If you cannot use the shell script installer described in , you can perform a manual installation. Run the installer as follows:

./VirtualBox.run --keep --noexec

This will unpack all the files needed for installation in the directory install under the current directory. The application files are contained in VirtualBox.tar.bz2 which you can unpack to any directory on your system. For example:

sudo mkdir /opt/VirtualBox
sudo tar jxf ./install/VirtualBox.tar.bz2 -C /opt/VirtualBox

To run the same example as root, use the following commands:

mkdir /opt/VirtualBox
tar jxf ./install/VirtualBox.tar.bz2 -C /opt/VirtualBox

The sources for 's kernel module are provided in the src directory. To build the module, change to the directory and use the following command:

make

If everything builds correctly, run the following command to install the module to the appropriate module directory:

sudo make install

In case you do not have sudo, switch the user account to root and run the following command:

make install

The kernel module needs a device node to operate. The above make command will tell you how to create the device node, depending on your Linux system. The procedure is slightly different for a classical Linux setup with a /dev directory, a system with the now deprecated devfs and a modern Linux system with udev.

On certain Linux distributions, you might experience difficulties building the module. You will have to analyze the error messages from the build system to diagnose the cause of the problems. In general, make sure that the correct Linux kernel sources are used for the build process.

Note that the /dev/vboxdrv kernel module device node must be owned by root:root and must be read/writable only for the user.

Next, you install the system initialization script for the kernel module and activate the initialization script using the right method for your distribution, as follows:

cp /opt/VirtualBox/vboxdrv.sh /sbin/rcvboxdrv

This example assumes you installed to the /opt/VirtualBox directory.

Create a configuration file for , as follows:

mkdir /etc/vbox
echo INSTALL_DIR=/opt/VirtualBox > /etc/vbox/vbox.cfg

Create the following symbolic links:

ln -sf /opt/VirtualBox/VBox.sh /usr/bin/VirtualBox
ln -sf /opt/VirtualBox/VBox.sh /usr/bin/VBoxManage
ln -sf /opt/VirtualBox/VBox.sh /usr/bin/VBoxHeadless