VirtualBox

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1<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
2<!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN"
3"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd">
4<chapter id="installation">
5 <title>Installation details</title>
6
7 <para>As installation of VirtualBox varies depending on your host operating
8 system, we provide installation instructions in four separate chapters for
9 Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Solaris, respectively.</para>
10
11 <sect1 id="installation_windows">
12 <title>Installing on Windows hosts</title>
13
14 <sect2>
15 <title>Prerequisites</title>
16
17 <para>For the various versions of Windows that we support as host
18 operating systems, please refer to <xref
19 linkend="hostossupport" />.</para>
20
21 <para>In addition, Windows Installer 1.1 or higher must be present on
22 your system. This should be the case if you have all recent Windows
23 updates installed.</para>
24 </sect2>
25
26 <sect2>
27 <title>Performing the installation</title>
28
29 <para>The VirtualBox installation can be started <itemizedlist>
30 <listitem>
31 <para>either by double-clicking on its executable file (contains
32 both 32- and 64-bit architectures)</para>
33 </listitem>
34
35 <listitem>
36 <para>or by entering <screen>VirtualBox.exe -extract</screen></para>
37
38 <para>on the command line. This will extract both installers into
39 a temporary directory in which you'll then find the usual .MSI
40 files. Then you can do a <screen>msiexec /i VirtualBox-&lt;version&gt;-MultiArch_&lt;x86|amd64&gt;.msi</screen>
41 to perform the installation.</para>
42 </listitem>
43 </itemizedlist></para>
44
45 <para>In either case, this will display the installation welcome dialog
46 and allow you to choose where to install VirtualBox to and which
47 components to install. In addition to the VirtualBox application, the
48 following components are available:<glosslist>
49 <glossentry>
50 <glossterm>USB support</glossterm>
51
52 <glossdef>
53 <para>This package contains special drivers for your Windows
54 host that VirtualBox requires to fully support USB devices
55 inside your virtual machines.</para>
56 </glossdef>
57 </glossentry>
58
59 <glossentry>
60 <glossterm>Networking</glossterm>
61
62 <glossdef>
63 <para>This package contains extra networking drivers for your
64 Windows host that VirtualBox needs to support Bridged Networking
65 (to make your VM's virtual network cards accessible from other
66 machines on your physical network).</para>
67 </glossdef>
68 </glossentry>
69
70 <glossentry>
71 <glossterm>Python Support</glossterm>
72
73 <glossdef>
74 <para>This package contains Python scripting support for the
75 VirtualBox API (see <xref linkend="VirtualBoxAPI" />). For this
76 to work, an already working Windows Python installation on the
77 system is required.<footnote>
78 <para>See, for example, <ulink
79 url="http://www.python.org/download/windows/">http://www.python.org/download/windows/</ulink>.</para>
80 </footnote></para>
81 </glossdef>
82 </glossentry>
83 </glosslist></para>
84
85 <para>Depending on your Windows configuration, you may see warnings
86 about "unsigned drivers" or similar. Please select "Continue" on these
87 warnings as otherwise VirtualBox might not function correctly after
88 installation.</para>
89
90 <para>The installer will create a "VirtualBox" group in the Windows
91 "Start" menu which allows you to launch the application and access its
92 documentation.</para>
93
94 <para>With standard settings, VirtualBox will be installed for all users
95 on the local system. In case this is not wanted, you have to invoke the
96 installer by first extracting it by using <screen>VirtualBox.exe -extract</screen>
97 and then do as follows: <screen>VirtualBox.exe -msiparams ALLUSERS=2</screen>
98 or <screen>msiexec /i VirtualBox-&lt;version&gt;-MultiArch_&lt;x86|amd64&gt;.msi ALLUSERS=2</screen>
99 on the extracted .MSI files. This will install VirtualBox only for the
100 current user.</para>
101
102 <para>If you do not want to install all features of VirtualBox, you can
103 set the optional <computeroutput>ADDLOCAL</computeroutput> parameter to
104 explicitly name the features to be installed. The following features are
105 available: <glosslist>
106 <glossentry>
107 <glossterm>VBoxApplication</glossterm>
108
109 <glossdef>
