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Installation of website version of VirtualBox clobbers Kubuntu 14.04.4
Posted: 4. Jul 2016, 19:14
by Paul Abrahams
Yesterday I tried to install the version of VirtualBox that I got from the website into an existing Kubuntu 14.04.4 system. The result was a disaster: the installation, which used QAptPackageInstaller (or something very much like that) deleted and replaced a whole bunch of system modules. When I rebooted, the system was gone; after the initial "Kubuntu" display I got just a blank screen that was totally unresponsive.
So I reinstalled Kubuntu and as the very first action when it was going, I tried again to install VirtualBox,with the same result. Something is very wrong here.
Re: Installation of website version of VirtualBox clobbers Kubuntu 14.04.4
Posted: 4. Jul 2016, 19:34
by Perryg
Paul Abrahams wrote:Yesterday I tried to install the version of VirtualBox that I got from the website into an existing Kubuntu 14.04.4 system.
What website and what version of VirtualBox? Be specific
The result was a disaster: the installation, which used QAptPackageInstaller (or something very much like that) deleted and replaced a whole bunch of system modules. When I rebooted, the system was gone; after the initial "Kubuntu" display I got just a blank screen that was totally unresponsive.
We need to know exactly how you install. Package manager, command line, Etc. and specific commands used.
So I reinstalled Kubuntu and as the very first action when it was going, I tried again to install VirtualBox,with the same result. Something is very wrong here.
VirtualBox does not delete or replace system modules so it is very important to know specifics.
Re: Installation of website version of VirtualBox clobbers Kubuntu 14.04.4
Posted: 5. Jul 2016, 06:39
by Paul Abrahams
As soon as the installation of Kubuntu 14.04.4 was complete, I opened Firefox and navigated to this webpage:
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads. I chose Ubuntu 14;04 AMD64, which led me to download file
virtualbox-5.0_5.0.24-108355~Ubuntu~trusty_amd64.deb. Upon selecting the downloaded file, I was invited to install it using QApt Package Installer. When I started up the installer I could see modules being removed and replaced, but it happened too fast for me to get any details, especially since the running log appeared on a single concatenated line. I then shut down my systen and restarted it. After the Kubuntu logo appeared for ten seconds or so, I got a blank screen which was unresponsive to anything I tried.
The first time I tried this was in a system that had been running for several months. When I reinstalled Kubuntu I chose to reinstall it in the same partition I had been using, without reformatting that partition. I did that so I wouldn't lose my home directory as well as /usr/local.
Re: Installation of website version of VirtualBox clobbers Kubuntu 14.04.4
Posted: 5. Jul 2016, 14:06
by Perryg
The "QApt Package Installer" is the default installer for KDE OSes, which might be causing an issue, I prefer using dpkg from the terminal so you can see and post the actual response while installing and it eliminates any of the issues from using graphical installers. You say system modules being deleted and replaced which is concerning since VirtualBox does not do this at all. It provides additional packages and builds its own kernel modules. It does remove the previous VirtualBox modules before it installs the new ones but these are not system modules and not dependant on the OS system modules, is this what you are seeing?
Back to the installer. I have seen at times the OS default installer getting confused with the the downloaded package and the one from the OS repo and forcing the repo version being installed. Even then it should not keep the host from booting so there must be something unique with your host. Not a lot I can help you with on that I am afraid. The best I can tell you is to see if you can boot to a recovery session or try to boot to the tty in case it is a problem with xorg and post the /var/log/vbox-install.log in case that has some clue.
Re: Installation of website version of VirtualBox clobbers Kubuntu 14.04.4
Posted: 11. Jul 2016, 05:51
by Paul Abrahams
At long last I've recovered my Kubuntu system and found what the problem is. I tried the installation again using QApt Package Installer, but instead of actually carrying it out, I looked at the Details to see what packages were to be installed and removed. It seems that kubuntu-desktop is being removed and kde-window-manager-active is being replaced. (There's a long list of other changes, but I don't see an easy way of capturing it.) Removing kubuntu-desktop is probably what clobbered my system.
Given this problem, how can I install VirtualBox?
Re: Installation of website version of VirtualBox clobbers Kubuntu 14.04.4
Posted: 11. Jul 2016, 07:06
by socratis
Paul Abrahams wrote: It seems that kubuntu-desktop is being removed and kde-window-manager-active is being replaced.
This has 99% nothing to do with VirtualBox. Maybe there a parallel check going on, like system updates/upgrades which may trigger this? VirtualBox couldn't care less about or replace your desktop or window manager.
Paul Abrahams wrote:Given this problem, how can I install VirtualBox?
Did you try Perryg's advice?
Perryg wrote:I prefer using dpkg from the terminal so you can see and post the actual response while installing and it eliminates any of the issues from using graphical installers.
Re: Installation of website version of VirtualBox clobbers Kubuntu 14.04.4
Posted: 11. Jul 2016, 22:11
by Paul Abrahams
I tried using dpkg, somewhat fearfully because I didn't see how to use it in an interactive mode where I could veto any action. But it worked as advertised. Here's the log:
Code: Select all
root@Aspire-E1-731:/home/pwa# dpkg -i Dropbox/Downloads/virtualbox-5.0_5.0.24-108355~Ubuntu~trusty_amd64.deb
(Reading database ... 166425 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../virtualbox-5.0_5.0.24-108355~Ubuntu~trusty_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking virtualbox-5.0 (5.0.24-108355~Ubuntu~trusty) over (5.0.24-108355~Ubuntu~trusty) ...
Setting up virtualbox-5.0 (5.0.24-108355~Ubuntu~trusty) ...
addgroup: The group `vboxusers' already exists as a system group. Exiting.
Stopping VirtualBox kernel modules ...done.
Recompiling VirtualBox kernel modules ...done.
Starting VirtualBox kernel modules ...done.
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-16) ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.13-1) ...
Processing triggers for shared-mime-info (1.2-0ubuntu3) ...
Unknown media type in type 'all/all'
Unknown media type in type 'all/allfiles'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/mms'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/mmst'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/mmsu'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/pnm'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/rtspt'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/rtspu'
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.22-1ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.54ubuntu1.1) ...
root@Aspire-E1-731:/home/pwa#
What is particularly interesting is that it didn't import (or delete) any packages at all. I absolutely agree that there's no good reason why the installation using QAptPackageInstaller would be deleting the kubuntu desktop.
But still, all is not quite well since if you try to install VirtualBox under Kubuntu 14.04 in the obvious way -- download it and take the recommended action -- you'd probably encounter the same disaster that I did, since QAPt Package Installer is the default action for packages. The result I got might have been affected by the fact that I was working from a restored image of my home partition, since I might have had an old installation of VirtualBox sitting around (hence the pre-existing group
vboxusers).
Re: Installation of website version of VirtualBox clobbers Kubuntu 14.04.4
Posted: 11. Jul 2016, 22:51
by Perryg
Like I said it is not the first time I have seen an OS package manager doing something wrong or out of the ordinary and is why I never use them. I also build my own packages to make sure that everything is as it should be.