Stupid question about upgrading VirtualBox

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Linux hosts.
SteveC1
Posts: 30
Joined: 7. Nov 2019, 07:33

Stupid question about upgrading VirtualBox

Post by SteveC1 »

I know this is probably a classic "stupid question"

Ubuntu 20.4.

VirtualBox nags me once a day to upgrade (which in itself is an annoyance, but no matter...) The nag popup displays a link that will download an archive. So the other day, I said, "Oh, all right you infernal nag!!" and clicked on the link.

The problem is, once I have the archive, I have no idea what the heck to do with it. The one FAQ I found says "run the install script as root" but there doesn't seem to be an install script! (I even did a "find" after extracting the archive) So I burned a part of my monthly data allowance and I am STILL being nagged.

Having got the archive, please, someone, tell me what on Earth to do with it!!!

(PS: By the way a much larger aggravation is having to download ubuntu updates separately for each virtual box with the updater. Anyone know a way around this?)
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Stupid question about upgrading VirtualBox

Post by mpack »

I don't believe that you are describing VirtualBox? It sounds like you are discussing one of the distro forks and their update system, neither of which we support here.

In VirtualBox it's very simple to turn off "Check for Updates" in the manager by visiting File|Preferences|Update.

Your question about installing apps on Linux hosts will have to await a Linux user, or you could ask on a Linux forum. If it's similar to installing the GAs then I just open a command terminal and then run "sudo bash <installer file name>". Probably there are alternatives to bash that a Linux fan would care about.
SteveC1
Posts: 30
Joined: 7. Nov 2019, 07:33

Re: Stupid question about upgrading VirtualBox

Post by SteveC1 »

The "about" command brings up a window that says it's ORACLE VM VirtualBox 6.1 (in large letters) the fine print reads version 6.1.16r140961. This looks like your product and I thought I was asking on a forum devoted to Linux hosts. Would "how do you install the update" better belong somewhere else? A linux forum would probably send me here as its your product and your archive I can't figure out what to do with.

Thanks for the tips on eliminating the daily popup!
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Stupid question about upgrading VirtualBox

Post by mpack »

If someone takes the Oracle VirtualBox open sources, modifies the sources and builds them, yes it may still say Oracle VirtualBox, but that doesn't make it the official Oracle build that this site exists to support. I can call myself Samuel L Jackson, but that doesn't mean that I really appeared in any Avengers movies.

If you installed VirtualBox using apt-get, then it's the Ubuntu fork of VirtualBox.

If you downloaded the installer from here: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads, then it's genuine and is the version we support here.
fth0
Volunteer
Posts: 5668
Joined: 14. Feb 2019, 03:06
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Linux, Windows 10, ...
Location: Germany

Re: Stupid question about upgrading VirtualBox

Post by fth0 »

mpack wrote:If you installed VirtualBox using apt-get, then it's the Ubuntu fork of VirtualBox.
Objection, your honor! ;)

The official Download VirtualBox for Linux Hosts page describes how to integrate the official Oracle VirtualBox repository into the package management softwares of the major Linux distributions (e.g. see the Debian-based Linux distributions subsection). Experienced Linux administrators (me included) probably prefer this method over the manual downloads. In consequence, I'm implicitly using apt-get to install and update the official Oracle VirtualBox versions.
SteveC1
Posts: 30
Joined: 7. Nov 2019, 07:33

Re: Stupid question about upgrading VirtualBox

Post by SteveC1 »

mpack wrote:If someone takes the Oracle VirtualBox open sources, modifies the sources and builds them, yes it may still say Oracle VirtualBox, but that doesn't make it the official Oracle build that this site exists to support. I can call myself Samuel L Jackson, but that doesn't mean that I really appeared in any Avengers movies.

If you installed VirtualBox using apt-get, then it's the Ubuntu fork of VirtualBox.

If you downloaded the installer from here: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads, then it's genuine and is version we support here.
My original install was long enough ago that I can't be sure which one it was, however, my normal habit is to go to official websites. Therefore this is probably but not certainly your product. I am made even more confident of this by the fact that the link in the popup looks like it's yours, too.

Now.

Can someone tell me what I have to do with the downloaded update archive file? Please?

