Monday, February 11, 2008

Installing virtualbox on debian etch

I've being using virtualbox on my debian sid boxes for almost an year now. The problem is that debian stable (etch) does not have the packages for virtualbox and I've been asked to explain how to install it.

here it goes:

1 - install dependencies:

apt-get install libqt3-mt libxalan110 libxerces27

2 - add the virtualbox repository to your list:

echo "deb http://www.virtualbox.org/debian etch non-free" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
wget -q http://www.virtualbox.org/debian/innotek.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -
apt-get update

3 - install kernel headers so you can compile the vbox kernel module

apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

4 - install virtual box:

apt-get install virtualbox

5 - compile the kernel module:

/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

6 - Add the users to the vboxusers group (change for the user login)

adduser vboxusers

7 - Create an virtual machine folowing the steps of the tutorial at:

http://opencomputer.net/2008/02/11/virtualization-done-easily-with-virtualbox/