Guest Additions CD image

Then run the installer from the mounted CD, or use:

sudo /media/$USER/VBox_GAs*/VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

If it fails again, please check the log file:

cat /var/log/vboxadd-setup.log

or:

cat /var/log/vboxadd-install.log

The exact error in that log will usually tell us whether it is a missing kernel header, DKMS build failure, Secure Boot/module signing issue, or graphics driver conflict.

I would also make sure that the VirtualBox version on the host is current, because Ubuntu 24.04 works best with recent VirtualBox versions and matching Guest Additions.

Oracle VirtualBox Guest Additions manual:
https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04.html

Oracle notes that Linux Guest Additions require the guest system to be prepared for building external kernel modules, which normally means installing the correct kernel headers and build tools.

If you can upload the screenshot again or paste the exact error text from the log, we can give more specific steps.

[Cathy_B]

May I say, "WOW."  

I do so appreciate your response and possible solutions.  I will follow up with Ubuntu since I can't be the only one experiencing this issue.

Many thanks for your information.

Cathy