My host system is OSX 10.9.2 and I'm running VirtualBox 4.3.8.
In a Hadoop class I took recently, we were provided with a VM disk image preloaded with CentOS 6.3 and a lot of Hadoop-related software. This is what I have to work with.
As it stands, I don't have bidirectional cut/paste or any of the other goodies that VBOX Guest Additions provide.
I recently posted in this forum a question about upgrading/updating (sorry, I don't understand the distinction, although I understand that there is one) from CentOS 6.3 to 6.5. The only reason that I think I succeeded is that CentOS would no longer boot to the desktop. (It seems possible that it was no longer compatible with the Hadoop software that was on the disk.) So apparently that wasn't the solution to my problem.
I know that it is possible get VBGA working for this disk image: someone else in my class had OSX and VirtualBox, and was able to get past the problem I'm about to describe.
Here's what I've done so far:
- DL’ed and installed VBOX 4.3.8 for OSX from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
- DL’ed http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.3.8/Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.3.8-92456.vbox-extpack
- Doubleclicked the file, the VB Manager said “The extension pack is already installed with the same version, would you like reinstall it?” I reinstalled, just for grins.
- Booted, ran
yum info kernel
, saw that V2.6.32r279.el6 was “installed”, and that V2.6.32r431.5.1.el6 was “available”. I don't know enough about Linux to know if that means CentOS 6.3 and 6.5, or if it's something else entirely. - Also noted that Guest Additions functionality was not there.
- Used VirtualBox VM > Devices > Insert Guest Additions CD Image… to mount the CD (it appeared on the desktop)
- Ran VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
- Building the main Guest Additions module … FAILED
- /var/log/vboxadd-install.log: “Unable to find sources of current Linux kernel. Specify KERN_DIR= and run make again.”
Off to Google. This post most closely resembled my problem. However, it differs enough (Windows, i686, VBOX 4.3.6) to make me afraid I’ll just wander off into another morass.
Could someone provide baby-step guidance from here?