VirtualBox is a cross-platform virtualization software that allows users to run multiple guest operating systems on a single host machine. VirtualBox uses a hypervisor to virtualize the guest operating system, which means that each guest operating system has its own virtual environment in which it runs.
In this article, we’ll provide a step-by-step guide to install VirtualBox on Fedora Linux. At time of writing this article, latest Fedora version is Fedora 36. So, we have used Fedora 36 in this article..
System Requirements for VirtualBox
Before we get started, there are a few things you’ll need to have in order to complete this process:
- Minimal Fedora Workstation
- At least 2GB of RAM
- At least Dual Core Processor
- 25 GB free disk space
- Sudo User with admin rights
- Stable Internet connection
Now that you have all of the necessary prerequisites, let’s get started with the installation process.
Step 1) Install VirtualBox Dependencies
Open the terminal, run following dnf command to install VirtualBox dependencies,
$ sudo dnf -y install @development-tools $ sudo dnf install kernel-headers kernel-devel dkms -y
Step 2) Adding the VirtualBox Repository
Before adding the repository, import public key for virtualbox RPMs, run following wget command,
$ wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox.asc $ sudo rpm --import oracle_vbox.asc
Now add VirtualBox repository so that latest and stable version of virtualbox rpm package is installed.
Create a repository file ‘virtualbox.repo’ under /etc/yum.repos.d/ with following content,
$ sudo vi /etc/yum.repos.d/virtualbox.repo [virtualbox] name=Fedora $releasever - $basearch - VirtualBox baseurl=http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/rpm/fedora/$releasever/$basearch enabled=1 gpgcheck=1 repo_gpgcheck=1 gpgkey=https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox.asc
save and close the file.
Step 3) Installing VirtualBox
Once the repository has been added, you can install VirtualBox by running the following command:
$ sudo dnf -y install VirtualBox-6.1
Step 4) Adding Your Local User to the vboxusers Group
During virtualbox installation, a new group named ‘vboxusers’ is created. Whenever we add any user to this group then that user can operate virtualbox without sudo command. So, to add your local user to vboxusers group, run
$ sudo usermod -aG vboxusers $USER $ newgrp vboxusers $ id uid=1001(linuxbuzz) gid=976(vboxusers) groups=976(vboxusers),10(wheel),1001(linuxbuzz) context=unconfined_u:unconfined_r:unconfined_t:s0-s0:c0.c1023 $
Step 5) Access VirtualBox
From your desktop environment, search virtualbox from search box,
Click on VirtualBox icon, we will get following window,
Perfect, above confirms virtualbox has been started successfully.
Step 6) Install VirtualBox Extension Pack
If wish to add additional features like support for USB 2.0/3.0, disk encryption, VirtualBox RDP and PXE boot for intel cards then you must install virtualbox extension pack.
First download the extension pack file using beneath wget command
$ wget https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/6.1.34/Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-6.1.34.vbox-extpack
Run following command to install extension pack,
$ sudo VBoxManage extpack install Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-6.1.34.vbox-extpack
Press ‘y’ to accept License terms and conditions.
As we see above extension pack has been installed successfully, let’s verify it. Head back to VirtualBox, click on File –> Choose Preferences –> Choose Extension
Great, above window confirms that extension pack is installed and active.
That’s all from this article. Kindly do post your queries and feedback in below comments section.
Also Read: 14 Useful AWK Command Examples in Linux
Perfect ! Thanks a lot for this tutorial.
Works like a charm for me.