110 <para>Main binaries of VirtualBox.<note>
111 <para>This feature must not be absent since it contains the
112 minimum set of files to have working VirtualBox
113 installation.</para>
114 </note></para>
115 </glossdef>
116 </glossentry>
117
118 <glossentry>
119 <glossterm>VBoxUSB</glossterm>
120
121 <glossdef>
122 <para>USB support.</para>
123 </glossdef>
124 </glossentry>
125
126 <glossentry>
127 <glossterm>VBoxNetwork</glossterm>
128
129 <glossdef>
130 <para>All networking support; includes the VBoxNetworkFlt and
131 VBoxNetworkAdp features (see below).</para>
132 </glossdef>
133 </glossentry>
134
135 <glossentry>
136 <glossterm>VBoxNetworkFlt</glossterm>
137
138 <glossdef>
139 <para>Bridged networking support.</para>
140 </glossdef>
141 </glossentry>
142
143 <glossentry>
144 <glossterm>VBoxNetworkAdp</glossterm>
145
146 <glossdef>
147 <para>Host-only networking support.</para>
148 </glossdef>
149 </glossentry>
150
151 <glossentry>
152 <glossterm>VBoxPython</glossterm>
153
154 <glossdef>
155 <para>Python support.</para>
156 </glossdef>
157 </glossentry>
158 </glosslist>For example, to only install USB support along with the
159 main binaries, do a: <screen>VirtualBox.exe -msiparams ADDLOCAL=VBoxApplication,VBoxUSB</screen>
160 or <screen>msiexec /i VirtualBox-&lt;version&gt;-MultiArch_&lt;x86|amd64&gt;.msi ADDLOCAL=VBoxApplication,VBoxUSB</screen></para>
161 </sect2>
162
163 <sect2>
164 <title>Uninstallation</title>
165
166 <para>As VirtualBox uses the standard Microsoft Windows installer,
167 VirtualBox can be safely uninstalled at any time by choosing the program
168 entry in the "Add/Remove Programs" applet in the Windows Control
169 Panel.</para>
170 </sect2>
171
172 <sect2>
173 <title>Unattended installation</title>
174
175 <para>Unattended installations can be performed using the standard MSI
176 support.</para>
177 </sect2>
178 </sect1>
179
180 <sect1>
181 <title>Installing on Mac OS X hosts</title>
182
183 <sect2>
184 <title>Performing the installation</title>
185
186 <para>For Mac OS X hosts, VirtualBox ships in a disk image
187 (<computeroutput>dmg</computeroutput>) file. Perform the following
188 steps: <orderedlist>
189 <listitem>
190 <para>Double-click on that file to have its contents
191 mounted.</para>
192 </listitem>
193
194 <listitem>
195 <para>A window will open telling you to double click on the
196 <computeroutput>VirtualBox.mpkg</computeroutput> installer file
197 displayed in that window.</para>
198 </listitem>
199
200 <listitem>
201 <para>This will start the installer, which will allow you to
202 select where to install VirtualBox to.</para>
203 </listitem>
204 </orderedlist></para>
205
206 <para>After installation, you can find a VirtualBox icon in the
207 "Applications" folder in the Finder.</para>
208 </sect2>
209
210 <sect2>
211 <title>Uninstallation</title>
212
213 <para>To uninstall VirtualBox, open the disk image (dmg) file again and
214 double-click on the uninstall icon contained therein.</para>
215 </sect2>
216
217 <sect2>
218 <title>Unattended installation</title>
219
220 <para>To perform a non-interactive installation of VirtualBox you can
221 use the command line version of the installer application.</para>
222
223 <para>Mount the disk image (dmg) file as described in the normal
224 installation. Then open a terminal session and execute:</para>
225
226 <screen>sudo installer -pkg /Volumes/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.mpkg \
227 -target /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD</screen>
228 </sect2>
229 </sect1>
230
231 <sect1 id="install-linux-host">
232 <title>Installing on Linux hosts</title>
233
234 <sect2>
235 <title>Prerequisites</title>
236
237 <para>For the various versions of Linux that we support as host
238 operating systems, please refer to <xref
239 linkend="hostossupport" />.</para>
240
241 <para>You will need to install the following packages on your Linux
242 system before starting the installation (some systems will do this for
243 you automatically when you install VirtualBox):</para>
244
245 <itemizedlist>
246 <listitem>
247 <para>Qt 4.4.0 or higher;</para>
248 </listitem>
249
250 <listitem>
251 <para>SDL 1.2.7 or higher (this graphics library is typically called
252 <computeroutput>libsdl</computeroutput> or similar).</para>
253 </listitem>
254 </itemizedlist>
255
256 <note>
257 <para>To be precise, these packages are only required if you want to