Attached: 1) Picture of the application, complete with its update popup.
Screenshot of app and its update popup.  Note the link.
Screenshot of app and its update popup. Note the link.
Screenshot_2021-05-07_21-08-44.png (113.87 KiB) Viewed 4943 times
2) The contents of the archive when I download it. NOTE THAT THERE IS NO INSTALL SCRIPT.
Contents of update archive
Contents of update archive
Screenshot_2021-05-07_21-11-17.png (32.14 KiB) Viewed 4943 times
fth0
Volunteer
Posts: 5668
Joined: 14. Feb 2019, 03:06
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Linux, Windows 10, ...
Location: Germany

Re: Stupid question about upgrading VirtualBox

Post by fth0 »

SteveC1 wrote:Can someone tell me what I have to do with the downloaded update archive file? Please?
The easiest method is to double-click on the file inside the Ubuntu file manager of your choice, which will automatically run the appropriate dpkg command (sudo dpkg -i ...). You're right in that this is a Linux beginner's question. ;) As a hint for the next time: You could have googled for "ubuntu install .deb files", BTW.
SteveC1
Posts: 30
Joined: 7. Nov 2019, 07:33

Re: Stupid question about upgrading VirtualBox

Post by SteveC1 »

fth0 wrote:
SteveC1 wrote:Can someone tell me what I have to do with the downloaded update archive file? Please?
The easiest method is to double-click on the file inside the Ubuntu file manager of your choice, which will automatically run the appropriate dpkg command (sudo dpkg -i ...). You're right in that this is a Linux beginner's question. ;) As a hint for the next time: You could have googled for "ubuntu install .deb files", BTW.
Thank you for actually trying to help! Instead of just assuming I wasn't using your product.

Double clicking on the file simply opens the archive; it doesn't run that command. That's how I got my screen shot.

The good news is, you've told me what the command IS. And it worked! I am typing this from within a .22 hosted VM.

As far as googling...I did try but was far more focused on the name of the application than the type of file (e.g., "How to upgrade VirtualBox on Ubuntu" and other variants of that), so of course I didn't try exactly what you suggested. It instead sent me to that page that just said "double click the install file."

To be honest, I've worked on too many systems where that means the "install file" is a script ("install.sh") inside the archive. So I went looking for it, which was easy to do--just double click the install file to open the archive!

This is actually a case where all the different sorts of varieties of Linux is not actually a blessing. Too many different ways updating works, it leads to confusion.

Plus, I'd really love to know why double clicking on the darn file didn't actually work.
fth0
Volunteer
Posts: 5668
Joined: 14. Feb 2019, 03:06
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Linux, Windows 10, ...
Location: Germany

Re: Stupid question about upgrading VirtualBox

Post by fth0 »

My description wasn't accurate: On my Linux Mint 20 host (based on Ubuntu 20.04), a double click starts a program named gdebi, which is a GUI app for .deb install files. So I possibly wrongly assumed that on Ubuntu 20.04 the same would happen.
SteveC1
Posts: 30
Joined: 7. Nov 2019, 07:33

Re: Stupid question about upgrading VirtualBox

Post by SteveC1 »

fth0 wrote:My description wasn't accurate: On my Linux Mint 20 host (based on Ubuntu 20.04), a double click starts a program named gdebi, which is a GUI app for .deb install files. So I possibly wrongly assumed that on Ubuntu 20.04 the same would happen.
Actually illustrating my point about all the different variants not necessarily being a blessing! Sure, if you don't like the desktop you got you can switch to something else (hard to do a test drive though when one is data-limited), but oftentimes there are not immediately obvious differences with that switch, such as totally different schemes for updating/installing/removing software.

Some Linux people are crusaders--they wish everyone would use it--and others are elitist--if you can't figure this out, what are you doing here? Those two are at tension with each other, of course, but I've also seen people who hold both attitudes simultaneously.

But the very virtue that the crusaders like to point to works against getting the average "I just want it to work" computer user to adopt Linux, because a huge proportion of the time the instructions only apply to someone's favorite release. If it's not your release, you're on your own, and for a "I just want it to work" user, that's basically the end of the matter; his system is broken and no one is fixing it.

One guy I know visits a site and tells all these stories about how he was able to solve his own problems--he's trying to get people to switch because you can fix it yourself--not understanding that what he posts sounds so intimidatingly complex to the "typical" computer user that all he's doing is scaring them off. It would be even worse if the people he was trying to talk to had any notion that the stuff he posts would change greatly on a different distro AND probably not even apply to them anyway.

