VBox installation via apg-get vs dl from Oracle

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Linux hosts.
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Joe890
Posts: 26
Joined: 14. Jan 2020, 18:08

VBox installation via apg-get vs dl from Oracle

Post by Joe890 »

Hello

I heard that in some cases it's better to "manually" install (see commands below) VirtualBox from the Oracle site instead using apt-get install?

Ist that possible and why?

Thank's a lot!

Joe



wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/ora ... x_2016.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian `lsb_release -sc` contrib" | sudo tee --append /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list

apt install virtualbox-6.1
scottgus1
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Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: VBox installation via apg-get vs dl from Oracle

Post by scottgus1 »

I have not heard that 'wgetting' Virtualbox is somehow better than going to https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads. If the wget downloads the same official Virtualbox as downloading from the linked website then it's probably OK.

The 'problem', as such, with apt-get and other repository download commands, is which repository is being accessed. Some Linux distros have their own fork of Virtualbox, which we don't support here. A Linux-native-aligned apt-get will download the distro's fork, not official Virtualbox. The linked page above has instructions on how to point apt-get et al to the Virtualbox repository, then apt-getting would download the official Virtualbox, same as downloading from the Virtualbox website.
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