258 run the VirtualBox graphical user interfaces. In particular,
259 <computeroutput>VirtualBox</computeroutput>, the graphical VirtualBox
260 manager, requires both Qt and SDL;
261 <computeroutput>VBoxSDL</computeroutput>, our simplified GUI, requires
262 only SDL. By contrast, if you only want to run
263 <computeroutput>VBoxHeadless</computeroutput>, neither Qt nor SDL are
264 required.</para>
265 </note>
266 </sect2>
267
268 <sect2 id="externalkernelmodules">
269 <title>The VirtualBox kernel module</title>
270
271 <para>VirtualBox uses a special kernel module called
272 <computeroutput>vboxdrv</computeroutput> to perform physical memory
273 allocation and to gain control of the processor for guest system
274 execution. Without this kernel module, you can still use the VirtualBox
275 manager to configure virtual machines, but they will not start. In
276 addition, there are the network kernel modules
277 <computeroutput>vboxnetflt</computeroutput> and
278 <computeroutput>vboxnetadp</computeroutput> which are required for the
279 more advanced networking features of VirtualBox.</para>
280
281 <para>The VirtualBox kernel module is automatically installed on your
282 system when you install VirtualBox. To maintain it with future kernel
283 updates, for those Linux distributions which provide it -- most current
284 ones -- we recommend installing Dynamic Kernel Module Support
285 (DKMS)<footnote>
286 <para>See <ulink
287 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Kernel_Module_Support">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Kernel_Module_Support</ulink>
288 for an introduction.</para>
289 </footnote>. This framework helps with building and upgrading kernel
290 modules.</para>
291
292 <para>If DKMS is not already installed, execute one of the following:
293 <itemizedlist>
294 <listitem>
295 <para>On an Ubuntu system:</para>
296
297 <screen>sudo apt-get install dkms</screen>
298 </listitem>
299
300 <listitem>
301 <para>On a Fedora system:<screen>yum install dkms</screen></para>
302 </listitem>
303
304 <listitem>
305 <para>On a Mandriva or Mageia system:<screen>urpmi dkms</screen></para>
306 </listitem>
307 </itemizedlist></para>
308
309 <para>If DKMS is available and installed, the VirtualBox kernel module
310 should always work automatically, and it will be automatically rebuilt
311 if your host kernel is updated.</para>
312
313 <para>Otherwise, there are only two situations in which you will need to
314 worry about the kernel module:<orderedlist>
315 <listitem>
316 <para>The original installation fails. This probably means that
317 your Linux system is not prepared for building external kernel
318 modules.</para>
319
320 <para>Most Linux distributions can be set up simply by installing
321 the right packages - normally, these will be the GNU compiler
322 (GCC), GNU Make (make) and packages containing header files for
323 your kernel - and making sure that all system updates are
324 installed and that the system is running the most up-to-date
325 kernel included in the distribution. <emphasis>The version numbers
326 of the header file packages must be the same as that of the kernel
327 you are using.</emphasis></para>
328
329 <itemizedlist>
330 <listitem>
331 <para>With Debian and Ubuntu releases, you must install the
332 right version of the
333 <computeroutput>linux-headers</computeroutput> and if it
334 exists the <computeroutput>linux-kbuild</computeroutput>
335 package. Current Ubuntu releases should have the right
336 packages installed by default.</para>
337 </listitem>
338
339 <listitem>
340 <para>In even older Debian and Ubuntu releases, you must
341 install the right version of the
342 <computeroutput>kernel-headers</computeroutput>
343 package.</para>
344 </listitem>
345
346 <listitem>
347 <para>On Fedora and Redhat systems, the package is
348 <computeroutput>kernel-devel</computeroutput>.</para>
349 </listitem>
350
351 <listitem>
352 <para>On SUSE and openSUSE Linux, you must install the right
353 versions of the <computeroutput>kernel-source</computeroutput>
354 and <computeroutput>kernel-syms</computeroutput>
355 packages.</para>
356 </listitem>
357
358 <listitem>
359 <para>If you have built your own kernel, you will need to make
360 sure that you also installed all the required header and other
361 files for building external modules to the right locations.
