HowTo Install VirtualBox

Determining What Versions of VirtualBox Are Available

There are often multiple versions of VirtualBox for you to choose from. Use the following command to determine the current set of choices:

[root@rice ~]# yum list | grep VirtualBox
VirtualBox-4.0.x86_64                    4.0.2_69518_fedora13-1         @virtualbox
VirtualBox-3.1.x86_64                    3.1.8_61349_fedora13-1         virtualbox
VirtualBox-3.2.x86_64                    3.2.12_68302_fedora13-1        virtualbox
[root@rice ~]# 

Installing VirtualBox 4.0 on a NST v2.13.0 System

The following commands can be used to install VirtualBox onto a NST system (as of 2009-Oct-26 using v2.11.0 of the NST distribution).

yum -y install kernel-devel gcc
yum -y install VirtualBox-4.0

Installing on a NST v2.11.0 System

The following commands can be used to install VirtualBox onto a NST system (as of 2009-Oct-26 using v2.11.0 of the NST distribution).

yum -y install kernel-devel gcc
cd /etc/yum.repos.d
wget -nH http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/rpm/fedora/virtualbox.repo
yum -y install VirtualBox-4.0

After Installation

Add Users to vboxusers Group

For every user you want to grant access to VirtualBox, you should add that user account to the vboxusers group. This can be done through the Users and Groups GUI tool (under the System | Administration menu on a GNOME desktop), or by using a text editor and directly editing your /etc/group file. For example after adding users pat and dianne, you should a line similar to the following line in your /etc/group file (you may see a number other than 512):

vboxusers:x:512:pat,dianne

Note: If a user is logged in when you add them to the vboxusers group, make sure you have them logout and then back in before running VirtualBox.

Adding Extension Packs

Oracle has introduced the concept of extension packs starting with the 4.0 release of VirtualBox. You should be able to find these extension pack(s) by googling for "oracle vm virtualbox extension pack". At the time of this writing, there was a single USB 2.0 extension pack available.

You must be logged in as the root user to install a extension pack. The following demonstrates the command used to install the USB 2.0 extension pack:

VirtualBox Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.0.2-69518.vbox-extpack

Starting VirtualBox

From the GNOME desktop, you can find the Oracle VM VirtualBox launcher under the Applications | System Tools menu. Alternatively, you can start VirtualBox directly from the command line using the command:

VirtualBox