VirtualBox

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Glossary of Terms

Host O/S: system running on computer you are actually on;
Guest O/S: system installed within VirtualBox;
Guest Additions: drivers for the Guest O/S.

Binary VirtualBox

VirtualBox is also available as a binary package. If you wish to use the binary version see:

No results

The binary package contains extensions which are not available with the source package.

Installation

root # echo "app-emulation/virtualbox-extpack-oracle PUEL" >> /etc/portage/package.license/virtualbox
root # emerge app-emulation/virtualbox

Installation of app-emulation/virtualbox implies app-emulation/virtualbox-extpack-oracle.

Guest Additions

Make sure that user running X session belongs to vboxguest group. Create group when it does not exist. Add user to the group. That will enable :

Shared clipboard;
Display resizing;
Seamless mode;
Drag & Drop.

root # groupadd vboxguest
root # gpasswd -a ''user'' vboxguest

Windows Guests

You must enable additions USE flag when you intend to install Windows as a guest O/S. That will also install the ISO image containing all necessary Windows guest drivers.

Linux Guests

If you want to run Funtoo GNU/Linux as a guest O/S, emerge app-emulation/virtualbox-guest-additions in the Funtoo GNU/Linux guest O/S. For other GNU/Linux, please refer to VirtualBox documentation.

Post Installation

You will not be able to run and use VirtualBox as a regular user if you are not a member of the vboxusers group.

root # gpasswd -a ''user'' vboxusers

You must re-log so changes take effect.

Loading Modules

Required and optional modules must be loaded before launching VirtualBox. You can do that as root or upon boot.

Note

vboxnetadp and vboxnetflt are optional.

As root

root # modprobe vboxdrv
root # modprobe vboxnetadp
root # modprobe vboxnetflt

Upon boot OpenRC

Edit /etc/conf.d/modules :

modules="vboxdrv vboxnetadp vboxnetflt"

Upon boot systemd

root # echo 'vboxdrv' >> /etc/modules-load.d/virtualbox.conf
root # echo 'vboxnetadp' >> /etc/modules-load.d/virtualbox.conf
root # echo 'vboxnetflt' >> /etc/modules-load.d/virtualbox.conf

Kernel Driver

Each time a new kernel is installed, vboxdrv kernel module must be recompiled. To ensure Portage knows about that, look at /var/lib/module-rebuild/moduledb. The following record must be present.

a:1:app-emulation/virtualbox-modules-''version''

Running emerge @module-rebuild will recompile VirtualBox driver after installation of new kernel.

EFI case

latest releases of virtualbox have a volatile NVRAM and this makes an EFI guest boot troublesome. To workaround this following steps required:

remove any CD images (like systemrescuecd) from the VM settings
start the VM
wait for the countdown or press Esc immediately to reach the EFI shell
type edit startup.nsh to open the full-screen editor
enter "fs0:\EFI\Funtoo Linux [GRUB]\grubx64.efi" (including the double quotes, since the path contains spaces)
press CTRL-s (maybe twice) to save and confirm saving by pressing Enter
quit editor by pressing CTRL-q
type reset to reboot the machine (or kill the VM and boot it using the GUI)
wait for the countdown or press Enter to immediately run the startup.nsh script

EFI guests now should properly boot. reference reports: https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/14279 and https://bugs.funtoo.org/browse/FL-2640

Package:VirtualBox