362 The details of how to do this will depend on how you built
363 your kernel, and if you are unsure you should consult the
364 documentation which you followed to do so.</para>
365 </listitem>
366 </itemizedlist>
367 </listitem>
368
369 <listitem>
370 <para>The kernel of your Linux host was updated and DKMS is not
371 installed. In that case, the kernel module will need to be
372 reinstalled by executing (as root):</para>
373
374 <screen>/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup</screen>
375 </listitem>
376 </orderedlist></para>
377 </sect2>
378
379 <sect2>
380 <title>Performing the installation</title>
381
382 <para>VirtualBox is available in a number of package formats native to
383 various common Linux distributions (see <xref linkend="hostossupport" />
384 for details). In addition, there is an alternative generic installer
385 (.run) which should work on most Linux distributions.</para>
386
387 <sect3>
388 <title>Installing VirtualBox from a Debian/Ubuntu package</title>
389
390 <para>First, download the appropriate package for your distribution.
391 The following examples assume that you are installing to a 32-bit
392 Ubuntu Karmic system. Use <computeroutput>dpkg</computeroutput> to
393 install the Debian package:</para>
394
395 <screen>sudo dpkg -i VirtualBox-3.2_$VBOX_VERSION_STRING_Ubuntu_karmic_i386.deb</screen>
396
397 <para>You will be asked to accept the VirtualBox Personal Use and
398 Evaluation License. Unless you answer "yes" here, the installation
399 will be aborted.</para>
400
401 <para>The installer will also search for a VirtualBox kernel module
402 suitable for your kernel. The package includes pre-compiled modules
403 for the most common kernel configurations. If no suitable kernel
404 module is found, the installation script tries to build a module
405 itself. If the build process is not successful you will be shown a
406 warning and the package will be left unconfigured. Please have a look
407 at <computeroutput>/var/log/vbox-install.log</computeroutput> to find
408 out why the compilation failed. You may have to install the
409 appropriate Linux kernel headers (see <xref
410 linkend="externalkernelmodules" />). After correcting any problems, do
411 <screen>sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup</screen>This will start a
412 second attempt to build the module.</para>
413
414 <para>If a suitable kernel module was found in the package or the
415 module was successfully built, the installation script will attempt to
416 load that module. If this fails, please see <xref
417 linkend="ts_linux-kernelmodule-fails-to-load" /> for further
418 information.</para>
419
420 <para>Once VirtualBox has been successfully installed and configured,
421 you can start it by selecting "VirtualBox" in your start menu or from
422 the command line (see <xref linkend="startingvboxonlinux" />).</para>
423 </sect3>
424
425 <sect3>
426 <title>Using the alternative installer (VirtualBox.run)</title>
427
428 <para>The alternative installer performs the following steps:</para>
429
430 <itemizedlist>
431 <listitem>
432 <para>It unpacks the application files to the target directory,
433 <screen>/opt/VirtualBox/</screen> which cannot be changed.</para>
434 </listitem>
435
436 <listitem>
437 <para>It builds the VirtualBox kernel modules
438 (<computeroutput>vboxdrv</computeroutput>,
439 <computeroutput>vboxnetflt</computeroutput> and
440 <computeroutput>vboxnetadp</computeroutput>) and installs
441 them.</para>
442 </listitem>
443
444 <listitem>
445 <para>It creates
446 <computeroutput>/etc/init.d/vboxdrv</computeroutput>, an init
447 script to start the VirtualBox kernel module.</para>
448 </listitem>
449
450 <listitem>
451 <para>It creates a new system group called
452 <computeroutput>vboxusers</computeroutput>.</para>
453 </listitem>
454
455 <listitem>
456 <para>It creates symbolic links in
457 <computeroutput>/usr/bin</computeroutput> to the a shell script
458 (<computeroutput>/opt/VirtualBox/VBox</computeroutput>) which does
459 some sanity checks and dispatches to the actual executables,
460 <computeroutput>VirtualBox</computeroutput>,
461 <computeroutput>VBoxSDL</computeroutput>,
