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On 22/10/12 18:53, Neil Winchurst wrote: > I am using VBox to check out various distros in order to decide which > one to install next, as my current distro is Mint 10 KDE, based on > Maverick. This is getting a bit old now. > > Until yesterday all was fine, then I set up a new distro in VBox and > found that the Guest Additions didn't work. I especially need to be able > to have a full screen view. Research has shown me that I need to upgrade > VBox from v4.1 to v4.2. Well that should be easy except that when I go > to VBox.org to find the list of Linux versions for this new version the > list does not include Maverick. It does include versions both earlier > and later, eg Lucid and Natty are both listed as well as others. > > Can anyone suggest how I should go from here please? Would it be OK to > try the Lucid version? When I check my current v4.1 for updates it tells > me that I am up to date!! > > Thanks > > Neil > The VBox additions are in a right state at the moment, with flaky support for everything from OpenGL to DirectX when it comes to graphical acceleration of your guest systems - 2D support works fine as usual, but this will cause problems for people like yourself who are trying to use it to full-screen demo potential new distros. The 4.2 version has only just added support for more recent Xorg versions which is causing me a lot of pain in my various testing distros (bleeding edge versions of Arch, Gentoo, Rawhide, etc), especially as the new "support" is terrible. Lots of screen tearing, artifacts, etc, if it even works at all (totally broken on Gentoo currently). You have multiple options: 1: in place upgrade your outdated Mint install so you can get recent software. There's no excuse to be running Maverick anymore. 2: install the Lucid version - I haven't tested it, but I'd be surprised if it didn't work properly. You must apt-get purge your current version first though. 3: VMWare workstation 8/9 - I've never been a fan, but currently it's pissing me off a lot less than VirtualBox which previously I've really loved. In my experience nothing has changed from VBox 4.1 to 4.2 apart from some bug fixing, win8 specific stuff and (broken) support for Xorg 1.13 so you're probably not missing much anyway. Take it from me, the minor increment isn't going to fix your woes. It's worth in some cases using the repo-provided virtualbox-guest-additions packages for your guest rather than the official VirtualBox guest additions - I've noted no serious differences between ubuntu/debian's repo-included 4.1.18 guest additions and the 4.2 version from within VBox itself, when running VBox 4.1/4.2 on the host. Alternatively, save yourself a bunch of effort and realise you're going to have to upgrade your OS anyway: as you seem to be a Debian-based system user, let's face it, you're either going to end up using Mint, Ubuntu or Debian, probably in that order of likelihood. Either way, you're probably going to end up installing Cinnamon or Mate desktops unless you like Unity/Gnome3. I'd recommend just biting the bullet and installing Debian Testing. Ubuntu is a clusterfuck, Mint is a polished turd (it's just crappy Ubuntu underneath the polish, and has issues doing in-place upgrades) so just go to the source and grab Debian. Whatever you do, get off your current system immediately, it hasn't received upstream support/bug fixes since April and I know of multiple exploits targeting outdated Ubuntu systems - there are a lot of them out there as 10.10 was the last release pre-Unity so a lot of people are still resisting upgrading. Which is very, very stupid. Regards -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq