Updating guest additions on ubuntu/focal64 hits timeout

A similar, but slightly different thing, also happens with ubuntu/jammy64. There the installation hangs without hitting the timeout, and I manually interrupted it after more than an hour (close to an hour and a half). Here is the full output: https://pastebin.com/xLYRHnf1.
The Vagrantfile that I used is as follows:

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.box = "ubuntu/jammy64"
end

Could you also provide all the following so I can see about setting up a reproducer:

Host OS and Host OS Version
Virtualbox Version

Canonical produced vagrant images already come with a version of VBox Guest Additions that matches the kernel. There is no functional need in the guest to install a new version. Could you confirm if the vagrant images work without attempting to use the vbox guest additions plugin to install the latest drivers?

For the Jammy issue, you may be running into a different issue, which is a mismatch in key algorithms. the default vagrant key may be incompatible. For the Jammy version, could you try replacing the default ssh key with your own via a setup script? If you're not already using ansible or puppet, you can do shell provisioner: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30075461/how-do-i-add-my-own-public-key-to-vagrant-vm

I'm running an up-to-date installation of Arch Linux, the kernel version is

$ uname -a
Linux lenovo 6.3.7-arch1-1 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Sat, 10 Jun 2023 00:35:35 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux

VirtualBox version is Oracle VM VirtualBox VM Selector v7.0.8

How can I prevent the vbox guest additions plugin from installing the latest drivers?

the easiest is, of course, to uninstall the plugin. If that's not an option, you can utilize configuration

https://github.com/dotless-de/vagrant-vbguest

there's a `no_install` option that looks like it should do the trick.

There is a high likelihood of mismatch between virtualbox, vbox guest, and the guest kernels. We can only provide basic help on non-Ubuntu based hosts. Especially given the big different in Arch w/ a 6.3.7 kernel and a guest with a 5.4 kernel.

The other option is to use a different version of Virtualbox. the version in Ubuntu 22.04 is 6.1.38.

I can try on a lunar system, which is running 7.0.6 Virtualbox.

I can confirm that uninstalling the plugin lets the provisioning complete successfully for both images, here is the output for Focal: https://pastebin.com/9ZwguuBp
And here is the output for Jammy: https://pastebin.com/3kEPrWGL

Adding some additional context to this: Virtual Box 6.1.x will only be supported until December 2023 as per https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Because of the general transition to Virtual Box 7.0.x on various host OSes, it may be time to consider a transition to the guest additions in the base Ubuntu 22.04 image to the 7.x version of guest additions?

I cannot speak to Ubuntu and Debian maintainer's stances on what upstream does with support. Generally speaking, without an SRU Exception[0], a package will remain on the same version as is released on the LTS version, with patches being applied. On Jammy, that is based on 6.1.38.

Currently Virtualbox is in `universe`, which means it receives community support. I can add Virtualbox to this bug for any maintainers to respond to plans.

[0] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#Why