virtualbox-ose package doesn't have guest additions iso image.

[Major Andras]

1. Ubuntu release: Hardy Heron Beta (8.04)
2. Package version: 1.5.6-dfsg-2ubuntu2
3. I want to use GuestAdditions.iso for VirtualBox Windows drivers.
4. I can't find it in the package.

[Hew (hew)]

I can confirm the iso is not present in the package. When I selected "Install Guest Additions", it prompted me to download the iso since it couldn't find it, and placed it in the ~/.Virtualbox directory where I successfully used it. While it would be nice to have the 5MB iso included in the package, as long as the prompt satisfactorily works, I think it's an acceptable alternative.

[Jeremy Bícha (jbicha)]

Confirming this bug with virtualbox-ose 1.6.2-dfsg-1ubuntu2 on Intrepid.

[Luke Dunstan (coder-infidel)]

I also had this problem with virtualbox-ose-2.0.4-dfsg-0ubunutu1 on Intrepid. However, when I uninstalled the Ubuntu package and installed the non-free version 2.1.2 from virtualbox.org then the problem was resolved

[Ark74 (ark74)]

No .iso file on the repo for Hardy Updates.
VirtualBox OSE version should be available, not trying to solve with the non-free one.
Best regards.

[yareckon (yareckon)]

Also affects intrepid with virtualbox 2.04... not asking for additions to be included if they are not opensource, but download link should work at least.

[yareckon (yareckon)]

The link works actually if you cut and paste into a web browser, but hitting "ok", when it asks if it should download it for you results in a timeout. Dunno if this is a server side issue at sun or if the virtualbox way of downloading in the background is just brittle somehow.

The (working!) link is:
http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/2.0.4/VBoxGuestAdditions_2.0.4.iso

When you hit ok, it tries for about 20 secs, then says:

Failed to download the VirtualBox Guest Additions CD image from http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/2.0.4/VBoxGuestAdditions_2.0.4.iso.
Connection timed out.

[Hew (hew)]

The link worked fine for me within virtualbox. Note that it's version specific, so that file only applies when using Intrepid.

I think the best solution would be to have a package such as virtualbox-ose-additions (that was Suggests in virtualbox-ose), and when running the program and the iso is not found, the dialog box can trigger apt to install this package.

[Sebastian Kapfer (caci)]

The link seems to be broken now, it returns a HTML file with a single period (.) in it.

[Sebastian Kapfer (caci)]

This of course breaks the additions install feature in VirtualBox GUI, too.

[Andy Stevens (stevensa)]

And still the same in the 9.04 jaunty jackalope release. Still, it's "only" been 14 months since this was raised, and 11 months since it was triaged...

[Hew (hew)]

Vitualbox-ose is a universe package so it is community supported. It is also a Wishlist issue.

This is a packaging issue and not Ubuntu-specific, so I have reported it to Debian at http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=533319 .

[Felix Geyer (debfx)]

The guest additions iso is released under the PUEL license (http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/VirtualBox_PUEL) which doesn't allow redistribution.
As the VirtualBox frontend already provides an easy way to download the iso, I don't think we can do anything else.

[Felix Geyer (debfx)]

Ok actually this isn't true :-)

The PUEL allows to redistribute unmodified copies of the iso.
So we could create a new package virtualbox-guest-additions in multiverse.
Additionally virtualbox-ose could suggest or recommend virtualbox-guest-additions (not sure if that's allowed).

[Mika Wahlroos (mpw)]

The front-end does provide an easy way to download the ISO, but it doesn't work for the package in Hardy. The VirtualBox OSE version in Hardy is 1.5.6 and the front-end tries to download the VBoxAdditions ISO for that version from virtualbox.org, but 1.5.6 is no longer available there. Because of this, the downloaded "ISO image" is actually just an HTML document for the HTTP/403 Forbidden message, and mounting it fails silently.

[Daniel Hahler (blueyed)]

This looks we cannot do much to fix this for Hardy: when the .iso is not available anymore, it's difficult to get from old sources/backups and it's very much out of scope to provide a new package for hardy, providing this .iso (and change the virtualbox-ose package to suggest/recommend it).

This bug can only focus on fixing it for future releases, which makes sense after all, given that the ISOs may not be available from virtualbox.org after a while.

It would be interesting to ask upstream to provide the ISOs for old releases again, though.

[Felix Geyer (debfx)]

The package virtualbox-guest-additions, which provides the requested iso image, has been uploaded to karmic.