How to Install VirtualBox in Linux?

Virtual Machine abstracts the hardware of our personal computers such as CPU, disk drives, memory, NIC (Network Interface Card), etc., into many different execution environments as per our requirements, hence giving us a feeling that each execution environment is a single computer.

For example, VirtualBox. We can create a virtual machine for several reasons, all of which are fundamentally related to the ability to share the same basic hardware yet also support different execution environments, i.e., different operating systems simultaneously.

Methods to Install Virtual Box on our Debian-based Linux system

Here are three ways to download VirtualBox on a Debian-based system like Ubuntu. Each method offers different advantages, such as convenience or the ability to get the latest version of the software.

Method 1: Install VirtualBox from Ubuntu Repository

Open the terminal and run this command.

sudo apt install VirtualBox

sudo apt install VirtualBox

Verify Installation

We use the `dpkg` command which is used to manage installed packages on Debain-based system like Ubuntu.

dpkg -l | grep virtualbox

dpkg -l | grep virtualbox

Method 2: Install VirtualBox using GUI (Graphical User Interface)

Downloading and Installing VirtualBox. To download VirtualBox, go to the official site virtualbox.org and download the latest version for Linux. 

For example: We want to install VirtualBox for Ubuntu.

Step 1: Double Click on this

select Ubuntu 22.04

Step 2: Follow the numbering. 

First Right click and select ‘open with other application’, then follow the numbering.

Steps for installing Virtualbox

Step 3: Click on Install

Click on Install

Step 4: Search Virtualbox and Double click on application.

Virtualbox application

VirtualBox application Opened.

VirtualBox in Ubuntu

Method 3: Installing VirtualBox using Oracle’s repository

Step 1: Run this command in your terminal (adding key for the repository)

 wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox_2016.asc -O- | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/oracle-virtualbox-2016.gpg

Step 2: Run this command in your terminal (adding Oracal VirtualBox repository in the repository list)

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

Step 3: Update the package list.

sudo apt-get update

Step 4: Command for installation of virtualbox

sudo apt-get install virtualbox