Virtualbox v 6 Series

[galaxysurfer]

Any chance of Virtualbox version 6 coming to our repo? I prefer the MX Linux tweaked version when possible. I had issues with video display in version 5 on some guests.

[Stevo]

I think I can build it from Debian Experimental, but will probably have it go into our own experimental repo for now, since 5.2.24 in the test repo will build on the latest 4.20 kernels.

[figueroa]

That's a good question. I'm not in a hurry for version 6, but I was thinking that the MX Package Installer just activated the repositiory in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list, but that's apparently not so, since Oracle already has their stable deb at version 6.02.

[asqwerth]

In manjaro, I think some users have problems with their VB shared folders in virtual machines after upgrading to VB 6.

Care is needed.

[skidoo]

In manjaro, I think some users have problems with their VB shared folders in virtual machines after upgrading to VB 6

Thanks for mentioning this. Shared folders were not accessible for me when I tested VBox6.0 w/ antiX17 live, and same result w/ Vbox 6.02 when I tried earlier tonight. Shared folders do work as expected w/ antiX17 live + VBox 5.22 (5.26?). I had chalked it up to my ignorance ~~ not knowing whether it's necessary to remove the pre-installed earlier version guest additions from the MX18 guestOS, I hadn't bothered to do so.

I prefer the MX Linux tweaked version

What details are tweaked, other than inclusion of a .desktop launcher?

I was thinking that the MX Package Installer just activated the repositiory in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list

I too had that impression, after noticing the outcommented virtualbox.org repo line in the antiX various.list

[asqwerth]

adding user to vboxusers group automatically, i think.

but that's only relevant on first install.

after that, you're already in the group, right?

[skidoo]

Okay, I do see that a "vboxusers" group exists. Specific to the shared folders, I thought it was handled by this, in the default /etc/adduser.conf:
EXTRA_GROUPS="dialout dip fuse cdrom audio video plugdev users floppy netdev scanner lp lpadmin sudo vboxsf"

[asqwerth]

I think MX does do something to make it easy to create shared folders, whether it's from within an MX iso that is installed in VB, or VB itself when installed by way of MXPI.

From within MX virtual machines, I've not needed any terminal command to initiate and automount the shared folder, once I've set it up via the VB Settings Manager and rebooted the VM.

[Stevo]

Yes, you have to add the user to the vboxsf group to use shared folders with the Virtual Box packages from Oracle. The package installer is getting it from our own repo, now, I think.

You can use the test repo installer if you want 5.2.24 from there, or it's also in Debian backports. The main version is 5.2.22 right now. Maybe antiX needs 5.2.24, since 5.2.22 won't build on a 4.20 kernel.

I did backport and install 6.0.2 from Experimental, but it wouldn't start for the standard user:

Code: Select all

$ VirtualBox 
Qt FATAL: FATAL: The application binary appears to be running setuid, this is a security hole.
Aborted

It would start with sudo, but then wouldn't see the setup and and virtual machines I already had. 5.2.24 is good for now.

[Stevo]

6.0.4 is now in Sid, and they fixed the setuid bug, so I backported it. It runs well, but doesn't follow the dark gtk theme I'm using. It's light text on a light background, until I mouse over a button and then the text is visible.

We've seen this before with Vbox 5 on a Jessie base, so I would guess that the debs from Oracle also have the same theming problem, and we'll have to wait for Buster's Qt 5 to fix the theming. It's usable as it is, just not satisfying. It should look OK with a light theme.

I'm inclined to have 5.2.24 moved to main and 6.0.4 in testing.