Installing virtualbox

Support & Help Requests
#1

I installed virtualbox from Software Boutique, and have had repeated problems with it crashing/freezing my system. I have begun to suspect that the problem is my video crashing, so after trying everything I could think of I decided to follow that old adage, "If all else fails, read the instructions!"

I found the following in Oracles' User Manual:

Screenshot at 2017-02-19 10:21:45.png784×413 49.2 KB

After looking through available QT and libsdl packages in synaptic, I'm not quite sure which ones I need to install, or if I need to install any at all. I would think that Software Boutique would include/install all necessary dependencies to run virtualbox in GUI mode. I would also guess that most users are like me and want to run virtualbox in GUI mode.

Anyway, if these packages are required, it could be the reason that virtualbox is freezing/crashing my system. And if additional dependencies to run virtualbox in GUI mode are required, a note to that effect in Software Boutique (or something similar) would be helpful.

Thanks, Jim

#2

Hi @Jim007, Virtualbox can be challenging. A lot has to work and I would guess your suspicion of graphics is very likely but keep in mind all the things it has interface from mouse to network. It’s quite the intrusive package, indeed, and can be quite picky.

Not impossible but I doubt those dependents are a problem.

VirtualBox 5.1.14 is running well (knock on wood) here on 16.04 with MATE 1.16. It’s a Dell XPS desktop and through the years I’ve run nothing but nVidia for graphics.

I also use the Oracle repository. It’s not as easy to add as, say, a PPA. The info is here: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads under “Debian-based Linux distributions”.

Is the crash with the GUI manager known as “Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager” in title?
Is the crash only with an actual VM? Does a VM get started at all?

You can run from a terminal and maybe get some output at the crash:
For the manager:

virtualbox

For a VM:

virtualbox --startvm "Exact VM Name in quotes"

I hope this gets you started, anyway.