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Virtualbox logo

VirtualBox is an open source x86 emulator developed by innotek (bought by Sun, now Oracle) comparable to VMware. A proprietary extra package enhances the base experience, adding things like RDP access to the Guest. This page contains some how-to, tips and tricks when setting up and using VirtualBox.

Since version 4.0 the name suffix OSE became obsolete. All non-GPL parts are now packed in an additional extension pack available from Oracle.

Installation of non-free edition

Debian Sid/Unstable

There is a package in the contrib section of the main repository, only available for the amd64 architecture. It can be installed using the following procedure: Add the "contrib" and the "non-free" components to /etc/apt/sources.list, for example:

# Debian Unstable "Sid"
deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian/ sid main contrib non-free
  1. Update the list of available packages:

    # sudo apt update
  2. Install the virtualbox package, for example:

    # sudo apt install virtualbox

Debian 10 "Buster"

Packages for VirtualBox are not available in Debian 10 and won't be in buster-backports either. A recommended alternative is Virtual Machine Manager (buster/virt-manager). See also this link that explains some useful basics for qemu

You can install Virtualbox either using Lucas Nussbaum's repository or Virtualbox's official third-party repository

Lucas Nussbaum's unofficial repository

Lucas Nussbaum maintains an unofficial (and unsupported) backport of the Debian unstable package for Debian 10.

Oracle Virtualbox third-party repository

  1. Add virtualbox.list to /etc/apt/sources.list.d

    deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian buster contrib
  2. Add Oracle VirtualBox public key:

    wget https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox_2016.asc
    sudo apt-key add oracle_vbox_2016.asc
  3. Install virtualbox-6.1

    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install virtualbox-6.1

Complete instructions on the VirtualBox Wiki

Debian 9 "Stretch"

Packages for VirtualBox are not available in Debian 9. To install VirtualBox you must use the stretch-backports repository or the upstream third-party repository.

stretch-backports

Oracle Virtualbox third-party repository

  1. Add virtualbox.list to /etc/apt/sources.list.d

    deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian stretch contrib
  2. Add Oracle VirtualBox public key:

    wget https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox_2016.asc
    sudo apt-key add oracle_vbox_2016.asc
  3. Install virtualbox-6.1

    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install virtualbox-6.1

Complete instructions on the VirtualBox Wiki

Debian 8 "Jessie"

VirtualBox 4.3.36 is packaged for Debian 8 "Jessie".

The virtualbox-* packages were moved to contrib at VirtualBox 4.2, as a non-free compiler (Open Watcom) is required to build the BIOS.

  1. Add the "contrib" component to /etc/apt/sources.list, for example:

    # Debian 8 "Jessie"
    deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib
  2. Update the list of available packages:

    # sudo apt-get update
  3. Install the relevant linux-headers package and virtualbox package, for example:

    # sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r|sed 's,[^-]*-[^-]*-,,') virtualbox

    This will also install virtualbox-dkms and other recommended packages. DKMS will build the VirtualBox modules for your system.

VirtualBox can now be started. To not load the VirtualBox modules at system startup, edit /etc/default/virtualbox and set LOAD_VBOXDRV_MODULE to 0.

Starting

Desktop

Server

You can start VirtualBox in Headless mode using VBoxHeadless like this:

$ VBoxHeadless -startvm "VMName"

You should run this inside a screen instance and detach the screen after starting the VM with Ctrl+a d. At least in version 4.0.x you won't need to use screen. Just start the vm with:

$ VBoxManage startvm "VMName" --type headless

and a VBoxSVC process appears in the background. You can loggoff without problems.

Troubleshooting

The character device /dev/vboxdrv does not exist

When starting VirtualBox, the following message is shown:

Load the VirtualBox kernel module (also load vboxnetflt in Debian Squeeze):

If the module is not found, refer to Installation to provide a virtualbox-dkms* package to your system.

You are not a member of the "vboxusers" group

As stated by VirtualBox:

Add your user account to the vboxusers group via adduser(8), as described in Installation:

Log out and log back in to your system to apply the group membership change.

Kernel driver not installed (rc=-1908)

You receive the following message

After running

VirtualBox works fine until you reboot the system. This is because "vboxdrv" is not loaded during system boot.
Solution.
Make sure that you actually have these packages in your system
1) dkms;
2) build-essential;
3) linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Then, append the following line to /etc/modules


-1909 VERR VM DRIVER NOT ACCESSIBLE

error-1909-VERR_VM_DRIVER_NOT_ACCESSIBLE.png

See You are not a member of the "vboxusers" group above.


RDP not working out of the box?

To get RDP working you need to install the VirtualBox Extensions Pack from the vendors website VirtualBox Downloads.

Simply download the extensions pack, click "File" => "Preferences" => "Extensions" => "Down arrow". Select the file you downloaded above. Click "OK". Restart VirtualBox.

Tips & Tricks

Switching consoles

The normal way to switch consoles in Linux is to use the ctrl-alt-Fx key combination. This does not work for a VirtualBox virtual machine (VM); it will switch consoles for the host system instead.

You should use <Host Key>-Fx instead, where <Host Key> is the key defined in File->Preferences->Input.

This also works for ctrl-alt-del and ctrl-alt-backspace

This is documented in the VirtualBox user manual in the section "Keyboard and mouse support in virtual machines", subsection "Typing special characters".

(An alternative method to switch between text consoles is to use alt-left and alt-right, but that does not work for graphical consoles like XOrg or DirectFB.)

How to remotely start virtual machines using VNC

Remote:

Local:

See Also


ToDo:


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