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Virtualbox x86 64

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This document describes how to install Sun (Oracle) VirtualBox x86_64 on Frugalware - the method is the same for other architectures (where VirtualBox is available). VirtualBox is "a general-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware... that is also Open Source Software."

As of January 2010, VirtualBox is not available as a package for Frugalware x86_64.

Contents

Download

Download VirtualBox from Downloads - VirtualBox for Linux hosts - All distributions - AMD64

The following instructions apply to the binary builds which fall under the VirtualBox PUEL license. If you find this too restrictive, check out the VirtualBox OSE (Open Source Edition) which is available as a source tarball or from a SVN repo.

Requisites

  • python/perl
  • kernel-headers/kernel-source
  • gcc/make
  • tar/bzip2
  • base utilities (coreutils/binutils/bash...)

Install

Open your favourite terminal, and type as root

$ sh VirtualBox-$version-Linux_$arch.run

If you want to specify another installation directory than the default /opt/VirtualBox:

$ sh VirtualBox-$version-Linux_$arch.run install /usr/local/vbox

NB: files will not be separated in bin/ lib/ and similar directories, so using /usr/local makes little sense. The above is useful if you want to have more than one version, for example (except that the kernel module will always be compiled).

The installer will :

  • install VirtualBox along with bindings, source files and SDK
  • build the kernel modules vboxdrv, vboxnetflt and vboxnetadp in /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/misc/
  • install VBoxGuestAdditions under the install_dir/additions/ (as of version 3.1.2)
  • create a symlink for install_dir/VBox.sh as /usr/bin/VirtualBox (and a few more links)
  • create the log /var/log/vbox-install.log (and /var/log/vbox-uninstall.log if uninstall is needed)
  • create/use /etc/vbox/vbox.cfg to store install path and version
  • add the group 'vboxusers' with GID 1000 (change the installer as necessary)
  • install the init script /etc/rc.d/rc.vboxdrv for loading/unloading modules and checking the installation
  • add this script to /etc/rc.d/rc.local
  • add vbox specific udev rulesets

Further options to the installer are available with --help. The installer contains the shell script at its beginning, you can view or modify it with an editor if necessary. The license is also included.

Setup

You must add users who can use VirtualBox to the newly created group called 'vboxusers':

$ usermod -a -G vboxusers LOGINNAME

Logout and login for the changes to take effect. Run 'newgrp vboxusers' as the user just added with usermod.

Optionally, disable the init script if you don't need the modules to be loaded every time.

If you happen to update the kernel, you must recompile the modules by running '/etc/rc.d/rc.vboxdrv setup'.

Run

You can run VirtualBox from your DE menu or type:

$ VirtualBox

in your favourite terminal.

After you have a guest VM installed, you can start it directly with:

$ VirtualBox --startvm your_vm_name

Hint: To disable the Sun registration pop-up, create a file named '.autoreg' under the directory where VirtualBox is installed.

Uninstall

Either run uninstall.sh from the directory where VirtualBox is installed, or if you still have the original installer, you can use it as well (of course as root):

# sh VirtualBox-$version-Linux_$arch.run uninstall

The file /etc/vbox/filelist is used for uninstall. If you moved some files, uninstall will not be complete.

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