Setting up Guest additions in Oracle Linux and sharing your local host folders..

Here are some brief steps in setting up the Guest additions in your new virtual machine in virtual box.

Step1 : Mounting the iso image from your host OS.

--> Startup the Guest OS and click on Devices menu

Select the iso image file usually will be in the location (on Windows :- C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxGuestAdditions.iso).

and an icon will be placed on your guest operating system desktop as shown in the above screen.

Step 2: Depending on your OS(this case it's Oracle linux).

setup the oracle yum as detailed in this link http://public-yum.oracle.com

Check your operating system kernel by executing the below command.
$uname -a
if the output has a uek string then please execute the below commands as root

#yum update
#yum install gcc
#yum install kernel-uek-devel

If it's the standard linux

#yum install
#yum install gcc
#yum install kernel-devel

this is required for installing kernel drivers, if the above step is not carefully done then you are most likely to get the following error...

Building the main Guest additions module error



/tmp/vbox.0/Makefile.include.header:97: *** Error: unable to find the sources of your current Linux kernel. Specify KERN_DIR=<directory> and run Make again.  Stop.
Creating user for the Guest Additions.
Creating udev rule for the Guest Additions kernel module.


from your root prompt, execute the below command to install the guest additions...
navigate to iso mount point

#sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

Sharing and mounting your folders from host operating system.

Click on the Shared Folders from your VM Box manager.

and select the folder from your host operating system...
Note : Please share this folder at your operating system level first..

\

and then shutdown the guest operating system and restart, the shared folder should be auto-mounted onto your guest operating system.

II. While installing Guest additions on Oracle Linux 6.3  encountered the below error, this popped up in spite of following all the above mentioned steps.

It complains of the missing package,

kernel-uek-devel-2.6.39-200.24.1.el6uek.x86_64

just execute the below if the yum is already setup in your system.

yum install kernel-uek-devel-2.6.39-200.24.1.el6uek.x86_64

this should address the above issue.

Good Luck!!