[Solved] VBox installation question

[SomeDudeInAZ]

I'm trying to help a friend that wants to get some of his old games working. KVM/QEMU/Virt-manager won't work because it appears graphics acceleration isn't quite ready (or at least my skill level isn't there yet...). So virtualbox it is.

He's running Mint 20. At this point is installing everything from the software manager the way to go (platform, extension pak, etc) or should I go straight to oracle and get it from there?

Thanks

[wallyUSA]

I prefer installing from virtualbox.org! Did it several times with no issues. Remember to download & install VB extension pack. Once the guest is installed, install the 'Guest Additions' in the guest.

[SomeDudeInAZ]

Thanks Wally

[edmart]

same thing - use the virtualbox.org
But for some cases, you may want to keep older versions of VB. Sometimes new versions may conflict with new Windows versions...

[SomeDudeInAZ]

so can I assume that I *can* have multiple version of vb installed? Or is this a case of set up vb then in another linux install a different version of vb?

[linux-rox]

so can I assume that I *can* have multiple version of vb installed?

No, but you can revert to an earlier version, if it worked better than the current one. Not particularly easy, as you need to purge the current one, then install the old one from deb file. Frankly, most people just live with the current version (warts and all) until the next update.

[SomeDudeInAZ]

thats what I thought

[SomeDudeInAZ]

Just to update this:

edmart's advice about older versions was spot on. Since I'm installing Win XP for his old games, they are changing the video drivers.

Apparently the last version of vbox to include 3d acceleration for windows xp is ver 6.0. <sigh> hopefully it will last for a while - especially since he doesn't plan on going to the internet with it