462 <computeroutput>VBoxVRDP</computeroutput>,
463 <computeroutput>VBoxHeadless</computeroutput> and
464 <computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput></para>
465 </listitem>
466
467 <listitem>
468 <para>It creates
469 <computeroutput>/etc/udev/rules.d/10-vboxdrv.rules</computeroutput>,
470 a description file for udev, if that is present, which makes the
471 USB devices accessible to all users in the
472 <computeroutput>vboxusers</computeroutput> group.</para>
473 </listitem>
474
475 <listitem>
476 <para>It writes the installation directory to
477 <computeroutput>/etc/vbox/vbox.cfg</computeroutput>.</para>
478 </listitem>
479 </itemizedlist>
480
481 <para>The installer must be executed as root with either
482 <computeroutput>install</computeroutput> or
483 <computeroutput>uninstall</computeroutput> as the first
484 parameter.</para>
485
486 <screen>sudo ./VirtualBox.run install</screen>
487
488 <para>Or if you do not have the "sudo" command available, run the
489 following as root instead:<screen>./VirtualBox.run install</screen></para>
490
491 <para>After that you need to put every user which should be able to
492 access USB devices from VirtualBox guests in the group
493 <computeroutput>vboxusers</computeroutput>, either through the GUI
494 user management tools or by running the following command as
495 root:</para>
496
497 <screen>sudo usermod -a -G vboxusers username</screen>
498
499 <para><note>
500 <para>The <computeroutput>usermod</computeroutput> command of some
501 older Linux distributions does not support the
502 <computeroutput>-a</computeroutput> option (which adds the user to
503 the given group without affecting membership of other groups). In
504 this case, find out the current group memberships with the
505 <computeroutput>groups</computeroutput> command and add all these
506 groups in a comma-separated list to the command line after the
507 <computeroutput>-G</computeroutput> option, e.g. like this:
508 <computeroutput>usermod -G group1,group2,vboxusers
509 username</computeroutput>.</para>
510 </note></para>
511 </sect3>
512
513 <sect3>
514 <title>Performing a manual installation</title>
515
516 <para>If, for any reason, you cannot use the shell script installer
517 described previously, you can also perform a manual installation.
518 Invoke the installer like this:</para>
519
520 <screen>./VirtualBox.run --keep --noexec</screen>
521
522 <para>This will unpack all the files needed for installation in the
523 directory <computeroutput>install</computeroutput> under the current
524 directory. The VirtualBox application files are contained in
525 <computeroutput>VirtualBox.tar.bz2</computeroutput> which you can
526 unpack to any directory on your system. For example:</para>
527
528 <screen>sudo mkdir /opt/VirtualBox
529sudo tar jxf ./install/VirtualBox.tar.bz2 -C /opt/VirtualBox</screen>
530
531 <para>or as root:<screen>mkdir /opt/VirtualBox
532tar jxf ./install/VirtualBox.tar.bz2 -C /opt/VirtualBox</screen></para>
533
534 <para>The sources for VirtualBox's kernel module are provided in the
535 <computeroutput>src</computeroutput> directory. To build the module,
536 change to the directory and issue</para>
537
538 <screen>make</screen>
539
540 <para>If everything builds correctly, issue the following command to
541 install the module to the appropriate module directory:</para>
542
543 <screen>sudo make install</screen>
544
545 <para>In case you do not have sudo, switch the user account to root
546 and perform<screen>make install</screen></para>
547
548 <para>The VirtualBox kernel module needs a device node to operate. The
549 above make command will tell you how to create the device node,
550 depending on your Linux system. The procedure is slightly different
551 for a classical Linux setup with a
552 <computeroutput>/dev</computeroutput> directory, a system with the now
553 deprecated <computeroutput>devfs</computeroutput> and a modern Linux
554 system with <computeroutput>udev</computeroutput>.</para>
555
556 <para>On certain Linux distributions, you might experience
557 difficulties building the module. You will have to analyze the error
558 messages from the build system to diagnose the cause of the problems.
