Mageia forum

Just a suggestion for the developers. I regularly come across the problem of trying to install programmes etc and get the error that I need to install the kernel headers, gcc and q make etc. Why the hell can't developers have all this lot installed by default at the beginning to save everyone the trouble. Is this too simple because there is almost always some dependency issue with the install?????

Most users don't install anything from source so that would be useless clutter to them.
When installing from the DVD choose Custom install and check the box for Development and you'll have everything you're asking for.

Hi Ken-Bergen. It's a problem I keep coming across with nearly all distros I've tried, to be honest custom install is nearly always a PIA anyway unless you're 100% certain what you're doing. I'm trying to install virtualbox guest editions and it's got to the point where it's not really worth the effort, I dumped ubuntu for this reason, I must say that opensuse (my main OS) makes it dead easy to install the headers everything else is just too much trouble.

I can't see it being a PIA, you click Custom and on the next screen everything for a normal installation is already checked, you just click on Development and Install, done deal.

Or you could simply install task-c++-devel or task-c-devel and install either kernel-devel package according to your running kernel or kernel-source if you need the full source.
I agree, something like in Debian "build-essential" which includes all this would be nice.

Had a look around the control centre and guest additions can be installed from there. Good feature, couldn't find that in ubuntu or fedora.

The origanal question was

Why the hell can't developers have all this lot installed by default at the beginning to save everyone the trouble.

and I believe I answered that.

Yes a meta package to install everything including kernel- devel or kernel-source for the running kernel would be nice. Perhaps a package request in bugzilla would be in order but it would take a developer which I'm not with an interest to implement.

Please remember that the developers and everyone else here are unpaid volunteers.

It would not take a developer to do the bugreport And it would only take a packager to implement it, which would be rather easy.
Don't hesitate to create such an enhancement request.

And such an enhancement request can be done through:
https://bugs.mageia.org/enter_bug.cgi?p ... mat=guided

Be aware to choose: "Enhancement: Request for new feature or enhancement" at the "Severity"-entry.

Hi
Seems like I was a bit to quick to say I'd found the solution. I installed guest additions and everything seemed to go ok then it asked for a reboot. Did that and now I get the error box saying guest additions aren't available. Has any one got any idea where to go from here (I've re installed etc) and has anyone managed to install guest additions on a linux guest without going 3 times around the block.

If you could at least post which Virtualbox version you use and how you installed it, yes.

Vertual Box 4.0.12_OSE r72916 with VBoxGuestAdditions_4.0.12.iso
I installed from opensuse one click. I've got an instance of windows XP, which I've broken a couple of times and had to wipe and reinstall a couple of times but managed to install the guest additions each time.

when I install guest editions on mageia I get the following output:-

[root@localhost terry]# /media/cdrom/VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox 4.0.12 Guest Additions for Linux.........
VirtualBox Guest Additions installer
Removing installed version 4.0.12 of VirtualBox Guest Additions...
Removing existing VirtualBox DKMS kernel modules [ OK ]
Removing existing VirtualBox non-DKMS kernel modules [ OK ]
Building the VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel modules [ OK ]
Doing non-kernel setup of the Guest Additions [ OK ]
Starting the VirtualBox Guest Additions [FAILED]
(modprobe vboxguest failed)
Installing the Window System drivers
Installing X.Org Server 1.10 modules [ OK ]
Setting up the Window System to use the Guest Additions [ OK ]
You may need to restart the hal service and the Window System (or just restart
the guest system) to enable the Guest Additions.

Installing graphics libraries and desktop services components [ OK ]


I'm not able to start VirtualBox Guest Additions I've only tried by restarting the vertual machine and logging off then on, not sure how to restart hal but would guess that guest additions would need to start when booting each time anyway. On reboot I get an error that Guest Additions isn't installed.

What output do you get when you try to do the failed step manually?
In a terminal as root run the following command:

Code: Select all

modprobe vboxguest

I get the following error.

[root@localhost terry]# modprobe vboxguest
FATAL: Error inserting vboxguest (/lib/modules/2.6.38.7-desktop-1.mga/dkms/misc/vboxguest.ko.gz): Invalid module format

I've checked and vboxguest.ko.gz is there