Installing Virtualbox [Solved]

[busdriver12]

I've been thinking for a while about installing a VM mainly to look at other distros. After a bit of research I decided on VirtualBox. After navigating to the download page I was presented with various flavours of Ubuntu, so determine which one 20.1 was based on I consulted inxi:

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz
System:    Kernel: 5.4.0-73-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 4.8.6 
           Distro: Linux Mint 20.1 Ulyssa base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal

and I determine it's based on Ubuntu 20.04 which is the version I download (virtualbox-6.1_6.1.22-144080~Ubuntu~eoan_amd64.deb). When I start to install it I am presented with a warning from the installer that it wants to remove/install packages:

When I click on details I am shown:

Screenshot from 2021-05-17 20-39-57.png (19.25 KiB) Viewed 4712 times

It appears that it wants to remove python3 and replace with python2 (which appears to be a downgrade). Am I misunderstanding what's happening? Is it OK to proceed?

TIA for any comments/advice

[Pierre]

it's normal to have an few files to update or remove or downgrade.
- -- it's trusting that it will all work, that is the main worry.
it usually does.

there has been an few reports of VirtualBox not working on LM20.1 series,
but since I've still running on LM20.0 .. I've not seen that particular error.

the VB version that I'm running is Ubuntu 19.10 / 20.04 / 21.04
(virtualbox-6.1_6.1.22-144080~Ubuntu~eoan_amd64.deb)
on my other Laptop & is their v6.1 series.

you do need at least 8Gb of memory available for the Host machine,
as you do need to give about 45% of that to the Guest System.

there has also been some issues in running the win-10 system in the latest VB version,
and I've not successfully resolved that issue, on an LinuxMint Host,
and thus had to use the same VB version on win-10 itself, as the Host system,
in order to resolve that win-10 Guest Internet Issue.


it would seem that other Systems, both Linux systems & those older windows systems,
are fine under that LinuxMint Host system.

you will also find that YMMV with your VirtualBox setup,
and it's another area to play around with.

[busdriver12]

it's normal to have an few files to update or remove or downgrade.
- -- it's trusting that it will all work, that is the main worry.
it usually does.

Thanks Pierre. I'll bite the bullet and try it tomorrow night as I have a scheduled weekly Timeshift backup happening later this evening.

there has been an few reports of VirtualBox not working on LM20.1 series,
but since I've still running on LM20.0 .. I've not seen that particular error.

I'll let you know how I get on

[RIH]

I just downloaded the VirtualBox deb file (from your link) for Ubuntu 20.04 etc. (in a VB guest of Mint 20.1)
It installed perfectly with no removals but 5 editions - see below

Did you get to Mint 20.1 by updating from Mint 20.0 (or even from Mint 19.x) ?

Despite Pierre's reading that VB has issues with 20.1, personally I have had none at all.
I installed 20.1 as new & then installed VirtualBox (from where your link is, as well) & then transferred over my guests that I had created in 19.3 & it all worked flawlessly...

[Pierre]

well - - that's some good news, at least.


my HP Laptop is the main Play Machine,
with it's new & bigger 1Tb HDD,
that dual_boot with both win-10 & LM20 upon it.

there is an VirtualBox 6.1 series on both systems,
although the bulk of the Guest systems are under the LinuxMint Host System.

it was only the win-10 Guest system, that got moved over to the win-10 host,
as I've not resolved the Internet connection failure, under the LinuxMint Host System.
- - there is no Internet issue, with the other Guest System, on the LinuxMint Host System,
which is confusing at best, and I've Google'd extensively about that Internet connectivity issue . .

[spamegg]

python-is-python2 will point the python command to Python 2, and it can break a lot of things in a system (Mint 20) that relies on Python and expects the python command to be pointing to the Python 3 executable.

I simply installed Virtualbox from the repos and it doesn't do that.

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 ➜ sudo apt install virtualbox
[sudo] password for spamegg:        
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
virtualbox is already the newest version (6.1.16-dfsg-6~ubuntu1.20.04.1).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

python-is-python2 is NOT installed:

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 ➜ sudo apt search python-is-python2
p   python-is-python2                                      - symlinks /usr/bin/python to the DEPRECATED python2               
v   python-is-python2:any                                  -                                                                  

[AZgl1800]

I'm on 19.3 Cinnamon, so different OS.

using VirtualBox Graphical User Interface
Version 6.1.22 r144080 (Qt5.9.5)


all works in this pix

VBstuff.png (31.93 KiB) Viewed 4625 times

[wallyUSA]

Just installed Vbox on a new lm 20.1
LMDE 4 running in Vbox, no issues!

[busdriver12]

python-is-python2 will point the python command to Python 2, and it can break a lot of things in a system (Mint 20) that relies on Python and expects the python command to be pointing to the Python 3 executable.

I simply installed Virtualbox from the repos and it doesn't do that.

I installed mine from the file I downloaded from VirtualBox. I have noticed that it has reverted to python2:

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phil@Home-PC:~$ apt policy python-is-python2
python-is-python2:
  Installed: 2.7.17-4
  Candidate: 2.7.17-4
  Version table:
 *** 2.7.17-4 500
        500 http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/ubuntu/archive focal/universe amd64 Packages
        500 http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/ubuntu/archive focal/universe i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
phil@Home-PC:~$ apt policy python-is-python3
python-is-python3:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 3.8.2-4
  Version table:
     3.8.2-4 500
        500 http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/ubuntu/archive focal/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/ubuntu/archive focal/main i386 Packages

I'll keep an eye on it and may revert back to previous state and try this approach.

Thanks everyone

[AndyMH]

I haven't used python-is-python2, but explicitly created a symlink for python2. I've yet to encounter a problem with a lot of software installed, inc. virtualbox.

You are better installing virtualbox direct from oracle - you get the latest. The easiest way is downloading the deb, but you don't get updates. You can also install from a terminal with:

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    echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian focal contrib" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list 
    wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox_2016.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add - 
    sudo apt update 
    sudo apt install -y virtualbox-6.1

You can find these instructions repeated at https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads. This is what I do and you get updates.

For a complete VB installation you also need to install the extension pack and install guest-additions in whatever OS you are running in a VM.

[busdriver12]

I thought I'd mention that VirtualBox installed fine and I don't appear to have encountered any Python issues so far.

I've successfully setup Manjaro KDE and Mageia. Thanks to everyone for their help/input

[RIH]

Good news, Phil..

Can you go back to your original post & edit it (that is using the 'pencil' icon on the right) to add the word 'Solved" at the start or end of the original title?

That way, anyone with a similar problem in the future, searching the Form, can see that this topic should be worth a look..