Guest Additions

VirtualBox Guest Additions enhance the experience with the guest operating system by providing better integration with the host system.

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Guest_OSes has a fairly complete list of what operating systems with the status and any notes.

Windows guests based on the NT 4 or higher kernel work with the additions and there is there is an installer. Windows that run on a 32 bit Dos kernel (95/98/Me) do not have a version with additions and you would need to install network and video drivers.

OS/2 Warp 4 (FP 15 or higher) based operating systems including eComStation and ArcaOS do work but the install is manual. USing the se operating systems in Virtual Box locally works fine but remotely the cursor tracking is off a bit so installing the additions did help with that.

ArcaOS 5.0.7 includes installing the additions during the install of the OS which worked well. You may be able to install the additions after the OS install from the installer or manually.

Tips on installing the guest additions for OS/2

NOTE: While these tips have been tried use extreme caution when adding the additions in this way. As long as you have backed up your VM it should work. We claim no responsibility to any loss of data.

OS/2 Warp 4 Fixpack 15

1. Back up your VM by doing a clone of the VM so if something doesnt work out you can recreate your VM by deleting the bad one (or first renaming the VM) and then clone the cone back to the original name.
2. Search for OS/2 FP15 https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/?detail=%2Fpub%2Fos2%2Fsystem%2Fpatches%2Ffixpack%2Fwarp_4%2Ffp15.zip
3. Follow the instructions to install Fixpack 15.
4. Follow the general addition instructions below.

OS/2 Warp 3 Fixpack 40

This version and fixpack is supposed to work, however this did not boot after performing these steps.

General OS/2 Addtions install

VirtualBox Guest Additions Driver for OS/2

These instructions are slightly modified from the official ones in that steps that can be done while using the GUI are done before booting to the command prompt.

Prerequisites:

• the generic VESA gradd driver is being used (gengradd)

Updated installation instructions while booted using the GUI:

• copy all files into the directory C:\OS2Additions
• make a backup copy of C:\os2\dll\gengradd.dll
• copy libc06*.dll to C:\os2\dll
• backup config.sys
• edit config.sys
• comment out the ‘device=C:\os2\boot\mouse.sys’ line in C:\config.sys (put ‘rem’ in front)
• add the following to the end of config.sys:
  device=C:\OS2Additions\vboxguest.sys
  device=C:\OS2Additions\vboxmouse.sys
  ifs=C:\OS2Additions\vboxsf.ifs Add “C:\OS2Additions;” to PATH if you want to use VBoxControl.exe and shared folders. Make sure there is a ; and the end of the PATH before you add this.
• add ‘C:\OS2Additions\VBoxService.exe’ to the start of C:\startup.cmd
• reboot and boot to the OS/2 command prompt (alt-f1 while the white blob is displayed during early boot, then f2)
• move the original gengradd.dll to a backup folder such as c:\backup (copy c:\os2\dll\gengradd.dll c:\backup)
• copy our gengradd.dll to C:\os2\dll

Reboot and your VM should have proper cursor tracking.

Shared folders

The shared folders are brand new in 6.0 and considered beta quality.

To attach a shared folder to a drive letter:
VBoxControl sharedfolder use

To detach a shared folder from a drive:
VBoxControl sharedfolder unuse

To see available shared folders (any guest type):
VBoxControl sharedfolder list

The shared folders are accessible via UNC too:
dir \vboxsf\folder\
or: dir \vboxsvr\folder\
or: dir \vboxsrv\folder\

The VBoxService can also attach and detach shared folders to/from drive
letters, if you check the ‘Auto-Mount’ flag in the config (host GUI).