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Shared Clipboard and Drag'n Drop both set to Bidirectional.

Devices > Guest Additional CD image gives this error.

Unable to insert the virtual optical disk /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso into the machine Ubuntu_vm

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2 Answers 2

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If your goal is simply to copy/paste text between host and guest, as an alternative to using the shared clipboard, you can achieve this by opening a port on the Virtual Machine & using ssh to login to the guest from a standard Mac OS terminal.

If you didn't install an ssh server on the guest you can add this like so from the (guest) command line

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ssh-server
sudo apt-get install openssh-server

If you are running ufw firewall you will need to allow ssh from the (guest) command line

sudo ufw allow ssh

You need to add a policy to the VM so that it will allow connections to the port, you can do this from the (host) command line:

VBoxManage modifyvm "<my_ubuntu_vm>" --natpf1 "<name_for_your_rule>,tcp,,<alternative_port_for_ssh_eg_2222>,,22"

Then you can ssh into the guest from the (host) command line

ssh -p <alternative_port_for_ssh_eg_2222> <your_username_on_the_vm>@127.0.0.1

The host command line remains under the control of Mac OS so you can now cut and paste as you would from any other terminal &/or application

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  • Update: if you want to run an ubuntu guest on a mac os host this got way simpler when ubuntu released multipass which does exactly that, without need for Virtual Box. If you are running multipassthen you can start a shell on the guest directly from the tray icon and cut + paste will work out of the box
    – Dom Page
    May 6, 2021 at 14:28
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I have seen this error when a disk was already inserted into the VM, such as the previous guest additions. Do you have another iso already attached?

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  • I'm really new to this. In Settings > Storage Under Controller :IDE There is VBoxGuestAdditions.iso Is this what you asked?. Also I just created the VM.
    – Enzio
    Aug 1, 2018 at 4:45
  • Yes, try removing that iso file then booting up your virtual machine and doing the "insert guest additions" option and see if it gives you the same error.
    – Mr. T
    Aug 1, 2018 at 4:59
  • Did that. I get this error when I click Devices > Guest addition CD image. Could not insert the /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VBoxGuestAdidtions.iso disk image file into virtual machine Ubuntu as the machine has no optical drives . Please add a drive using storage page of the virtual machine settings window.
    – Enzio
    Aug 1, 2018 at 5:12
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    @Enzio With your VM closed, you need to have it highlighted, then click Settings, click on Storage, then Controller: IDE, then below click on the Add New Storage Attachment and add an Optical Drive.
    – Terrance
    Aug 1, 2018 at 13:18

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