VirtualBox Guest Additions being upstreamed to Linux kernel.org

Patrick · January 17, 2020, 2:39pm

VirtualBox Guest Driver Being Mainlined With Linux 4.16 - Phoronix
VirtualBox Guest Drivers Still Working Their Way To The Mainline Linux Kernel - Phoronix
VirtualBox Guest Shared Folder Support Coming To The Mainline Linux Kernel - Phoronix
linux/drivers/gpu/drm/vboxvideo at master · torvalds/linux · GitHub
Linux-Kernel Archive: [PATCH resend v2 0/3] virt: Add vboxguest driver for Virtual Box Guest integration
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gregkh/char-misc.git/log/?h=char-misc-next&qt=grep&q=vboxguest

I don’t know yet to what extend it is done and what may be missing. Anyone know more?

madaidan · January 17, 2020, 4:44pm

Those links aren’t about virtualbox guest additions but the vboxguest module which is already enabled with CONFIG_VBOXGUEST.

github.com

torvalds/linux/blob/master/drivers/virt/vboxguest/Kconfig

# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-only
config VBOXGUEST
	tristate "Virtual Box Guest integration support"
	depends on X86 && PCI && INPUT
	help
	  This is a driver for the Virtual Box Guest PCI device used in
	  Virtual Box virtual machines. Enabling this driver will add
	  support for Virtual Box Guest integration features such as
	  copy-and-paste, seamless mode and OpenGL pass-through.

	  This driver also offers vboxguest IPC functionality which is needed
	  for the vboxfs driver which offers folder sharing support.

	  If you enable this driver you should also enable the VBOXVIDEO option.

	  Although it is possible to build this module in, it is advised
	  to build this driver as a module, so that it can be updated
	  independently of the kernel. Select M to build this driver as a
	  module.

Patrick · January 18, 2020, 2:13pm

I used the term VirtualBox Guest Additions as a superset and meant to include VirtualBox kernel modules. This is probably incorrect.

There are three packages:

Likely not all of this functionality can be merged into the Linux kernel indeed. So some of these packages contents will still be required most likely.

Just noticed a new issue during testing with kernel from backports where VirtualBox kernel modules would not compile with DKMS due to a bug. Such issues would hopefully no longer happen when this is merged in Linux upstream. At least the DKMS woes would be relieved.

Also very high on my wishlist is this issue to be fixed and VirtualBox back in Debian stable and Debian main. Hopefully not a pipedream. But also above looked just like a pipedream.

I’ve had uninstalled guest additions sudo apt purge virtualbox* in a VM with kernel from backports and mouse was no longer trapped inside VM. This is a huge improvement over earlier kernels. But copy/paste to host did not work for me yet.