559 In general, make sure that the correct Linux kernel sources are used
560 for the build process.</para>
561
562 <para>Note that the <computeroutput>/dev/vboxdrv</computeroutput>
563 kernel module device node must be owned by root:root and must be
564 read/writable only for the user.</para>
565
566 <para>Next, you will have to install the system initialization script
567 for the kernel module:<screen>cp /opt/VirtualBox/vboxdrv.sh /etc/init.d/vboxdrv</screen>(assuming
568 you installed VirtualBox to the
569 <computeroutput>/opt/VirtualBox</computeroutput> directory) and
570 activate the initialization script using the right method for your
571 distribution. You should create VirtualBox's configuration
572 file:<screen>mkdir /etc/vbox
573echo INSTALL_DIR=/opt/VirtualBox &gt; /etc/vbox/vbox.cfg</screen>and, for
574 convenience, create the following symbolic links:</para>
575
576 <screen>ln -sf /opt/VirtualBox/VBox.sh /usr/bin/VirtualBox
577ln -sf /opt/VirtualBox/VBox.sh /usr/bin/VBoxManage
578ln -sf /opt/VirtualBox/VBox.sh /usr/bin/VBoxHeadless
579ln -sf /opt/VirtualBox/VBox.sh /usr/bin/VBoxSDL</screen>
580 </sect3>
581
582 <sect3>
583 <title>Updating and uninstalling VirtualBox</title>
584
585 <para>Before updating or uninstalling VirtualBox, you must terminate
586 any virtual machines which are currently running and exit the
587 VirtualBox or VBoxSVC applications. To update VirtualBox, simply run
588 the installer of the updated version. To uninstall VirtualBox, invoke
589 the installer like this: <screen>sudo ./VirtualBox.run uninstall</screen>
590 or as root<screen>./VirtualBox.run uninstall</screen>. Starting with
591 version 2.2.2, you can uninstall the .run package by invoking <screen>/opt/VirtualBox/uninstall.sh</screen>To
592 manually uninstall VirtualBox, simply undo the steps in the manual
593 installation in reverse order.</para>
594 </sect3>
595
596 <sect3>
597 <title>Automatic installation of Debian packages</title>
598
599 <para>The Debian packages will request some user feedback when
600 installed for the first time. The debconf system is used to perform
601 this task. To prevent any user interaction during installation,
602 default values can be defined. A file
603 <computeroutput>vboxconf</computeroutput> can contain the following
604 debconf settings: <screen>virtualbox virtualbox/module-compilation-allowed boolean true
605virtualbox virtualbox/delete-old-modules boolean true</screen>The first line
606 allows compilation of the vboxdrv kernel module if no module was found
607 for the current kernel. The second line allows the package to delete
608 any old vboxdrv kernel modules compiled by previous
609 installations.</para>
610
611 <para>These default settings can be applied with <screen>debconf-set-selections vboxconf</screen>
612 prior to the installation of the VirtualBox Debian package.</para>
613
614 <para>In addition there are some common configuration options that can
615 be set prior to the installation, described in <xref
616 linkend="linux_install_opts" />.</para>
617 </sect3>
618
619 <sect3>
620 <title>Automatic installation of .rpm packages</title>
621
622 <para>The .rpm format does not provide a configuration system
623 comparable to the debconf system. See <xref
624 linkend="linux_install_opts" /> for how to set some common
625 installation options provided by VirtualBox.</para>
626 </sect3>
627
628 <sect3 id="linux_install_opts">
629 <title>Automatic installation options</title>
630
631 <para>To configure the installation process of our .deb and .rpm
632 packages, you can create a response file named
633 <computeroutput>/etc/default/virtualbox</computeroutput>. The
634 automatic generation of the udev rule can be prevented by the
635 following setting: <screen>INSTALL_NO_UDEV=1</screen> The creation of
636 the group vboxusers can be prevented by <screen>INSTALL_NO_GROUP=1</screen>
637 If the line <screen>INSTALL_NO_VBOXDRV=1</screen> is specified, the
638 package installer will not try to build the
639 <computeroutput>vboxdrv</computeroutput> kernel module if no module
640 fitting the current kernel was found.</para>
641 </sect3>
642 </sect2>
643
644 <sect2>
645 <title>The vboxusers group</title>
646
647 <para>The Linux installers create the system user group
648 <computeroutput>vboxusers</computeroutput> during installation. Any
649 system user who is going to use USB devices from VirtualBox guests must
650 be a member of that group. A user can be made a member of the group
651 <computeroutput>vboxusers</computeroutput> through the GUI user/group
652 management or at the command line with</para>
653
654 <screen>sudo usermod -a -G vboxusers username</screen>
655 </sect2>
656
657 <sect2 id="startingvboxonlinux">
658 <title>Starting VirtualBox on Linux</title>
659
660 <para>The easiest way to start a VirtualBox program is by running the
