Chapter 2. Installation details

Table of Contents

2.1. Installing on Windows hosts
2.1.1. Prerequisites
2.1.2. Performing the installation
2.1.3. Uninstallation
2.1.4. Unattended installation
2.2. Installing on Mac OS X hosts
2.2.1. Performing the installation
2.2.2. Uninstallation
2.2.3. Unattended installation
2.3. Installing on Linux hosts
2.3.1. Prerequisites
2.3.2. The VirtualBox kernel module
2.3.3. Performing the installation
2.3.4. The vboxusers group
2.3.5. Starting VirtualBox on Linux
2.4. Installing on Solaris hosts
2.4.1. Performing the installation
2.4.2. The vboxuser group
2.4.3. Starting VirtualBox on Solaris
2.4.4. Uninstallation
2.4.5. Unattended installation
2.4.6. Configuring a zone for running VirtualBox

As installation of VirtualBox varies depending on your host operating system, we provide installation instructions in four separate chapters for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Solaris, respectively.

2.1. Installing on Windows hosts

2.1.1. Prerequisites

For the various versions of Windows that we support as host operating systems, please refer to Section 1.4, “Supported host operating systems”.

In addition, Windows Installer 1.1 or higher must be present on your system. This should be the case if you have all recent Windows updates installed.

2.1.2. Performing the installation

The VirtualBox installation can be started

  • either by double-clicking on its executable file (contains both 32- and 64-bit architectures)

  • or by entering

    VirtualBox.exe -extract

    on the command line. This will extract both installers into a temporary directory in which you'll then find the usual .MSI files. Then you can do a

    msiexec /i VirtualBox-<version>-MultiArch_<x86|amd64>.msi

    to perform the installation.

In either case, this will display the installation welcome dialog and allow you to choose where to install VirtualBox to and which components to install. In addition to the VirtualBox application, the following components are available:

USB support

This package contains special drivers for your Windows host that VirtualBox requires to fully support USB devices inside your virtual machines.

Networking

This package contains extra networking drivers for your Windows host that VirtualBox needs to support Bridged Networking (to make your VM's virtual network cards accessible from other machines on your physical network).

Python Support

This package contains Python scripting support for the VirtualBox API (see Chapter 11, VirtualBox programming interfaces). For this to work, an already working Windows Python installation on the system is required.[8]

Depending on your Windows configuration, you may see warnings about "unsigned drivers" or similar. Please select "Continue" on these warnings as otherwise VirtualBox might not function correctly after installation.

The installer will create a "VirtualBox" group in the Windows "Start" menu which allows you to launch the application and access its documentation.

With standard settings, VirtualBox will be installed for all users on the local system. In case this is not wanted, you have to invoke the installer by first extracting it by using

VirtualBox.exe -extract

and then do as follows:

VirtualBox.exe -msiparams ALLUSERS=2

or

msiexec /i VirtualBox-<version>-MultiArch_<x86|amd64>.msi ALLUSERS=2

on the extracted .MSI files. This will install VirtualBox only for the current user.

If you do not want to install all features of VirtualBox, you can set the optional ADDLOCAL parameter to explicitly name the features to be installed. The following features are available:

VBoxApplication

Main binaries of VirtualBox.

Note

This feature must not be absent since it contains the minimum set of files to have working VirtualBox installation.

VBoxUSB

USB support.

VBoxNetwork

All networking support; includes the VBoxNetworkFlt and VBoxNetworkAdp features (see below).

VBoxNetworkFlt

Bridged networking support.

VBoxNetworkAdp

Host-only networking support.

VBoxPython

Python support.

For example, to only install USB support along with the main binaries, do a:

VirtualBox.exe -msiparams ADDLOCAL=VBoxApplication,VBoxUSB

or

msiexec /i VirtualBox-<version>-MultiArch_<x86|amd64>.msi ADDLOCAL=VBoxApplication,VBoxUSB

2.1.3. Uninstallation

As VirtualBox uses the standard Microsoft Windows installer, VirtualBox can be safely uninstalled at any time by choosing the program entry in the "Add/Remove Programs" applet in the Windows Control Panel.

2.1.4. Unattended installation

Unattended installations can be performed using the standard MSI support.