OK, all of that was rather off topic. Let me close by thanking you for what you said; most helpful.
chrisnd
Posts: 10
Joined: 3. Jun 2021, 12:21

Re: Stupid question about upgrading VirtualBox

Post by chrisnd »

SteveC1 wrote:
fth0 wrote:
SteveC1 wrote:Can someone tell me what I have to do with the downloaded update archive file? Please?
The easiest method is to double-click on the file inside the Ubuntu file manager of your choice, which will automatically run the appropriate dpkg command (sudo dpkg -i ...). You're right in that this is a Linux beginner's question. ;) As a hint for the next time: You could have googled for "ubuntu install .deb files", BTW.
Thank you for actually trying to help! Instead of just assuming I wasn't using your product.

Double clicking on the file simply opens the archive; it doesn't run that command. That's how I got my screen shot.

Plus, I'd really love to know why double clicking on the darn file didn't actually work.
For me, double clicking brought up the installation manager and gave me just the option to remove the existing installation.
I agree that there seem to be too many possibilities in this process - which has put off many linux beginners (like me) for years.
However, again, thanks fth0 for the pointers on getting it upgraded ok.
Also the 'add-ons'* were upgraded semi-magically too :-)

*Forgotten the proper term...
chrisnd
Posts: 10
Joined: 3. Jun 2021, 12:21

Re: Stupid question about upgrading VirtualBox

Post by chrisnd »

SteveC1 wrote:
fth0 wrote:
SteveC1 wrote:Can someone tell me what I have to do with the downloaded update archive file? Please?
The easiest method is to double-click on the file inside the Ubuntu file manager of your choice, which will automatically run the appropriate dpkg command (sudo dpkg -i ...). You're right in that this is a Linux beginner's question. ;) As a hint for the next time: You could have googled for "ubuntu install .deb files", BTW.
Thank you for actually trying to help! Instead of just assuming I wasn't using your product.

Double clicking on the file simply opens the archive; it doesn't run that command. That's how I got my screen shot.

Plus, I'd really love to know why double clicking on the darn file didn't actually work.
As I wrote nearly two years ago, double clicking brought up the installation manager, gave me just the option to remove the existing installation - not do an upgrade.
I also agreed that there seem to be too many possibilities in this process - which has put off many linux beginners (like me) for years.
However, once again, thanks fth0 for the pointers on getting it upgraded ok.

However, to bring this up to date, I have just got in a horrible mess upgrading to 7.0.6... from 6.1.40...(?) which somehow involved repeated failed attempts to upgrade via Terminal followed by some success using gDebi (as discussed here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/686606/ ... are-update ) and finally achieved the upgrade via some unexpected route of 6.1.38... (yes, a backwards step), clearing out a whole load of entries using synaptec package manager and finally a third reinstall using gDebi. Remarkably my Win-32 installation survived unscathed.

It should not be this difficult.

Now I just need to find out how to get my USB port working again in Win-32.
The VMbox manual 'helpfully' tells me to add my user to the 'vboxusers' group. However, a search in the manual gives no idea how to achieve this.
Hopefully, I'll find it in another thread somewhere around here?

Chris
fth0
Volunteer
Posts: 5668
Joined: 14. Feb 2019, 03:06
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Linux, Windows 10, ...
Location: Germany

Re: Stupid question about upgrading VirtualBox

Post by fth0 »

chrisnd wrote:The VMbox manual 'helpfully' tells me to add my user to the 'vboxusers' group. However, a search in the manual gives no idea how to achieve this.
I beg to differ: See The vboxusers Group.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Stupid question about upgrading VirtualBox

Post by mpack »

Even if it wasn't there, IMO it isn't the job of the VirtualBox user manual to provide basic tuition for any OS, never mind all of them.
chrisnd
Posts: 10
Joined: 3. Jun 2021, 12:21

Re: Stupid question about upgrading VirtualBox

Post by chrisnd »

fth0 wrote:
chrisnd wrote:The VMbox manual 'helpfully' tells me to add my user to the 'vboxusers' group. However, a search in the manual gives no idea how to achieve this.
I beg to differ: See The vboxusers Group.
Quite, my apologies, what I should have said was that a search in the VMbox *included* documentation gives no idea how to achieve this and refers users to it's section 12.7.5 which gives less information than the error message!
Since writing my earlier message here I have found section 2.3.4 in the *online* manual (quite a different thing!) which has gone some way to resolving my, and others, problems as I have written in a different thread....
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=107719

Cheers, Chris
Post Reply