2 Installation details 2.3.3 Performing the installation VirtualBox is available in a number of package formats native to various common Linux distribu- tions (see chapter 1.4, Supported host operating systems, page 13 for details). In addition, there is an alternative generic installer (.run) which should work on most Linux distributions. 2.3.3.1 Installing VirtualBox from a Debian/Ubuntu package First, download the appropriate package for your distribution. The following examples assume that you are installing to a 32-bit Ubuntu Karmic system. Use dpkg to install the Debian package: sudo dpkg -i VirtualBox-3.2_4.0.4_Ubuntu_karmic_i386.deb You will be asked to accept the VirtualBox Personal Use and Evaluation License. Unless you answer “yes” here, the installation will be aborted. The installer will also search for a VirtualBox kernel module suitable for your kernel. The pack- age includes pre-compiled modules for the most common kernel configurations. If no suitable kernel module is found, the installation script tries to build a module itself. If the build process is not successful you will be shown a warning and the package will be left unconfigured. Please have a look at /var/log/vbox-install.log to find out why the compilation failed. You may have to install the appropriate Linux kernel headers (see chapter 2.3.2, The VirtualBox kernel module, page 32). After correcting any problems, do sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup This will start a second attempt to build the module. If a suitable kernel module was found in the package or the module was successfully built, the installation script will attempt to load that module. If this fails, please see chapter 12.6.1, Linux kernel module refuses to load, page 174 for further information. Once VirtualBox has been successfully installed and configured, you can start it by selecting “VirtualBox” in your start menu or from the command line (see chapter 2.3.5, Starting VirtualBox on Linux, page 36). 2.3.3.2 Using the alternative installer (VirtualBox.run) The alternative installer performs the following steps: It unpacks the application files to the target directory, /opt/VirtualBox/ which cannot be changed. It builds the VirtualBox kernel modules (vboxdrv, vboxnetflt and vboxnetadp) and in- stalls them. It creates /etc/init.d/vboxdrv, an init script to start the VirtualBox kernel module. It creates a new system group called vboxusers. It creates symbolic links in /usr/bin to the a shell script (/opt/VirtualBox/VBox) which does some sanity checks and dispatches to the actual executables, VirtualBox, VBoxSDL, VBoxVRDP, VBoxHeadless and VBoxManage It creates /etc/udev/rules.d/10-vboxdrv.rules, a description file for udev, if that is present, which makes the USB devices accessible to all users in the vboxusers group. It writes the installation directory to /etc/vbox/vbox.cfg. 33
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