On 09.11.2015 11:46, Michael Thayer wrote: > Dear All (especially maintainers of distributions Additions packages), > > I have been thinking again about our old problem with the Guest > Additions, namely how a user can simply install (i.e. update) the > "native" Additions which come with VirtualBox without interfering with > the packaging system if the guest system they are using comes with > Additions pre-installed. My latest musings are something along these lines: > > * All files installed by the Additions would be in a single folder > (/opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-<version> for the native package, and e.g. > /usr/lib/VBoxGuestAdditions for a distribution package). > * The Additions would have contain a set-up script, which distribution > packages could run as part of their post-install, which would build and > install (to /var/lib/VBoxGuestAdditions, not to the standard kernel > module folders) the kernel modules and put symlinks into the Additions > folder in place for /usr/bin/VBoxClient and others. > * The set-up script would also install an uninstall script as > /var/lib/VBoxGuestAdditions/uninstall.sh or similar which would reverse > the effect of the set-up script and allow in particular simple upgrading > of a distribution package to a native one without needing to touch any > files managed by the packaging system. If this was present it would be > called at the start of the set-up script as part of an upgrade. > > Do any of the relevent people (Gianfranco? Larry? Sérgio? Who else?) > like or dislike any of this, or have better suggestions? I see that it > would notably go against the trend of separating the kernel modules into > their own package or even putting them into the kernel package like > Ubuntu does. And it would not allow upgrading from earlier distribution > packages - we would continue to ask the users to uninstall them > manually, which is the safest but not the user-friendliest solution.
So far no one seems to have any opinions here, so when I have time I will implement that. Another point which occurs to me is that even if a distribution does provide the kernel modules as part of their kernel package, and if I do work to make sure that they can be unloaded at run-time, then it would be trivial to just unload them and replace them with ours at boot time. Regards, Michael > Thanks and regards, > > Michael > -- ORACLE Deutschland B.V. & Co. KG Michael Thayer Werkstrasse 24 VirtualBox engineering 71384 Weinstadt, Germany mailto:michael.tha...@oracle.com ORACLE Deutschland B.V. & Co. KG Hauptverwaltung: Riesstraße 25, D-80992 München Registergericht: Amtsgericht München, HRA 95603 Komplementärin: ORACLE Deutschland Verwaltung B.V. Hertogswetering 163/167, 3543 AS Utrecht, Niederlande Handelsregister der Handelskammer Midden-Niederlande, Nr. 30143697 Geschäftsführer: Alexander van der Ven, Astrid Kepper, Val Maher _______________________________________________ vbox-dev mailing list vbox-dev@virtualbox.org https://www.virtualbox.org/mailman/listinfo/vbox-dev