NOTE: this is a command line installation of VirtualBox 3 proprietary driver edition...
The "open source edition" does not include RDP into VM's nor USB drivers for VM's to access host USB's
Preparation Steps
uname -r //find your kernel version
apt-cache search linux-headers //in the long list see if your version is there
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r) //failed because I have "squeeze" 2.6.32-rc8-686
unfortunately the rc8 headers were missing from debian website
apt-get install linux-headers-2.6.32-trunk-686 //manual way (instead of the fancy function returns a result)
ls -ahl /usr/src //ensure the folders are there, sometimes no kernel folder
export KERN_DIR=/usr/src/kernels/2.6.32-trunk-686 //sometimes instead /usr/src/2.6.32-trunk-686
Actual Installation
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads
nano /etc/apt/sources.list //add line
deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian lenny non-free
apt-get update
apt-cache search virtualbox
apt-get install virtualbox-3.0 //install without verification...
sudo addusers username vboxusers
OR usermod -a -G vboxusers USERNAME
GUI Management
Setting up virtualbox-3.0 (3.0.12-54655_Debian_lenny) ...
addgroup: The group \`vboxusers' already exists as a system group.
Exiting.
Messages emitted during module compilation will be logged to /var/log/vbox-install.log.
Success!
Starting VirtualBox kernel module:done..
Setting up libsdl-ttf2.0-0 (2.0.9-1) ...
type VBoxManage -v to see if everything is working (shows your VirtualBox version)
VirtualBox
this command starts the GUI interface where you can easily create/manage
you can test it - from the command line create and start a VM, you'll see it appear in the GUI!
VBoxManage createvm --name VM1 --register
VBoxManage startvm VM1
VirtualBox GUI is pretty straightforward but I highly recommend that you skim the manual and especially that you learn to play with the command line VBoxManage
Troubleshooting
/etc/init.d/vbox_drv setup
The above command often fails, and when it fails, check the install log
nano /var/log/vbox-install.log
-
no kernel headers installed/downloaded or export (so the OS knows where!)
-
the user running VirtualBox needs to be in the /etc/group/vboxusers
if you have not installed the right headers (e.g. Virtualbox is compiling a driver specific to your kernel)
So you need gcc, make... also you need the kernel-headers source
uname -a
will show you exactly what kernel you have installed
ls -ahl /usr/src
will show you exactly what directories are there...
see some varations:
export KERN_DIR=/usr/src/2.6.32-trunk-686
export KERN_DIR=/usr/src/kernels/2.6.32-trunk-686
export KERN_DIR=/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-128.4.1.el5-x86_64/
sudo apt-get remove virtualbox-3.0
the easiest method to uninstall
do all of the fixes (e.g. in my case I had to downgrade my kernel from 2.6.32-rc8 to 2.6.32-trunk)
sudo apt-get install linux-image-686
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
export KERN_DIR=/usr/src/2.6.32-trunk-686
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-3.0
usermod -a -G vboxusers USERNAME
after the reinstall hopefully you'll see:
Setting up libcurl3 (7.19.7-1) ...
Setting up virtualbox-3.0 (3.0.12-54655\_Debian\_lenny) ...
addgroup: The group \`vboxusers' already exists as a system group.
Exiting.
Messages emitted during module compilation will be logged to /var/log/vbox-install.log.
Success!
Starting VirtualBox kernel module:done..
Setting up libsdl-ttf2.0-0 (2.0.9-1) ...
type VBoxManage -v to see if everything is working (shows your VirtualBox version)