fork 1.4, in virtualbox: guest additions fail to install

[volker-star]

anduinos1.4 as virtual machine in virtualbox 7.2:

the guest additions cannot be installed : MD5 checksum error. Tried several versions of the guest additons, always receiving the same error.

No such problems with version 1.3.7 in virtualbox.

[Anduin2017]

Which command did you execute to see that error?

And please note AnduinOS is only tested in KVM. VirtualBox experience not guaranteed.

[volker-star]

Thanks for the reply. cd /media/volker/VBoxGaAs_7.2.2 sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions Works perfectly well with 1.3.7, but not with 1.4

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prof. V. Kempter He*, hv e-, hv \ / Institut für Energieforschung und \ / Physikalische Technologien \ / \ / Technische Universität Clausthal \ / Leibnizstr. 4 \ / 38678 Clausthal – Zellerfeld \ / GERMANY Surface FAX: 0049 5323 72 3600 privat: Erlenweg 58 83109 Großkarolinenfeld Tel. (08031) 9080674 ============================ E -Mail: ***@***.*** http://www.iept.tu-clausthal.de

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________________________________ Von: Anduin Xue ***@***.***> Gesendet: Freitag, 17. Oktober 2025 14:21:19 An: Anduin2017/AnduinOS Cc: Volker Kempter; Author Betreff: Re: [Anduin2017/AnduinOS] fork 1.4, in virtualbox: guest additions fail to install (Issue #241) [https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/19531547?s=20&v=4]Anduin2017 left a comment (Anduin2017/AnduinOS#241)<#241 (comment)> Which command did you execute to see that error? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<#241 (comment)>, or unsubscribe<https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BY44DEH4AVGUOKZG26QVAPD3YDNL7AVCNFSM6AAAAACJO3T5WKVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZTIMJVGMZTQNRQGY>. You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[Anduin2017]

Finally I installed virtualbox on AnduinOS. Seems I repro this successfully.

Investigating now..

[Anduin2017]

I found this!

VirtualBox/virtualbox#226

It's a bug with VirtualBox.

If you are planning to run AnduinOS on a virtual machine, KVM is strongly recommanded because I test every build in KVM.

To use KVM with gnome-boxes:

sudo apt install gnome-boxes

This is a detailed explanation and solution for the "MD5 checksum" and "Extraction failed" errors encountered when trying to install VirtualBox Guest Additions.

First, to be perfectly clear: This is not a bug in AnduinOS.

The issue is a known bug within the VirtualBox Guest Additions installer script (VBoxLinuxAdditions.run). This problem affects all modern Linux distributions based on Ubuntu 25.10, which has introduced a significant change to its core system utilities.

The Technical Reason: A Fragile Script Breaks

The VBoxLinuxAdditions.run file is a self-extracting archive created by a tool called makeself. This file is essentially a large shell script with a compressed data payload attached to the end of it.

To install the software, the script needs to:

1. Read itself.
2. Skip over the "script" part.
3. Pipe the "data" part to md5sum for a checksum.
4. Pipe the "data" part again, this time to tar to be uncompressed.

The tool it uses for this "skipping and reading" is dd.

The problem is that the makeself script was written to rely on a specific, quirky, and non-standard behavior of the old GNU version of dd (part of gnu-coreutils). It "abuses" the bs= (block size) parameter in a way that just happened to work.

In Ubuntu 25.10 (which AnduinOS 1.4 is based on), the system has switched from the old gnu-coreutils to a new, modern, Rust-based implementation called coreutils-from-uutils. This new version of dd is more correct and no-longer has the old version's specific quirk.

When the installer script runs, the new dd behaves differently than the script expects, which corrupts the data stream. This is why it fails both the MD5 check (Step 3) and the extraction (Step 4). It's frustratingly fragile scripting from the VirtualBox/Makeself teams, and it's now breaking as system tools improve.

Community Discussion

This is a widespread issue, and you are not alone. It is being actively discussed on the official VirtualBox bug tracker and various Ubuntu/Linux forums. The community has confirmed the root cause is the coreutils-from-uutils package switch.

The Solution: Temporarily Revert to GNU coreutils

The solution is to temporarily remove the new Rust-based coreutils, which will make the system automatically fall back to the old GNU coreutils. We can then run the installer, and once it's finished, we reinstall the new coreutils to put the system back in its default state.

