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I don't want guest additions.

I have Virtualbox on a Windows host running Ubuntu 16.04 LTS as a guest. How do I make sure that all the guest additions are removed from the Ubuntu guest? I so far have run, in Terminal, these:

dpkg -l | grep virtualbox

Which returned: unity-scope-virtualbox

lsmod | grep -io vboxguest

Which returned: vboxguest

Although it doesn't show up as having the typical virtualbox guest additions, the Ubuntu screen size still resizes to the virtual machine's window. Is that actually a part of Ubuntu or from guest additions?

When first installed as a virtual machine, Ubuntu supports mouse pointer integration and screen (virtual machine window) resizing, which are typically from guest additions being installed.

Is there a way to remove the vboxguest kernel module as well?

Thank you.

Smiith
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  • How did you install them ? Did you reboot ? See https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/31899/uninstalling-default-vboxguestadditions-on-debian – Panther Sep 10 '17 at 01:00
  • Look at Community answer to that issue: https://askubuntu.com/questions/22743/how-do-i-install-guest-additions-in-a-virtualbox-vm – Redbob Sep 10 '17 at 01:09
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    Obvious question... why do you want to remove guest additions? VB won't run correctly without them. – heynnema Sep 10 '17 at 01:14
  • I did not install them. I am looking to remove the ones that come with the initial install of Ubuntu. I'm trying to remove them for security, as I've heard it is better to have them removed for that. – Smiith Sep 10 '17 at 01:20
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    So you could update VIrtualBox Guest Additions. It's better. – Redbob Sep 10 '17 at 01:28
  • Having the guest additions installed definitely is better, though I am trying to remove the default ones for this. – Smiith Sep 10 '17 at 01:32
  • @Smiith you don't have to remove anything to install Guest Additions. Just install them and be done with it, if you expect VB to run properly with your host OS. – heynnema Sep 10 '17 at 07:01

1 Answers1

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From using the commands:

dpkg -l | grep virtualbox
ii  unity-scope-virtualbox      0.1+13.10.20130723-0ubuntu1      all    VirtualBox scope for Unity

And

lsmod | grep vboxguest
vboxguest   282624  6 vboxsf,vboxvideo

Since you want to remove these packages do as follows:

  1. modules vboxguest:

    • Change into /opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-<version_number> folder

      cd /opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-<version_number>

    • In there run:

      sudo ./uninstall.sh

  2. For the guest additions unity-scope-virtualbox: 

    sudo dpkg-query -s unity-scope-virtualbox

Package: unity-scope-virtualbox
Status: install ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: gnome
Installed-Size: 77
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com>
Architecture: all
Version: 0.1+13.10.20130723-0ubuntu1
Replaces: unity-lens-vm
Provides: unity-lens-vm
Depends: python3, python3-gi, gir1.2-unity-5.0 (>= 7), gir1.2-dee-1.0 (>= 1.2.5), unity-scopes-runner, gir1.2-glib-2.0
Conflicts: unity-lens-vm
Description: VirtualBox scope for Unity
This package contains the "virtualbox" scope which allows Unity
to search for VirtualBox content.
Original-Maintainer: David Callé <davidc@framli.eu>
Homepage: https://launchpad.net/unity-scope-virtualbox
    • This is used by unity for search and probably be left alone.
George Udosen
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