VirtualBox (OSE) is missing documentation

[Duncan Lithgow]

Binary package hint: virtualbox-ose

Ubuntu 8.04
VirtualBox OSE version 1.5.6_OSE

Under 'Help > Contents' nothing happens.
Nothing is found in Yelp if I search for VirtualBox

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

Is this still an issue in Ubuntu 8.10?

[Hew (hew)]

Contents still do not appear with 2.0.4-dfsg-0ubuntu3

[era (era)]

Debian bug http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=483702 seems to address this, albeit in an indirect manner; apparently, the manual cannot be shipped with Virtualbox in Debian for licensing reasons. Presumably, Ubuntu could and probably should include the manual, since Ubuntu has more relaxed criteria for what can be included.

Upstream bugs http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/2364 (manual) and http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/2365 (web site) request virtualbox.org to relicense their documentation so that it could be included in Debian.

If the documentation cannot be shipped with the virtualbox-ose package, perhaps the Help > Contents menu item should simply be disabled. There's still the link to the Virtualbox web site in the Help menu.

More tangentially, http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=440609 notes that there are also no manual pages.

[era (era)]

The tentative answer from Virtualbox is that they will not change the license. The source does not include the manual, but the manual (at least a PDF) can be downloaded from their site.

[Duncan Lithgow (duncan-lithgow)]

To answer Jonathan's question this bug is still the same in Jaunty with vbox 2.1.0 ose

[era (era)]

The virtualbox-guest-utils package also completely lacks any documentation. It would be helpful if at least there was a README with a link to a web site with docs.

[rusivi2 (rusivi2-deactivatedaccount)]

As per virtualbox bug 2364, this is an enhancement request, not a bug. Hence, this bug should be changed to a wishlist.

[Flames_in_Paradise (ellisistfroh-deactivatedaccount)]

hi,

with the VirtualBox Installation a UserManual (english) (somethimg like 230 p. as it is multiplatform) finds it's onto the users machine harddrive disk. Rarely anyone lokks this to find out what was installed, even as it's easy.

For each installed Version it's installed into /usr/share/docs/virtualbox-x.xx/UserManual.pdf. (x.xx stands for Version e.g 2.10 or 3.16).

So why not enhance this on Installation, to make a symlink appear in the menu? On a windows install procedure this is a standard. Virtualbox does a perfect Documentation with the User Manual, in my eyes.

Best wishes.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package virtualbox-ose - 4.0.2-dfsg-1ubuntu1

---------------
virtualbox-ose (4.0.2-dfsg-1ubuntu1) natty; urgency=low

  * Merge from Debian unstable, remaining changes:
    - Add Apport hook.
      - debian/virtualbox-ose.files/source_virtualbox-ose.py
      - debian/virtualbox-ose.install
    - Drop *-source packages.
  * Drop ubuntu-01-fix-build-gcc45.patch, fixed upstream.
  * Drop ubuntu-02-as-needed.patch, added to the Debian package.

virtualbox-ose (4.0.2-dfsg-1) unstable; urgency=low

  * New upstream release. (LP: #709027)
    - Ships with a manual and upstream changelog.
      (Closes: #483702, #541127; LP: #243782)
  * Adapt patches for new upstream version.
  * Add new required build-dependencies:
    default-jdk, genisoimage, makeself, texlive-fonts-extra,
    texlive-fonts-recommended, texlive-latex-extra, texlive-latex-recommended.
  * Set VBOX_JAVA_HOME to /usr/lib/jvm/default-java.
  * Add 28-no-selinux-fedora.patch so VirtualBox doesn't try to install
    selinux-fedora/vbox_x11.pp which is stripped by the dfsg-free target.
  * Update install files.
  * Add 29-fix-ftbfs-as-needed.patch to fix FTBFS with ld --as-needed.
  * Automatically generate the pixmap icon from png.
  * Fix the watch file.
  * Update man pages.
  * Support passing through USB 1.1 devices to virtual machines.
  * Update vdfuse for VirtualBox 4.
  * Make the kernel modules buildable with kernel 2.6.38-rc2. (LP: #705593)
    - Add 30-kernel-2.6.38.diff
 -- Felix Geyer <email address hidden> Sun, 30 Jan 2011 23:27:25 +0100