Here is a single-line command to automate the entire process. Please run this in your terminal.

sudo apt install build-essential module-assistant -y && sudo m-a prepare && sudo apt remove coreutils-from-uutils -y --allow-remove-essential && sudo sh /media/${USER}/VBox_GAs_7.2.2/VBoxLinuxAdditions.run ; sudo usermod -a -G vboxsf "${USER}" && sudo apt install coreutils-from-uutils -y

Note: This command assumes your Guest Additions ISO is mounted at /media/${USER}/VBox_GAs_7.2.2/. If your path is different (e.g., a different version number), please edit the path in the command accordingly.

What this command does:

1. sudo apt install ... && sudo m-a prepare: Installs the necessary developer tools and kernel headers to build the Guest Additions modules.
2. sudo apt remove coreutils-from-uutils ...: (The key step) Removes the new Rust coreutils, forcing the system to use the old GNU dd.
3. sudo sh ...VBoxLinuxAdditions.run: Runs the installer, which will now succeed using the old dd. You will be prompted to type yes to continue the installation.
4. sudo usermod ...: Adds your user to the vboxsf group so you can use shared folders.
5. sudo apt install coreutils-from-uutils -y: (The cleanup step) Reinstalls the new Rust coreutils, restoring your system to its default state.

After running this command, reboot your virtual machine. The Guest Additions (like auto-resize, shared clipboard, etc.) will then be fully active.

[Anduin2017]

Mentioned in doc:

https://docs.anduinos.com/KNOWN_ISSUES.html#limited-experience-in-virtualbox-on-anduinos-14

[volker-star]

Thanks for your work! Because I find #241 already closed, here some comments: I verified for an unmodified ubuntu 25.10 installation that #241 is indeed a general problem. And has nothing to do with anduinos. Then, I used the command, as proposed by you, to change the core-utils versions: that worked perfectly well for the ubuntu -25.10 VM! Here I updated from the guest additions version 2.20 to 2.22. Finally, I used your command for the Anduin 1.4 VM. Here I run into the problem that the group "vboxsf" is not existing. Nevertheless, the core-utils-from-uutils were replaced by the core-utils-from-gnu. After that, the guest additions 2.22 installed . I suggest that you may leave the solved issues open for somewhat longer time because some of them may also be very useful for other people! Regards!

…

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prof. V. Kempter He*, hv e-, hv \ / Institut für Energieforschung und \ / Physikalische Technologien \ / \ / Technische Universität Clausthal \ / Leibnizstr. 4 \ / 38678 Clausthal – Zellerfeld \ / GERMANY Surface FAX: 0049 5323 72 3600 privat: Erlenweg 58 83109 Großkarolinenfeld Tel. (08031) 9080674 ============================ E -Mail: ***@***.*** http://www.iept.tu-clausthal.de

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________________________________ Von: Volker Kempter Gesendet: Freitag, 17. Oktober 2025 15:22:28 An: Anduin2017/AnduinOS; Anduin2017/AnduinOS Cc: Author Betreff: AW: [Anduin2017/AnduinOS] fork 1.4, in virtualbox: guest additions fail to install (Issue #241) Thanks for the reply. cd /media/volker/VBoxGaAs_7.2.2 sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions Works perfectly well with 1.3.7, but not with 1.4

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prof. V. Kempter He*, hv e-, hv \ / Institut für Energieforschung und \ / Physikalische Technologien \ / \ / Technische Universität Clausthal \ / Leibnizstr. 4 \ / 38678 Clausthal – Zellerfeld \ / GERMANY Surface FAX: 0049 5323 72 3600 privat: Erlenweg 58 83109 Großkarolinenfeld Tel. (08031) 9080674 ============================ E -Mail: ***@***.*** http://www.iept.tu-clausthal.de

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________________________________ Von: Anduin Xue ***@***.***> Gesendet: Freitag, 17. Oktober 2025 14:21:19 An: Anduin2017/AnduinOS Cc: Volker Kempter; Author Betreff: Re: [Anduin2017/AnduinOS] fork 1.4, in virtualbox: guest additions fail to install (Issue #241) [https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/19531547?s=20&v=4]Anduin2017 left a comment (Anduin2017/AnduinOS#241)<#241 (comment)> Which command did you execute to see that error? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<#241 (comment)>, or unsubscribe<https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BY44DEH4AVGUOKZG26QVAPD3YDNL7AVCNFSM6AAAAACJO3T5WKVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZTIMJVGMZTQNRQGY>. You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>