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Adding upstream version 7.0.20-dfsg.
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2025-06-22 09:56:04 +02:00

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!--
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<!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd"[
<!ENTITY % all.entities SYSTEM "all-entities.ent">
%all.entities;
]>
<chapter id="installation">
<title>Installation Details</title>
<para>
As installation of &product-name; varies depending on your host
operating system, the following sections provide installation
instructions for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Oracle Solaris.
</para>
<sect1 id="installation_windows">
<title>Installing on Windows Hosts</title>
<sect2 id="install-win-prereq">
<title>Prerequisites</title>
<para>
For the various versions of Windows that are supported as host
operating systems, please refer to
<xref linkend="hostossupport" />.
</para>
<para>
In addition, Windows Installer must be present on your system.
This should be the case for all supported Windows platforms.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="install-win-installdir-req">
<title>Windows Installation Directory Security Requirements</title>
<para>
The installation directory on Windows hosts must meet certain security requirements, in
order to be accepted by the Windows installer.
</para>
<para>
This also applies for upgrades of &product-name;.
</para>
<para>
For example, when installing &product-name; into a custom location at
X:\Data\MyPrograms\&product-name;, all parent directories of this path
(namely X:\Data and X:\Data\MyPrograms) have to meet the following
Discretionary Access Control List (DACL):
<screen>
Users S-1-5-32-545:(OI)(CI)(RX)
Users S-1-5-32-545:(DE,WD,AD,WEA,WA)
Authenticated Users S-1-5-11:(OI)(CI)(RX)
Authenticated Users S-1-5-11:(DE,WD,AD,WEA,WA)
</screen>
Directory inheritance must also be disabled for all parent directories.
</para>
<para>
You can use the <command>icacls</command> Windows command line tool
to meet the security requirements. For example:
<screen>
icacls &lt;Directory&gt; /reset /t /c
icacls &lt;Directory&gt; /inheritance:d /t /c
icacls &lt;Directory&gt; /grant *S-1-5-32-545:(OI)(CI)(RX)
icacls &lt;Directory&gt; /deny *S-1-5-32-545:(DE,WD,AD,WEA,WA)
icacls &lt;Directory&gt; /grant *S-1-5-11:(OI)(CI)(RX)
icacls &lt;Directory&gt; /deny *S-1-5-11:(DE,WD,AD,WEA,WA)
</screen>
Note that these commands must be repeated for all parent directories
(X:\Data and X:\Data\MyPrograms in this example).
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="install-win-performing">
<title>Performing the Installation</title>
<para>
The &product-name; installation can be started in either of the
following ways:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
By double-clicking on the executable file.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
By entering the following command:
</para>
<screen>VirtualBox-&lt;version&gt;-&lt;revision&gt;-Win.exe -extract</screen>
<para>
This will extract the installer into a temporary directory,
along with the .MSI file. Run the following command to
perform the installation:
</para>
<screen>msiexec /i VirtualBox-&lt;version&gt;-&lt;revision&gt;-Win.msi</screen>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
Using either way displays the installation
<emphasis role="bold">Welcome</emphasis> dialog and enables you
to choose where to install &product-name;, and which components
to install. In addition to the &product-name; application, the
following components are available:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">USB support.</emphasis> This package
contains special drivers for your Windows host that
&product-name; requires to fully support USB devices inside
your virtual machines.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Networking.</emphasis> This package
contains extra networking drivers for your Windows host that
&product-name; needs to support Bridged Networking. This
enables your VM's virtual network cards to be accessed from
other machines on your physical network.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Python support.</emphasis> This
package contains Python scripting support for the
&product-name; API, see <xref linkend="VirtualBoxAPI" />.
For this to work, an already working Windows Python
installation on the system is required.
</para>
<para>
See, for example:
<ulink url="http://www.python.org/download/windows/" />.
</para>
<note>
<para>
Python version at least 2.6 is required. Python 3 is also
supported.
</para>
</note>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
Depending on your Windows configuration, you may see warnings
about unsigned drivers, or similar. Click
<emphasis role="bold">Continue</emphasis> for these warnings, as
otherwise &product-name; might not function correctly after
installation.
</para>
<para>
The installer will create an &product-name; group in the Windows
<emphasis role="bold">Start</emphasis> menu, which enables you
to launch the application and access its documentation.
