[Bug]: Guest Additions fail to copy/paste on Debian 13 (Trixie) - Headless

[eabase]

Version

7.2.6

Host OS Type

Windows

Host OS name + version

Windows 11 Pro

Host Architecture

x86

Guest OS Type

Linux

Guest Architecture

x86

Guest OS name + version

Debian 13 Trixie (6.12.63-1)

Component

Guest Additions/Shared Clipboard

What happened?

copy/paste operations fails on all Debian 13 Trixie installs.

I managed after many attempts to actually install the service without failing, but there is no connection to the mouse.

How can we reproduce this?

• Download latest Debian Trixie (Amd64) from ISO as Guest VM.

Either:

• (a) Install as Headless with minimal packages selected in during package installation.
• (b) Install live or full distro with automatic GUI.

Either try to install GA by:

• (a) Loading ISO vi VB GUI, or
• (b) temporarily adding the Sid channel to your apt.sources. (Script shown below.)

No matter what you do the copy/paste will fail, and never recognized.

What Works:

• ✅ copy/paste from within own VB window (with guest TTY).
• ✅ automatic loading of shared folder
• ✅ copy/paste using MING64 native terminal and SSH connection. (obviously!)
• ✅ Everything when using Debian Kali (2025.4 Bookworm edition)

What Fails:

• ❌ copy/paste to/from Host to Guest.
• ❌ resizing of VB terminal window.
• ❌ Running GA from ISO - the service silently fails
• ❌ Running GA from sideloaded virtualbox-guest-utils Sid package. - No errors seen.

---

---

Output from: sudo journalctl --system -e -f

---

Did you upload all of your necessary log files, screenshots, etc.?

• Yes, I've uploaded all pertinent files to this issue.

[eabase]

Tip

Here's the bash script I used to side-load the Sid package.
As I'm trying to run headless, I was told I have to use the virtualbox-guest-utils package.
From here:

• http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/contrib/v/virtualbox/

---

---

#!/usr/bin/env bash

#----------------------------------------------------------
#  The direct download pages are:
#       virtualbox-guest-utils (amd64): https://packages.debian.org/sid/amd64/virtualbox-guest-utils/download
#       virtualbox-guest-x11 (amd64):   https://packages.debian.org/sid/amd64/virtualbox-guest-x11/download
#
#       [1] http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dists/sid/contrib/
#       [2] http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dists/sid/contrib/
#       [3] http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/contrib/v/virtualbox/
#
#       Those pages list mirrors where you can grab the .deb files directly, e.g. from:
#       'ftp.us.debian.org/debian' in the 'pool/contrib/v/virtualbox/' subdirectory.
#       That said, installing a sid .deb manually on Trixie may pull in unmet dependencies.
#       A cleaner approach would be to temporarily add the sid contrib repo, install, then remove it:
#----------------------------------------------------------
local HL
HL='-----------------------------------------------------------'

echo -e "\n${HL}\nInstalling VirtualBox Guest Additions\n${HL}\n"
echo -e "WARNING! --> Using unstable package sources from Debian Sid"
echo -e "\nTemporarily Enabling Debian SID sources...\n"

#---------------------------
# Only use contrib!
#---------------------------
# sid main contrib non-free

echo -e "Creating temporary source list in:  /etc.apt/sources.list.d/sid.list"
echo "deb http://deb.debian.org/debian sid contrib" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sid.list

echo -e "Updating sources from SID..."
sudo apt update

echo -e "Installing:  virtualbox-guest-utils"
#sudo apt install -t sid virtualbox-guest-x11
sudo apt install -t sid virtualbox-guest-utils

# We probably don't need this version? - ToDo: check this!
#echo -e "Installing:  virtualbox-dkms"
#sudo apt install -t sid virtualbox-dkms

#----------------------------------------------------------
# For manual install:
#----------------------------------------------------------
#       sudo apt install dkms linux-headers-$(uname -r)
#       sudo dpkg -i virtualbox-dkms_7.2.6-dfsg-3+b2_amd64.deb
#       sudo dpkg -i virtualbox-guest-utils_7.2.6-dfsg-3+b2_amd64.deb
#       # fix any missing dependencies
#       sudo apt install -f
#----------------------------------------------------------

echo -e "\nRemoving temporary source list:  /etc.apt/sources.list.d/sid.list"
sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sid.list

echo -e "\nUpdating previous sources from Trixie (without SID)..."
sudo apt update

#----------------------------------------------------------

echo -e "\n${HL}\n=== VirtualBox Guest Additions Status Check ===\n${HL}\n"
#echo -e "\n$HL\nChecking GA install...\n$HL\n"

echo -e "\nChecking: loaded modules"
# This is already aliased (hopefully)
alias ll='\ls -AlX --group-directories-first --file-type --indicator-style=none --color=auto'
lsmod | sort | grep -iE "vbox|$" --color=always

echo -e "\nChecking: /dev"
ll /dev/input/                  # event<n>, mouse<n>, js<n>
ll /dev/input/by-id/    # should show: usb-VirtualBox_USB_Tablet-mouse, usb-VirtualBox_USB_Tablet-event-mouse
ll /dev/vbox*                   # should show: vboxguest,vboxuser

echo -e "\nMore Checking...\n"

#echo "--- Kernel Modules ---"
#lsmod | grep vbox || echo "No vbox modules loaded!"
#echo

#echo "--- /dev/vboxguest ---"
#ls -la /dev/vboxguest 2>/dev/null || echo "/dev/vboxguest not found!"
#echo

echo -e "\n--- Service Status ---\n"
sudo systemctl status virtualbox-guest-utils --no-pager

echo -e "\n--- Shared Folder Mounts ---\n"
sudo mount | grep vboxsf || echo "No vboxsf mounts found."

echo -e "\n--- dmesg (vbox related) ---\n"
sudo dmesg | grep -i vbox || echo "Nothing vbox-related in dmesg."

echo -e "\n--- Journal (last 20 lines) ---\n"
sudo journalctl -u virtualbox-guest-utils -n 20 --no-pager

#----------------------------------------------------------

echo -e "\n\n${HL}\nOK\n"

## END

Installed these, even if dkms was commented out.

ii  virtualbox-dkms                    7.2.6-dfsg-3+b2                      amd64        x86 virtualization solution - kernel module sources for dkms
ii  virtualbox-guest-utils             7.2.6-dfsg-3+b2                      amd64        x86 virtualization solution - non-X11 guest utilities

[eabase]

I do see one error:
virtualbox-guest-utils[2748]: error: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is invalid or not set in the environment.

but it makes no sense, as I have: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000.

From:

• https://man.archlinux.org/man/pam_systemd.8

$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR

Path to a user-private user-writable directory that is bound to the user login time on the machine. It is automatically created the first time a user logs in and removed on the user's final logout. If a user logs in twice at the same time, both sessions will see the same $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR and the same contents.

Maybe this is needed?

# What user?
actual_user="${SUDO_USER:-$USER}"
# Set XDG_RUNTIME_DIR for the actual user
runtime_dir="/run/user/$(id -u "$actual_user")"
export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR="$runtime_dir"