How to Install VirtualBox 6.0 on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS / CentOS 7

As we all of know that VirtualBox is the most commonly used virtualization tool used at desktop level, In other words we can say it is a cross platform virtualization software which is used to create and manage virtual machines (VMs) on Windows, Mac OS and Linux like distributions (Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, RHEL and SUSE).

Recently Oracle has released latest version of VirtualBox 6.0, this release has some new improved features, someone of them are listed below,

• Introduction of new file manager, which allows to copy files between guest(VM) and host
• Export Virtual machine to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
• Improved user interface
• 3D graphics support for Windows VMs
• Introduction of vboximg-mount utility for Apple host, which allows to access the content VM disk on the host

In this article we will learn how to install latest version of VirtualBox 6.0 on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS / 18.10 desktop and CentOS 7

Installation Steps of VirtualBox 6.0 on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS / 18.10

1) Open the terminal and run the following commands to add VirtualBox 6 repo keys

pkumar@linuxtechi:~$ wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox_2016.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -
OK
pkumar@linuxtechi:~$
pkumar@linuxtechi:~$ wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -
OK
pkumar@linuxtechi:~$

2) Execute the beneath command to enable VirtualBox 6.0 repository

pkumar@linuxtechi:~$ sudo add-apt-repository "deb [arch=amd64] http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian $(lsb_release -cs) contrib"

3) Install VirtualBox 6.0 using apt-get command

Run the following apt-get command to install VirtualBox 6.0,

pkumar@linuxtechi:~$ sudo apt-get update
pkumar@linuxtechi:~$ sudo apt-get install virtualbox-6.0 -y

Installation Steps of VirtualBox 6.0 on CentOS 7

Open the terminal and create VirtualBox repo file under the folder “/etc/yum.repos.d”

[root@linuxtechi ~]# vi /etc/yum.repos.d/virtualbox.repo
[virtualbox]
name=Oracle Linux / RHEL / CentOS-$releasever / $basearch - VirtualBox
baseurl=http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/rpm/el/$releasever/$basearch
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
repo_gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox.asc

Save and exit the file

Update yum repositories index using “yum repolist” command and press “y” to accept VirtualBox repo keys

[root@linuxtechi ~]# yum repolist

Output of above command would be something like below

Now Install VirtualBox 6.0 rpm package using below yum command,

[root@linuxtechi ~]# yum install VirtualBox-6.0 -y

Above command will create vboxusers group and VirualBox user. It will add the VirtualBox user to the group and build kernel modules that are required for virtualbox 6.0

Troubleshooting:

In case you get errors related to “KERN_DIR” while installing VirtualBox 6.0, then try to set the below variable,

[root@linuxtechi ~]# KERN_DIR=/usr/src/kernels/`uname -r`-`uname -m`
[root@linuxtechi ~]# export KERN_DIR

In case you are facing kernel rebuild module errors while installing VirtualBox 6.0, then try below steps

[root@linuxtechi ~]# yum update -y
[root@linuxtechi ~]# /usr/lib/virtualbox/vboxdrv.sh setup

Installation of VirtualBox 6.0 Extension Pack on Ubuntu 18.04 / 18.10 / CentOS 7

Note: Below steps are applicable for CentOS 7 system too

Download the virtualbox 6.0 extension pack file using wget command

pkumar@linuxtechi:~$ wget https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/6.0.0/Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-6.0.0.vbox-extpack

Once the extension pack file is downloaded, run the below VBoxManage command to install the extension pack,

pkumar@linuxtechi:~$ sudo VBoxManage extpack install Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-6.0.0.vbox-extpack

Above command will prompt us to accept Oracle License, so type ‘y’ and hit enter and once the command is executed successfully, we will get the output something like below,

Access VirtualBox 6.0 on Ubuntu 18.04 / 18.10

From search box, type virtualbox and then click on virtualbox icon,

Access VirtualBox 6.0 on CentOS 7

Go to Applications –>  System Tools –> Click on VirtualBox Icon

This confirms that we have successfully installed VirtualBox 6.0, that’s all from this article.Please do share your feedback and comments

Read More on : How to Manage Oracle VirtualBox Virtual Machines from Command Line