</para>
<para>
With standard settings, &product-name; will be installed for all
users on the local system. If this is not wanted, you must
invoke the installer by first extracting as follows:
</para>
<screen>VirtualBox.exe -extract</screen>
<para>
Then, run either of the following commands on the extracted .MSI
file. This will install &product-name; only for the current
user.
</para>
<screen>VirtualBox.exe -msiparams ALLUSERS=2</screen>
<screen>msiexec /i VirtualBox-&lt;version&gt;-Win.msi ALLUSERS=2</screen>
<para>
If you do not want to install all features of &product-name;,
you can set the optional <literal>ADDLOCAL</literal> parameter
to explicitly name the features to be installed. The following
features are available:
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>
VBoxApplication
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Main binaries of &product-name;.
</para>
<note>
<para>
This feature must not be absent, since it contains the
minimum set of files to have working &product-name;
installation.
</para>
</note>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
VBoxUSB
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
USB support.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
VBoxNetwork
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
All networking support. This includes the VBoxNetworkFlt
and VBoxNetworkAdp features.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
VBoxNetworkFlt
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Bridged networking support.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
VBoxNetworkAdp
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Host-only networking support
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
VBoxPython
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Python support
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>
For example, to only install USB support along with the main
binaries, run either of the following commands:
</para>
<screen>VirtualBox.exe -msiparams ADDLOCAL=VBoxApplication,VBoxUSB</screen>
<screen>msiexec /i VirtualBox-&lt;version&gt;-Win.msi ADDLOCAL=VBoxApplication,VBoxUSB</screen>
<para>
The user is able to choose between NDIS5 and NDIS6 host network
filter drivers during the installation. This is done using a
command line parameter, <literal>NETWORKTYPE</literal>. The
NDIS6 driver is the default for most supported Windows hosts.
For some legacy Windows versions, the installer will
automatically select the NDIS5 driver and this cannot be
changed.
</para>
<para>
You can force an install of the legacy NDIS5 host network filter
driver by specifying <literal>NETWORKTYPE=NDIS5</literal>. For
example, to install the NDIS5 driver on Windows 7 use either of
the following commands:
</para>
<screen>VirtualBox.exe -msiparams NETWORKTYPE=NDIS5</screen>
<screen>msiexec /i VirtualBox-&lt;version&gt;-Win;.msi NETWORKTYPE=NDIS5</screen>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="install-win-uninstall">
<title>Uninstallation</title>
<para>
As &product-name; uses the standard Microsoft Windows installer,
&product-name; can be safely uninstalled at any time. Click the
program entry in the <emphasis role="bold">Add/Remove
Programs</emphasis> list in the Windows Control Panel.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="install-win-unattended">
<title>Unattended Installation</title>
<para>
Unattended installations can be performed using the standard MSI
support.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="install-win-public-props">
<title>Public Properties</title>
<para>
Public properties can be specified with the MSI API, to control
additional behavior and features of the Windows host installer.
Use either of the following commands:
</para>
<screen>VirtualBox.exe -msiparams NAME=VALUE [...]</screen>
<screen>msiexec /i VirtualBox-&lt;version&gt;-Win.msi NAME=VALUE [...]</screen>
<para>
The following public properties are available.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
VBOX_INSTALLDESKTOPSHORTCUT
</para>
<para>
Specifies whether or not an &product-name; icon on the
desktop should be created.
</para>
<para>
Set to <literal>1</literal> to enable, <literal>0</literal>
to disable. Default is 1.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
VBOX_INSTALLQUICKLAUNCHSHORTCUT
</para>
<para>
Specifies whether or not an &product-name; icon in the Quick
Launch Bar should be created.
</para>
<para>
Set to <literal>1</literal> to enable, <literal>0</literal>
to disable. Default is 1.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
VBOX_REGISTERFILEEXTENSIONS
</para>
<para>
Specifies whether or not the file extensions .vbox,
.vbox-extpack, .ovf, .ova, .vdi, .vmdk, .vhd and .vdd should
be associated with &product-name;. Files of these types then
will be opened with &product-name;.
</para>
<para>
Set to <literal>1</literal> to enable, <literal>0</literal>
to disable. Default is 1.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
VBOX_START
</para>
<para>
Specifies whether to start &product-name; right after
successful installation.