661 program of your choice (<computeroutput>VirtualBox</computeroutput>,
662 <computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput>,
663 <computeroutput>VBoxSDL</computeroutput> or
664 <computeroutput>VBoxHeadless</computeroutput>) from a terminal. These
665 are symbolic links to <computeroutput>VBox.sh</computeroutput> that
666 start the required program for you.</para>
667
668 <para>The following detailed instructions should only be of interest if
669 you wish to execute VirtualBox without installing it first. You should
670 start by compiling the <computeroutput>vboxdrv</computeroutput> kernel
671 module (see above) and inserting it into the Linux kernel. VirtualBox
672 consists of a service daemon (<computeroutput>VBoxSVC</computeroutput>)
673 and several application programs. The daemon is automatically started if
674 necessary. All VirtualBox applications will communicate with the daemon
675 through Unix local domain sockets. There can be multiple daemon
676 instances under different user accounts and applications can only
677 communicate with the daemon running under the user account as the
678 application. The local domain socket resides in a subdirectory of your
679 system's directory for temporary files called
680 <computeroutput>.vbox-&lt;username&gt;-ipc</computeroutput>. In case of
681 communication problems or server startup problems, you may try to remove
682 this directory.</para>
683
684 <para>All VirtualBox applications
685 (<computeroutput>VirtualBox</computeroutput>,
686 <computeroutput>VBoxSDL</computeroutput>,
687 <computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> and
688 <computeroutput>VBoxHeadless</computeroutput>) require the VirtualBox
689 directory to be in the library path:</para>
690
691 <screen>LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ./VBoxManage showvminfo "Windows XP"</screen>
692 </sect2>
693 </sect1>
694
695 <sect1 id="install-solaris-host">
696 <title>Installing on Solaris hosts</title>
697
698 <para>For the specific versions of Solaris that we support as host
699 operating systems, please refer to <xref
700 linkend="hostossupport" />.</para>
701
702 <para>If you have a previously installed instance of VirtualBox on your
703 Solaris host, please uninstall it first before installing a new instance.
704 Refer to <xref linkend="uninstall-solaris-host" /> for uninstall
705 instructions.</para>
706
707 <sect2>
708 <title>Performing the installation</title>
709
710 <para>VirtualBox is available as a standard Solaris package. Download
711 the VirtualBox SunOS package which includes both the 32-bit and 64-bit
712 versions of VirtualBox. <emphasis>The installation must be performed as
713 root and from the global zone</emphasis> as the VirtualBox installer
714 loads kernel drivers which cannot be done from non-global zones. To
715 verify which zone you are currently in, execute the
716 <computeroutput>zonename</computeroutput> command. Execute the following
717 commands:</para>
718
719 <screen>gunzip -cd VirtualBox-$VBOX_VERSION_STRING-SunOS.tar.gz | tar xvf -</screen>
720
721 <para>Starting with VirtualBox 3.1 the VirtualBox kernel package is no
722 longer a separate package and has been integrated into the main package.
723 Install the VirtualBox package using:</para>
724
725 <screen>pkgadd -d VirtualBox-$VBOX_VERSION_STRING-SunOS.pkg</screen>
726
727 <note>
728 <para>If you are using Solaris Zones, to install VirtualBox only into
729 the current zone and not into any other zone, use
730 <computeroutput>pkgadd -G</computeroutput>. For more information refer
731 to the <computeroutput>pkgadd</computeroutput> manual; see also <xref
732 linkend="solaris-zones" />.</para>
733 </note>
734
735 <para>The installer will then prompt you to enter the package you wish
736 to install. Choose "1" or "all" and proceed. Next the installer will ask
737 you if you want to allow the postinstall script to be executed. Choose
738 "y" and proceed as it is essential to execute this script which installs
739 the VirtualBox kernel module. Following this confirmation the installer
740 will install VirtualBox and execute the postinstall setup script.</para>
741
742 <para>Once the postinstall script has been executed your installation is
743 now complete. You may now safely delete the uncompressed package and
744 <computeroutput>autoresponse</computeroutput> files from your system.
745 VirtualBox would be installed in
746 <computeroutput>/opt/VirtualBox</computeroutput>.</para>
747 </sect2>
748
749 <sect2>
750 <title>The vboxuser group</title>
751
752 <para>Starting with VirtualBox 4.1, the installer creates the system
753 user group <computeroutput>vboxuser</computeroutput> during installation
754 for Solaris hosts that support the USB features required by VirtualBox.
