virtualbox.org

Hi all.

Host - Ubuntu 20.04 desktop
VirtualBox Version 6.1

Whenever the 1st time starting VirtualBox VM Manager, an advice popup - see attached screenshot

I have the package
download

Whether to perform following step to install it?

After making sure Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager not running including all VMs not running as well;

On Terminal Then it'll install virtualbox-6.1_6.1.16-140961~Ubuntu~bionic_amd64.deb
and delete automatically the old version without damaging the installed VMs ?

Please advise. Thanks

Regards

When you post screenshots from your 4K monitor, please resize them by 50% so they'll fit in our plebian non-4K monitors.

satimis wrote:delete automatically the old version without damaging the installed VMs ?

I don't know about the "delete automatically the old version" part. On Windows PCs a minor version update (just changing the last number) the new version can overwrite the old version successfully without previously uninstalling the old version. While upgrading major versions (changing the first or second numbers) or downgrading (reducing any of the numbers) should also work with a complete overwrite without pre-uninstall, forum advice is to uninstall and reboot first.

It cannot hurt to uninstall Virtualbox then reboot and install he new version at any upgrade.

"without damaging the installed VMs ?" holds true with any version change. The VMs and main configuration files are stored in folders that do not get modified in an uninstall or reinstall, so the VMs should easily survive a version change. Rarely a version change can come with a new feature or limitation (such as hardening in 4.3.14, no running without VT-x/AMD-V in 6.0.x, video card changes in 6.1.x) that could cause trouble. But we usually can walk you through these glitches here on the forum. Bugs can appear at any time.

A complete backup of the host disks and/or the VMs is always a good idea, even in general PC usage.