</para>
<para>
Set to <literal>1</literal> to enable, <literal>0</literal>
to disable. Default is 1.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="installation-mac">
<title>Installing on macOS Hosts</title>
<sect2 id="install-mac-performing">
<title>Performing the Installation</title>
<para>
For macOS hosts, &product-name; ships in a
<filename>dmg</filename> disk image file. Perform the following
steps to install on a macOS host:
</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Double-click on the <filename>dmg</filename> file, to mount
the contents.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
A window opens, prompting you to double-click on the
<filename>VirtualBox.pkg</filename> installer file displayed
in that window.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
This starts the installer, which enables you to select where
to install &product-name;.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
An &product-name; icon is added to the
<filename>Applications</filename> folder in the Finder.
</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="install-mac-uninstall">
<title>Uninstallation</title>
<para>
To uninstall &product-name;, open the disk image
<filename>dmg</filename> file and double-click on the uninstall
icon shown.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="install-mac-unattended">
<title>Unattended Installation</title>
<para>
To perform a non-interactive installation of &product-name; you
can use the command line version of the installer application.
</para>
<para>
Mount the <filename>dmg</filename> disk image file, as described
in the installation procedure, or use the following command
line:
</para>
<screen>hdiutil attach /path/to/VirtualBox-xyz.dmg</screen>
<para>
Open a terminal session and run the following command:
</para>
<screen>sudo installer -pkg /Volumes/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.pkg -target /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD</screen>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="install-linux-host">
<title>Installing on Linux Hosts</title>
<sect2 id="install-linux-prereq">
<title>Prerequisites</title>
<para>
For the various versions of Linux that are supported as host
operating systems, see <xref linkend="hostossupport" />.
</para>
<para>
You may need to install the following packages on your Linux
system before starting the installation. Some systems will do
this for you automatically when you install &product-name;.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Qt 5.3.2 or later. Qt 5.6.2 or later is recommended.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
SDL 1.2.7 or later. This graphics library is typically
called <filename>libsdl</filename> or similar.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<note>
<para>
These packages are only required if you want to run the
&product-name; graphical user interfaces. In particular,
<command>VirtualBox</command>, the graphical VirtualBox
Manager, requires both Qt and SDL. If you only want to run
<command>VBoxHeadless</command>, neither Qt nor SDL are
required.
</para>
</note>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="externalkernelmodules">
<title>The &product-name; Kernel Modules</title>
<para>
In order to run other operating systems in virtual machines
alongside your main operating system, &product-name; needs to
integrate very tightly with your system. To do this it installs
a driver module called <command>vboxdrv</command> into the
system kernel. The kernel is the part of the operating system
which controls your processor and physical hardware. Without
this kernel module, you can still use &vbox-mgr; to configure
virtual machines, but they will not start.
</para>
<para>
Network drivers called <command>vboxnetflt</command> and
<command>vboxnetadp</command> are also installed. They enable
virtual machines to make more use of your computer's network
capabilities and are needed for any virtual machine networking
beyond the basic NAT mode.
</para>
<para>
Since distributing driver modules separately from the kernel is
not something which Linux supports well, the &product-name;
install process creates the modules on the system where they
will be used. This means that you may need to install some
software packages from the distribution which are needed for the
build process. Required packages may include the following:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
GNU compiler (GCC)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
GNU Make (make)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Kernel header files
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
Also ensure that all system updates have been installed and that
your system is running the most up-to-date kernel for the
distribution.
</para>
<note>
<para>
The running kernel and the kernel header files must be updated
to matching versions.
</para>
</note>
<para>
The following list includes some details of the required files
for some common distributions. Start by finding the version name
of your kernel, using the command <command>uname -r</command> in
a terminal. The list assumes that you have not changed too much
from the original installation, in particular that you have not
installed a different kernel type.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
With Debian and Ubuntu-based distributions, you must install
the correct version of the
<filename>linux-headers</filename>, usually whichever of
<filename>linux-headers-generic</filename>,
<filename>linux-headers-amd64</filename>,
<filename>linux-headers-i686</filename> or
<filename>linux-headers-i686-pae</filename> best matches the
kernel version name. Also, the
<filename>linux-kbuild</filename> package if it exists.