755 Any system user who is going to use USB devices from VirtualBox guests
756 must be a member of this group. A user can be made a member of this
757 group through the GUI user/group management or at the command line by
758 executing as root:</para>
759
760 <screen>usermod -G vboxuser username</screen>
761
762 <para>Note that adding an active user to that group will require that
763 user to log out and back in again. This should be done manually after
764 successful installation of the package.</para>
765 </sect2>
766
767 <sect2>
768 <title>Starting VirtualBox on Solaris</title>
769
770 <para>The easiest way to start a VirtualBox program is by running the
771 program of your choice (<computeroutput>VirtualBox</computeroutput>,
772 <computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput>,
773 <computeroutput>VBoxSDL</computeroutput> or
774 <computeroutput>VBoxHeadless</computeroutput>) from a terminal. These
775 are symbolic links to <computeroutput>VBox.sh</computeroutput> that
776 start the required program for you.</para>
777
778 <para>Alternatively, you can directly invoke the required programs from
779 <computeroutput>/opt/VirtualBox</computeroutput>. Using the links
780 provided is easier as you do not have to type the full path.</para>
781
782 <para>You can configure some elements of the
783 <computeroutput>VirtualBox</computeroutput> Qt GUI such as fonts and
784 colours by executing <computeroutput>VBoxQtconfig</computeroutput> from
785 the terminal.</para>
786 </sect2>
787
788 <sect2 id="uninstall-solaris-host">
789 <title>Uninstallation</title>
790
791 <para>Uninstallation of VirtualBox on Solaris requires root permissions.
792 To perform the uninstallation, start a root terminal session and
793 execute:</para>
794
795 <screen>pkgrm SUNWvbox</screen>
796
797 <para>After confirmation, this will remove VirtualBox from your
798 system.</para>
799
800 <para>If you are uninstalling VirtualBox version 3.0 or lower, you need
801 to remove the VirtualBox kernel interface package, execute:</para>
802
803 <para><screen>pkgrm SUNWvboxkern</screen></para>
804 </sect2>
805
806 <sect2>
807 <title>Unattended installation</title>
808
809 <para>To perform a non-interactive installation of VirtualBox we have
810 provided a response file named
811 <computeroutput>autoresponse</computeroutput> that the installer will
812 use for responses to inputs rather than ask them from you.</para>
813
814 <para>Extract the tar.gz package as described in the normal
815 installation. Then open a root terminal session and execute:</para>
816
817 <screen>pkgadd -d VirtualBox-$VBOX_VERSION_STRING-SunOS-x86 -n -a autoresponse SUNWvbox</screen>
818
819 <para>To perform a non-interactive uninstallation, open a root terminal
820 session and execute:</para>
821
822 <screen>pkgrm -n -a /opt/VirtualBox/autoresponse SUNWvbox</screen>
823 </sect2>
824
825 <sect2 id="solaris-zones">
826 <title>Configuring a zone for running VirtualBox</title>
827
828 <para>Starting with VirtualBox 1.6 it is possible to run VirtualBox from
829 within Solaris zones. For an introduction of Solaris zones, please refer
830 to <ulink
831 url="http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/features/articles/solaris_zones.jsp">http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/features/articles/solaris_zones.jsp</ulink>.</para>
832
833 <para>Assuming that VirtualBox has already been installed into your
834 zone, you need to give the zone access to VirtualBox's device node. This
835 is done by performing the following steps. Start a root terminal and
836 execute:</para>
837
838 <screen>zonecfg -z vboxzone</screen>
839
840 <para>Inside the <computeroutput>zonecfg</computeroutput> prompt add the
841 <computeroutput>device</computeroutput> resource and
842 <computeroutput>match</computeroutput> properties to the zone. Here's
843 how it can be done:</para>
844
845 <screen>zonecfg:vboxzone&gt;add device
846zonecfg:vboxzone:device&gt;set match=/dev/vboxdrv
847zonecfg:vboxzone:device&gt;end
848zonecfg:vboxzone&gt;verify
849zonecfg:vboxzone&gt;exit</screen>
850
851 <para>If you are running VirtualBox 2.2.0 or above on Solaris 11 or
852 Nevada hosts, you should add a device for
853 <computeroutput>/dev/vboxusbmon</computeroutput> too, similar to what
854 was shown above. This does not apply to Solaris 10 hosts due to lack of
855 USB support.</para>
856
857 <para>Replace "vboxzone" with the name of the zone in which you intend
858 to run VirtualBox. Next reboot the zone using
859 <computeroutput>zoneadm</computeroutput> and you should be able to run
860 VirtualBox from within the configured zone.</para>
861 </sect2>
862 </sect1>
863</chapter>
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