VirtualBox on openSUSE

It is indeed unfortunate that the superb virtualisation which give windows guests just about the same performance as running natively on the host does not hold true for Linux. The VirtualBox Guest Additions go some of the way to redressing the balance but without any decent graphical acceleration available, still falls quite a long way short. It looks easy enough. And believe me, you need it. The Guest Additions make working with a Linux guest with a GUI just about possible even on a 2GB host. Unfortunately, it's not as easy as it looks. Most certainly not for mac users.

Grab the latest files from the Oracle site. You need:
1. The VirtualBox rpm from here:
http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.1.10/VirtualBox-4.1-4.1.10_76795_openSUSE114-1.i586.rpm
Install it by clicking on it in the folder where your browser downloaded it to..

2. The extension pack from here:
http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.1.10/Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.1.10-76795.vbox-extpack
From your Oracle window, Click File -> Preferences -> Extensions -> Blue Diamond Icon
Navigate to where your browser downloadad the Extension pack and choose it:

If that doesn't work, use the big hammer. As root,
 Install the kernel sources (kernel-devel) and the C compiler (gcc). . .
 /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
then :
VBoxManage extpack install /home/steve/Downloads/Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.1.12-77245.vbox-extpack
0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%
Successfully installed "Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack".

Next we set up a disk for out new machine and install it. There is no need to burn the iso to disk. You have downloaded the installation iso for the operating system you want to install no? You can choose the raw iso by itself to install from:

3. The iso for the guest additions: http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.0.10/VBoxGuestAdditions_4.0.10.iso
Copy the iso to the your .VirtualBox folder in your home directory.

You need, make, kernel-devel and gcc installed. The rpm should have doe this for you but just in case:
Open a terminal and as root:
 /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
Stopping VirtualBox kernel modules                          done
Uninstalling old VirtualBox DKMS kernel modules             done
Trying to register the VirtualBox kernel modules using DKMS failed
  (Failed, trying without DKMS)
Recompiling VirtualBox kernel modules                       done
Starting VirtualBox kernel modules  

LINUX GUEST:
On the guest install make, gcc and kernel-devel as on the host and then as in these screenshots (there are with the 4.1.8 version):
Make sure that the guest additions iso is in the virtual drive:

Now, from the same Devices menu, select Install Guest Additions
Open a terminal and navigate as root  to /media as follows:

No go. You need gcc, make and kernel-devel.
Then try again.

Worth the wait. Now we have reasonable graphics and window resize, but you really do need fast hardware for virtualisation. Anything with less than 8GB and you're struggling to work with a Linux guest..

WINDOWS GUEST