Basic Ubuntu releases should have the correct packages
installed by default.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
On Fedora, Red Hat, Oracle Linux and many other RPM-based
systems, the kernel version sometimes has a code of letters
or a word close to the end of the version name. For example
"uek" for the Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel or
"default" or "desktop" for the standard kernels. In this
case, the package name is
<filename>kernel-uek-devel</filename> or equivalent. If
there is no such code, it is usually
<filename>kernel-devel</filename>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
On some SUSE and openSUSE Linux versions, you may need to
install the <filename>kernel-source</filename> and
<filename>kernel-syms</filename> packages.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
If you suspect that something has gone wrong with module
installation, check that your system is set up as described
above and try running the following command, as root:
</para>
<screen>rcvboxdrv setup</screen>
<sect3 id="kernel-modules-efi-secure-boot">
<title>Kernel Modules and UEFI Secure Boot</title>
<para>
If you are running on a system using UEFI (Unified Extensible
Firmware Interface) Secure Boot, you may need to sign the
following kernel modules before you can load them:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<command>vboxdrv</command>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<command>vboxnetadp</command>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<command>vboxnetflt</command>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<command>vboxpci</command>
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
See your system documentation for details of the kernel module
signing process.
</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="install-linux-performing">
<title>Performing the Installation</title>
<para>
&product-name; is available in a number of package formats
native to various common Linux distributions. See
<xref linkend="hostossupport"/>. In addition, there is an
alternative generic installer (.run) which you can use on
supported Linux distributions.
</para>
<sect3 id="install-linux-debian-ubuntu">
<title>Installing &product-name; from a Debian or Ubuntu Package</title>
<para>
Download the appropriate package for your distribution. The
following example assumes that you are installing to a 64-bit
Ubuntu Xenial system. Use <command>dpkg</command> to install
the Debian package,as follows:
</para>
<screen>sudo dpkg -i virtualbox-<replaceable>version-number</replaceable>_Ubuntu_xenial_amd64.deb</screen>
<para>
The installer will also try to build kernel modules suitable
for the current running kernel. If the build process is not
successful you will be shown a warning and the package will be
left unconfigured. Look at
<filename>/var/log/vbox-install.log</filename> to find out why
the compilation failed. You may have to install the
appropriate Linux kernel headers, see
<xref linkend="externalkernelmodules" />. After correcting any
problems, run the following command:
</para>
<screen>sudo rcvboxdrv setup</screen>
<para>
This will start a second attempt to build the module.
</para>
<para>
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
<xref linkend="ts_linux-kernelmodule-fails-to-load" /> for
further information.
</para>
<para>
Once &product-name; has been successfully installed and
configured, you can start it by clicking
<emphasis role="bold">VirtualBox</emphasis> in your
<emphasis role="bold">Start</emphasis> menu or from the
command line. See <xref linkend="startingvboxonlinux" />.
</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="install-linux-alt-installer">
<title>Using the Alternative Generic Installer (VirtualBox.run)</title>
<para>
The alternative generic installer performs the following
steps:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Unpacks the application files to the target directory
<filename>/opt/VirtualBox/</filename>, which cannot be
changed.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Builds and installs the &product-name; kernel modules:
<command>vboxdrv</command>, <command>vboxnetflt</command>,
and <command>vboxnetadp</command>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Creates <filename>/sbin/rcvboxdrv</filename>, an init
script to start the &product-name; kernel module.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Creates a new system group called
<literal>vboxusers</literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Creates symbolic links in <filename>/usr/bin</filename> to
a shell script <filename>/opt/VirtualBox/VBox</filename>
which does some sanity checks and dispatches to the actual
executables: <command>VirtualBox</command>,
<command>VBoxVRDP</command>,
<command>VBoxHeadless</command> and
<command>VBoxManage</command>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Creates
<filename>/etc/udev/rules.d/60-vboxdrv.rules</filename>, a
description file for udev, if that is present, which makes
the USB devices accessible to all users in the
<literal>vboxusers</literal> group.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Writes the installation directory to
<filename>/etc/vbox/vbox.cfg</filename>.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
The installer must be executed as root with either
<literal>install</literal> or <literal>uninstall</literal> as
the first parameter. For example:
</para>
<screen>sudo ./VirtualBox.run install</screen>
<para>
Or if you do not have the <command>sudo</command> command
available, run the following as root instead:
</para>
<screen>./VirtualBox.run install</screen>
<para>
Add every user who needs to access USB devices from a
VirtualBox guests to the group <literal>vboxusers</literal>.
