by Oracle VirtualBox is a free and open-source, cross-platform virtualization platform. Formerly, VirtualBox was created by Innotek, which was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 2008, and then turn acquired by Oracle in 2010. VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh, and Solaris hosts and supports a number of guest operating systems, including Linux and Windows, and allows us to run multiple virtual machines simultaneously. On this article we learn how to install VirtualbBox 6.1 on CentOS 8.
Install VirtualBox 6.1 On CentOS 8
When this article is being written, the latest version of Oracle VirtualBox is verision 6.1.12 which was released on July 14ht, 2020. The VirtualBox installation process will be consist of several steps, namely :
Prerequisite
The system requirement for Oracle VirtualBox installation will be as follow:
- Processor : X86 architecture any recent Intel or AMD processor should do
- Memory : Depending on what guest operating systems you want to run, you will need at least 512 MB of RAM.
- Space Disk : VirtualBox doesn’t need much space, but you need to plan out how much the host OS needs and how much you need for the guest OS.
The Linue package requirement, will be as follow :
- Qt 5.3.2 or later. Qt 5.6.2 or later is recommended.
- SDL 1.2.7 or later. This graphics library is typically called libsdl or similar.
Installing VirtualBox 6.1
The installation process will be as following steps :
1. Add the Oracle’s VirtualBox repository. This step will be done by submitting the command line below.
[ramans@otodiginet ~]$ sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo=https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/rpm/el/virtualbox.repo Adding repo from: https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/rpm/el/virtualbox.repo
2. Dowload and Install VirtualBox 6.1. After adding VirtualBox repository to the system, the next step is to install it by submitting the command line below.
[ramans@otodiginet ~]$ sudo yum install VirtualBox-6.1
The output will be :
Installed: SDL-1.2.15-37.el8.x86_64 VirtualBox-6.1-6.1.12_139181_el8-1.x86_64 pcre2-utf16-10.32-1.el8.x86_64 qt5-qtbase-5.12.5-4.el8.x86_64 qt5-qtbase-common-5.12.5-4.el8.noarch qt5-qtbase-gui-5.12.5-4.el8.x86_64 qt5-qtx11extras-5.12.5-1.el8.x86_64 xcb-util-image-0.4.0-9.el8.x86_64 xcb-util-keysyms-0.4.0-7.el8.x86_64 xcb-util-renderutil-0.3.9-10.el8.x86_64 xcb-util-wm-0.4.1-12.el8.x86_64
Until now, the VirtualBox 6.1 has been installed on our CentOS 8 system. The next step is to install the VirtualBox Extension Pack.
Installing VirtualBox Extension Pack
The VirtualBox Extension Pack is a binary package intended to extend the functionality of Oracle VirtualBox. The Extension pack will have several functionality as described below :
- Support for USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 devices
- Host webcam pass-through
- VirtualBox Remote Desktop Protocol (VRDP)
- Disk image encryption with AES algorithm
- Intel PXE Boot ROM.
The VirtualBox Extension Pack installation will be performed by several steps, descrbed as below :
1. Donwload the package. The extension package will be located on official VirtualBox homepage and we use the wget command for this purpose.
[ramans@otodiginet ~]$ wget https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/6.1.12/Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-6.1.12.vbox-extpack
The successful output message of this command is as follow:
--2020-08-01 17:40:41-- https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/6.1.12/Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-6.1.12.vbox-extpack Resolving download.virtualbox.org (download.virtualbox.org)… 104.68.36.12 Connecting to download.virtualbox.org (download.virtualbox.org)|104.68.36.12|:443… connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 200 OK Length: 11141691 (11M) [text/plain] Saving to: ‘Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-6.1.12.vbox-extpack’ Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Exte 100%[==================================>] 10.62M 568KB/s in 19s 2020-08-01 17:41:03 (565 KB/s) - ‘Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-6.1.12.vbox-extpack’ saved [11141691/11141691]
2. Install the VirtualBox Extension Pack. The installation will be using the command below :
[ramans@otodiginet ~]$ sudo VBoxManage extpack install Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-6.1.12.vbox-extpack
After submitting the command line, then we will be promted by the License Agreement. then we will be asked to agree the License acceptance. Sure, we will answer with ‘Yes|Y’.
Do you agree to these license terms and conditions (y/n)? y License accepted. For batch installation add --accept-license=56be48f923303c8cababb0bb4c478284b688ed23f16d775d729b89a2e8e5f9eb to the VBoxManage command line. 0%…10%…20%…30%…40%…50%…60%…70%…80%…90%…100% Successfully installed "Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack".
So far, the VirtualBox 6.1 and its Extension pack installation has already completed successfully. For more information about Oracle VirtualBox, it is better to reach the VirtualBox official website at https://www.virtualbox.org.
VirtualBox 6.1 First Use
We are trying to use the Oracle VirtualBox 6.1 applicaton, by searching it on CentOS application manager.
Conculsion
We have shown you how to install VirtualBox 6.1 on Centos 8. If you have another opinion, just let me know. Write it on the comments below.
