VBox Guest Additions... i can never get it

[jonghoon0421]

Hi, I am pretty new to debian and linux in general. I am trying to install VBox Guest Additions but it seems like no one ever had this problem (or at least I cannot find anybody of my case).
This is just so that I can resize the view so it includes more lines and what not... (I have it without the Desktop Env).

So I have a Win 10 laptop which has VirtualBox 5.2.12 installed. In that VBox, I have 64-bit Debian Stretch installed. I basically followed everything I could find online on "How to install GAs" blah blah
but when I follow all of that, I get this screen (starting.JPG).

AND the GAs never really work for me. I can never resize or anything. I tried uninstalling the GAs completely (the one in /opt or running the .run again) and reinstalling--did NOT work.
At this point, I do not have any more resources online to follow as I've tried them all.

1. apt-get update && upgrade
2. apt-get install build-essential module-assistant ( i also tried dkms)
3. m-a prepare
4. insert .iso and mount (i make sure it's mounted by directly entering the path /media/cdrom)
5. /media/cdrom directory, I do "sh VBoxLinuxAdditions.run"
6. "starting.JPG" shows what happens
7. reboot, restart my laptop, you name it, and it won't work.

Missing kernel header is not a problem...

apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`
and "uname -r" gives me "4.9.0-6-amd64" which is fine (Debian).

Any help so I can adjust my terminal size?
I would've googled more if there were anymore new info, but at this point all posts look the same to me (basically the steps I listed above, and not so helpful and specific for my case).
I'd really appreciate your help and time !


* img as an attachment does not show up.. I will type literally what I get to replace "starting.JPG"

root@debian:/media/cdrom# sh VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox 5.2.12 Guest Additions for Linux........
VirtualBox Guest Additions installer
Removing installed version 5.2.12 of VirbualBox Guest Additions...
Copying additional installer modules ...
Installing additional modules ...
VirtualBox Guest Additions: Building the VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel modules.
VirtualBox Guest Additions: Running kernel modules will not be replaced until the system is restarted
VirtualBox Guest Additions: Starting.

[sunrat]

Which Guest Additions are you using? I find it's more likely to work if you use the same GA version as your Vbox version.

BTW your starting.jpg is not shown. It's best to copy/paste messages into a code box here. Or if you must post an image you need to upload it to an image hosting site and post its url in an img tag.

[jonghoon0421]

I am using the same version as my VBox. (5.2.12)
I edited the post to include "text version" of the .JPG.

[sunrat]

Seems like you're doing it right. Did you reboot your VM? Did you go to display settings in your VM to set a new size?

[jonghoon0421]

Yes. I did try rebooting VM (which didn't work).
Hmmm, I quite don't understand your second question regarding display settings. Could you elaborate a bit more on thaat?

Right now,

"Auto-resize Guest Display" is disabled, and I can't select any other resolutions in "Virtual Screen 1" menu (also under "View")

[sunrat]

Hmmm, I quite don't understand your second question regarding display settings. Could you elaborate a bit more on thaat?

Resize the guest OS in the guest OS display settings, not in VBox settings.