Either use the OS user management tools or run the following
command as root:
</para>
<screen>sudo usermod -a -G vboxusers username</screen>
<note>
<para>
The <command>usermod</command> command of some older Linux
distributions does not support the <option>-a</option>
option, which adds the user to the given group without
affecting membership of other groups. In this case, find out
the current group memberships with the
<command>groups</command> command and add all these groups
in a comma-separated list to the command line after the
<option>-G</option> option. For example: <command>usermod -G
<replaceable>group1</replaceable>,<replaceable>group2</replaceable>,vboxusers
<replaceable>username</replaceable></command>.
</para>
</note>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="install-linux-manual">
<title>Performing a Manual Installation</title>
<para>
If you cannot use the shell script installer described in
<xref linkend="install-linux-alt-installer"/>, you can perform
a manual installation. Run the installer as follows:
</para>
<screen>./VirtualBox.run --keep --noexec</screen>
<para>
This will unpack all the files needed for installation in the
directory <literal>install</literal> under the current
directory. The &product-name; application files are contained
in <filename>VirtualBox.tar.bz2</filename> which you can
unpack to any directory on your system. For example:
</para>
<screen>sudo mkdir /opt/VirtualBox
sudo tar jxf ./install/VirtualBox.tar.bz2 -C /opt/VirtualBox</screen>
<para>
To run the same example as root, use the following commands:
</para>
<screen>mkdir /opt/VirtualBox
tar jxf ./install/VirtualBox.tar.bz2 -C /opt/VirtualBox</screen>
<para>
The sources for &product-name;'s kernel module are provided in
the <filename>src</filename> directory. To build the module,
change to the directory and use the following command:
</para>
<screen>make</screen>
<para>
If everything builds correctly, run the following command to
install the module to the appropriate module directory:
</para>
<screen>sudo make install</screen>
<para>
In case you do not have sudo, switch the user account to root
and run the following command:
</para>
<screen>make install</screen>
<para>
The &product-name; kernel module needs a device node to
operate. The above <command>make</command> command will tell
you how to create the device node, depending on your Linux
system. The procedure is slightly different for a classical
Linux setup with a <filename>/dev</filename> directory, a
system with the now deprecated <command>devfs</command> and a
modern Linux system with <command>udev</command>.
</para>
<para>
On certain Linux distributions, you might experience
difficulties building the module. You will have to analyze the
error messages from the build system to diagnose the cause of
the problems. In general, make sure that the correct Linux
kernel sources are used for the build process.
</para>
<para>
Note that the <filename>/dev/vboxdrv</filename> kernel module
device node must be owned by root:root and must be
read/writable only for the user.
</para>
<para>
Next, you install the system initialization script for the
kernel module and activate the initialization script using the
right method for your distribution, as follows:
</para>
<screen>cp /opt/VirtualBox/vboxdrv.sh /sbin/rcvboxdrv</screen>
<para>
This example assumes you installed &product-name; to the
<filename>/opt/VirtualBox</filename> directory.
</para>
<para>
Create a configuration file for &product-name;, as follows:
</para>
<screen>mkdir /etc/vbox
echo INSTALL_DIR=/opt/VirtualBox &gt; /etc/vbox/vbox.cfg</screen>
<para>
Create the following symbolic links:
</para>
<screen>ln -sf /opt/VirtualBox/VBox.sh /usr/bin/VirtualBox
ln -sf /opt/VirtualBox/VBox.sh /usr/bin/VBoxManage
ln -sf /opt/VirtualBox/VBox.sh /usr/bin/VBoxHeadless</screen>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="install-linux-update-uninstall">
<title>Updating and Uninstalling &product-name;</title>
<para>
Before updating or uninstalling &product-name;, you must
terminate any virtual machines which are currently running and
exit the &product-name; or VBoxSVC applications. To update
&product-name;, simply run the installer of the updated
version. To uninstall &product-name;, run the installer as
follows:
</para>
<screen>sudo ./VirtualBox.run uninstall</screen>
<para>
As root, you can use the following command:
</para>
<screen>./VirtualBox.run uninstall</screen>
<para>
You can uninstall the .run package as follows:
</para>
<screen>/opt/VirtualBox/uninstall.sh</screen>
<para>
To manually uninstall &product-name;, perform the manual
installation steps in reverse order.
