If you’re running openSUSE inside a VirtualBox virtual machine, installing the Guest Additions software will help you get the most out of the system. VirtualBox Guest Additions will give the machine more capabilities, such as a shared clipboard with the host system, drag and drop file transfer, and automatic window resizing.
This makes copying data to and from a host system much more convenient. It also changes the VM’s resolution automatically when its window is resized, so you don’t need to change it manually. Guest Additions will work with just about any Linux distribution, but instrutions can differ because of dependencies and package managers.
In this guide, we’ll be going over the step by step instructions to get VirtualBox Guest Additions installed on openSUSE. With these instructions, it doesn’t matter what host system you’re using, as long as the virtual machine is running openSUSE. This guide assumes that you’ve already installed openSUSE in the VM correctly.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to install VirtualBox Guest Addition on openSUSE
| Category | Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used |
|---|---|
| System | openSUSE |
| Software | VirtualBox Guest Additions |
| Other | Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command. |
| Conventions |
# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user |
Install VirtualBox Guest Additions
Make sure your openSUSE virtual machine is powered on. Then, follow along with the steps below to install Guest Additions.
- Before starting, we need to make sure that openSUSE is up to date and has some dependencies already installed. Type the following commands in terminal to prepare the system.
$ sudo zypper refresh $ sudo zypper update $ sudo zypper in kernel-devel gcc make
- Once upgrades and installation of dependencies are complete, we can start installing Guest Additions. On openSUSE’s VirtualBox window, click on Devices, and then “Insert Guest Additions CD Image…”
Insert Guest Additions CD image - Click the downwards arrow on the right side of the “Device Notifier” prompt, which will mount the CD image.
Mount the CD image - Open a terminal and navigate to the mounted CD image. The full path is below, but make sure you replace
usernamewith the name of your user account, andVBox_GAs_6.1.16with your Guest Additions version. This is easy to do if you rely on auto-completion with tab.$ cd /run/media/linuxconfig/VBox_GAs_6.1.16
- Now, execute the
VBoxLinuxAdditions.runscript as root.$ sudo ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
Execute the Guest Additions installation script - Guest Additions will now be installed, then it’s required to restart the VM in order to enjoy the benefits.
$ sudo reboot
That’s all there is to it. When openSUSE finishes loading back up, you’ll be able to utilize the shared clipboard, drag and drop function, and automatic resizing. Make sure you enable the shared clipboard and drag and drop option if you wish to use them, from inside the Devices menu.
Closing Thoughts
In this guide, we saw how to install VirtualBox Guest Additions on an openSUSE VM. VirtualBox’s Guest Additions software makes virtual machines much easier to use. The installation process varies across different Linux distributions, which is why we’ve made this guide specifically for openSUSE. Now you can take advantage of all the conveniences that Guest Additions has to offer.