</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="install-linux-debian-automatic">
<title>Automatic Installation of Debian Packages</title>
<para>
The Debian packages will request some user feedback when
installed for the first time. The debconf system is used to
perform this task. To prevent any user interaction during
installation, default values can be defined. A file
<literal>vboxconf</literal> can contain the following debconf
settings:
</para>
<screen>virtualbox virtualbox/module-compilation-allowed boolean true
virtualbox virtualbox/delete-old-modules boolean true</screen>
<para>
The first line enables compilation of the vboxdrv kernel
module if no module was found for the current kernel. The
second line enables the package to delete any old vboxdrv
kernel modules compiled by previous installations.
</para>
<para>
These default settings can be applied prior to the
installation of the &product-name; Debian package, as follows:
</para>
<screen>debconf-set-selections vboxconf</screen>
<para>
In addition there are some common configuration options that
can be set prior to the installation. See
<xref
linkend="linux_install_opts" />.
</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="install-linux-rpm-automatic">
<title>Automatic Installation of RPM Packages</title>
<para>
The RPM format does not provide a configuration system
comparable to the debconf system. See
<xref linkend="linux_install_opts" /> for how to set some
common installation options provided by &product-name;.
</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="linux_install_opts">
<title>Automatic Installation Options</title>
<para>
To configure the installation process for .deb and .rpm
packages, you can create a response file named
<filename>/etc/default/virtualbox</filename>. The automatic
generation of the udev rule can be prevented with the
following setting:
</para>
<screen>INSTALL_NO_UDEV=1</screen>
<para>
The creation of the group vboxusers can be prevented as
follows:
</para>
<screen>INSTALL_NO_GROUP=1</screen>
<para>
If the following line is specified, the package installer will
not try to build the <command>vboxdrv</command> kernel module
if no module fitting the current kernel was found.
</para>
<screen>INSTALL_NO_VBOXDRV=1</screen>
</sect3>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="install-linux-vboxusers">
<title>The vboxusers Group</title>
<para>
The Linux installers create the system user group
<literal>vboxusers</literal> during installation. Any system
user who is going to use USB devices from &product-name; guests
must be a member of that group. A user can be made a member of
the group <literal>vboxusers</literal> either by using the
desktop user and group tools, or with the following command:
</para>
<screen>sudo usermod -a -G vboxusers username</screen>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="startingvboxonlinux">
<title>Starting &product-name; on Linux</title>
<para>
The easiest way to start an &product-name; program is by running
the program of your choice (<command>VirtualBox</command>,
<command>VBoxManage</command>, or
<command>VBoxHeadless</command>) from a terminal. These are
symbolic links to <command>VBox.sh</command> that start the
required program for you.
</para>
<para>
The following detailed instructions should only be of interest
if you wish to execute &product-name; without installing it
first. You should start by compiling the
<command>vboxdrv</command> kernel module and inserting it into
the Linux kernel. &product-name; consists of a service daemon,
<command>VBoxSVC</command>, and several application programs.
The daemon is automatically started if necessary. All
&product-name; applications will communicate with the daemon
through UNIX local domain sockets. There can be multiple daemon
instances under different user accounts and applications can
only communicate with the daemon running under the user account
as the application. The local domain socket resides in a
subdirectory of your system's directory for temporary files
called <filename>.vbox-&lt;username&gt;-ipc</filename>. In case
of communication problems or server startup problems, you may
try to remove this directory.
</para>
<para>
All &product-name; applications (<command>VirtualBox</command>,
<command>VBoxManage</command>, and
<command>VBoxHeadless</command>) require the &product-name;
directory to be in the library path, as follows:
</para>
<screen>LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ./VBoxManage showvminfo "Windows XP"</screen>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="install-solaris-host">
<title>Installing on Oracle Solaris Hosts</title>
<para>
For the specific versions of Oracle Solaris that are supported as
host operating systems, see <xref linkend="hostossupport" />.
</para>
<para>
If you have a previously installed instance of &product-name; on
your Oracle Solaris host, please uninstall it first before
installing a new instance. See
<xref linkend="uninstall-solaris-host" /> for uninstall
instructions.
</para>
<sect2 id="install-solaris-performing">
<title>Performing the Installation</title>
<para>
&product-name; is available as a standard Oracle Solaris
package. Download the &product-name; SunOS package, which
includes the 64-bit version of &product-name;. <emphasis>The
installation must be performed as root and from the global
zone</emphasis>. This is because the &product-name; installer
loads kernel drivers, which cannot be done from non-global
zones. To verify which zone you are currently in, execute the
<command>zonename</command> command.
</para>
<para>
To start installation, run the following commands:
</para>
<screen>gunzip -cd VirtualBox-<replaceable>version-number</replaceable>-SunOS.tar.gz | tar xvf -</screen>
<para>
The &product-name; kernel package is integrated into the main
package. Install the &product-name; package as follows:
</para>
<screen>pkgadd -d VirtualBox-<replaceable>version-number</replaceable>-SunOS.pkg</screen>
<para>
The installer will then prompt you to enter the package you wish
to install. Choose <emphasis role="bold">1</emphasis> or
<emphasis role="bold">all</emphasis> and proceed. Next the
installer will ask you if you want to allow the postinstall
script to be executed. Choose <emphasis role="bold">y</emphasis>
and proceed, as it is essential to execute this script which
installs the &product-name; kernel module. Following this
confirmation the installer will install &product-name; and
execute the postinstall setup script.
</para>
<para>
Once the postinstall script has been executed your installation
is now complete. You may now safely delete the uncompressed
package and <filename>autoresponse</filename> files from your
system. &product-name; is installed in
<filename>/opt/VirtualBox</filename>.
</para>
<note>
<para>
If you need to use &product-name; from non-global zones, see
<xref linkend="solaris-zones" />.
</para>
</note>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="install-solaris-vboxuser">
<title>The vboxuser Group</title>
<para>
The installer creates the system user group
<literal>vboxuser</literal> during installation for Oracle
Solaris hosts that support the USB features required by
&product-name;. Any system user who is going to use USB devices
from &product-name; guests must be a member of this group. A
user can be made a member of this group either by using the
desktop user and group tools or by running the following command
as root:
</para>
<screen>usermod -G vboxuser username</screen>
<para>
Note that adding an active user to the
<literal>vboxuser</literal> group will require the user to log
out and then log in again. This should be done manually after
successful installation of the package.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="install-solaris-starting">
<title>Starting &product-name; on Oracle Solaris</title>
<para>
The easiest way to start an &product-name; program is by running
the program of your choice (<command>VirtualBox</command>,
<command>VBoxManage</command>, or
<command>VBoxHeadless</command>) from a terminal. These are
symbolic links to <command>VBox.sh</command> that start the
required program for you.
</para>
<para>
Alternatively, you can directly invoke the required programs
from <filename>/opt/VirtualBox</filename>. Using the links
provided is easier as you do not have to enter the full path.
</para>
<para>
You can configure some elements of the
<command>VirtualBox</command> Qt GUI, such as fonts and colours,
by running <command>VBoxQtconfig</command> from the terminal.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="uninstall-solaris-host">
<title>Uninstallation</title>
<para>
Uninstallation of &product-name; on Oracle Solaris requires root
permissions. To perform the uninstallation, start a root
terminal session and run the following command:
</para>
<screen>pkgrm SUNWvbox</screen>
<para>
After confirmation, this will remove &product-name; from your
system.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="install-solaris-unattended">
<title>Unattended Installation</title>
<para>
To perform a non-interactive installation of &product-name;
there is a response file named
<filename>autoresponse</filename>. The installer uses this for
responses to inputs, rather than prompting the user.
</para>
<para>
Extract the tar.gz package as described in
<xref linkend="install-solaris-performing"/>. Then open a root
terminal session and run the following command:
</para>
<screen>pkgadd -d VirtualBox-<replaceable>version-number</replaceable>-SunOS-x86 -n -a autoresponse SUNWvbox</screen>
<para>
To perform a non-interactive uninstallation, open a root
terminal session and run the following command:
</para>
<screen>pkgrm -n -a /opt/VirtualBox/autoresponse SUNWvbox</screen>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="solaris-zones">
<title>Configuring a Non-Global Zone for Running &product-name;</title>
<para>
After installing &product-name; in the global zone
(see <xref linkend="install-solaris-host"/> for the installation instructions)
the first step required to run &product-name; in a
non-global zone is to modify the zone's configuration to be able to access the
&product-name; device nodes located in the global zone.
This is done by performing the following steps as a zone administrator in the global zone.
</para>
<screen>global$ zonecfg -z <replaceable>vboxzone</replaceable></screen>
<para>
Replace <replaceable>vboxzone</replaceable> with the name of the
non-global zone where you plan to run &product-name;.
</para>
<para>
Use <command>zonecfg(8)</command> to add the
<literal>device</literal> resource and the <literal>match</literal>
property for each &product-name; device node in the global zone to
the non-global zone as follows:
</para>
<screen>zonecfg:vboxzone&gt; add device
zonecfg:vboxzone:device&gt; set match=/dev/vboxdrv
zonecfg:vboxzone:device&gt; end
zonecfg:vboxzone&gt; add device
zonecfg:vboxzone:device&gt; set match=/dev/vboxdrvu
zonecfg:vboxzone:device&gt; end
zonecfg:vboxzone&gt; exit</screen>
<para>
On Oracle Solaris 11 if you plan to use VMs configured to use a USB device, e.g. a USB
pointing device or a USB pass-through device, you should also pass through the
<filename>/dev/vboxusbmon</filename> device using the steps above.
</para>
<para>
Oracle Solaris 11 doesn't support sparse root zones so you will need to
loopback mount <filename>/opt/VirtualBox</filename> from the
global zone into the non-global zone at the same path. This is
done using <command>zonecfg(8)</command> to set the <literal>dir</literal>
attribute and the <literal>special</literal> attribute for this directory.
For example:
</para>
<screen>zonecfg:vboxzone&gt; add fs
zonecfg:vboxzone:fs&gt; set dir=/opt/VirtualBox
zonecfg:vboxzone:fs&gt; set special=/opt/VirtualBox
zonecfg:vboxzone:fs&gt; set type=lofs
zonecfg:vboxzone:fs&gt; add options [readonly]
zonecfg:vboxzone:fs&gt; end
zonecfg:vboxzone&gt;exit</screen>
<para>
After making the above changes using <command>zonecfg(8)</command>, reboot the zone
using <command>zoneadm(8)</command> as follows:
</para>
<screen>global$ zoneadm -z <replaceable>vboxzone</replaceable> reboot</screen>
<para>
for the changes to take effect. You will then be able to run
&product-name; from /opt/VirtualBox within the configured non-global zone.
</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="install-ext-pack">
<title>Installing an Extension Pack</title>
<para>
Extension packs provide extra functionality to the &product-name;
base package, such as extended USB device support and cloud
integration features. See <xref linkend="intro-installing"/>.
</para>
<para>
To install an &product-name; extension pack, do the following:
</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Double-click on the extension package file name.
</para>
<para>
&product-name; extension packs have a
<filename>.vbox-extpack</filename> file name extension.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Follow the on-screen instructions to install the extension
pack.
</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>
You can also use the Extension Pack Manager tool to install an
extension pack. See <xref linkend="install-ext-pack-manager"/>.
</para>
<sect2 id="install-ext-pack-manager">
<title>The Extension Pack Manager</title>
<para>
Extension packs can be installed and managed using the
<emphasis role="bold">Extension Pack Manager</emphasis> tool in
&vbox-mgr;.
</para>
<para>
The Extension Pack Manager lists the extension packs that are
currently installed on the host, and enables you to install and
uninstall extension packs.
</para>
<para>
To display the Extension Pack Manager, go to the global
<emphasis role="bold">Tools</emphasis> menu and click
<emphasis role="bold">Extensions</emphasis>. The Extension Pack
Manager is shown.
</para>
<para>
To install an extension pack using the Extension Pack Manager,
click <emphasis role="bold">Install</emphasis> and select an
extension package file. The extension pack is installed on the
host and listed in Extension Pack Manager.
</para>
<para>
To uninstall an extension pack with the Extension Pack Manager,
do the following:
</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Select the extension pack in the Extension Pack Manager
window and click <emphasis role="bold">Uninstall</emphasis>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Click <emphasis role="bold">Remove</emphasis> in the prompt
dialog.
</para>
<para>
The extension pack is uninstalled from the host and removed
from the Extension Pack Manager.
</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>
Alternatively, you can use the <command>VBoxManage</command>
command line to install and manage &product-name; extension
packs. See <xref linkend="vboxmanage-extpack" />.
</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
</chapter>