The best Linux OS as VB host???

[ozfossil]

I would like to start from a solid reliable base with VB 6.0.x and would appreciate which Linux OS best integrates with VB in its current iteration?

A few thoughts

1. low resource usage
2. VB is part of the standard installed applications on the Distro itself i.e. it is either tested by the Distro vendor or has great integration if installed afterward. i.e. no tweaking and or mucking around.
3. Extensions and Guest additions just work as advertised in VB documentation.

I have tried several distro's and can't get reliable operation with VB - I don't want to try the big bloated Ubuntu's etc hoping instead to use a lightweight host that does not use more than needed of my 12G ram and overheat my CPU

I would love expert advice
Cheers and thanks in advance

[socratis]

1. We can't/don't support distro forks here, if you end up getting a fork you got to talk to whoever built the fork.
2. The most tested distros are most probably the ones that you're going to find in the Linux Downloads section of VirtualBox.
3. I have a Mint19 as a host on a 2006 Core2 Quad Q9300 CPU with 6 GB and it runs just fine. Takes about 800 MB of RAM, that's not a lot in my opinion. And it's rock solid.

I have tried several distro's and can't get reliable operation with VB

Reliable as in ... ?

[ozfossil]

Thank you for the reply - most appreciated Socratis.

I understand the sentiment of not favoring one distro over another - I had hoped that Oracle Linux would for example have VB as part of its standard software pre-configured ready to run out of the "Box".

Reliable as in ... ? ....I will continue to install new distro's to my new SSD and try to get Guest Additions and Extensions to work normally, in the last several installations clicking the download Guest additions results in the Guest just closing (i.e. Shuts Down) and there are messages saying it can't find Guest Additions, would I like to download them. This can be repeated over and over with various attempts to enable or move the downloaded files if they were successfully downloaded. I often get failed downloads (with message saying download failed for unknown reason after it gets to 70% completion.

I have assumed that there are some basic things going wrong with various distro's that don't integrate well with VB 6.0.x and your suggestion of Mint will be tried, I have used Mint as a Guest and as a standalone OS and find that it slows down after a few years (previous versions) and if Cinnamon breaks (happened a few times in the past) I don't know enough about Linux to recover my systems and backups and file/drive logic is still a bit of a mystery to me - I like to be able to just clone a Guest every week or so and keep a few on hand. I guess I can't forget so many years of Windows logic

Thank you again for your time and advice

Cheers

[socratis]

clicking the download Guest additions

If you have to download the Guest Additions, then that's a clear sign that you're running a forked VirtualBox.

[ozfossil]

Yes it may well be a forked version - I wanted to find a distro that was compatible with VB and the one I am currently trialling is Open Suse Tumbleweed. They have version 6.0.12 (current as far as I can tell) in their repo's - and that is what I wanted to achieve - i.e. something that will work out of the box! And not have to muck around with it and VB. Each time I have tried to follow the VB independent instructions to install VB I had worse issues - so far I have gotten further along getting a working system. It appears that on the VB bug reports that my constant issues is a known and widely reported issue with VB that might be fixed in 6.0.14 and has been reported to be fixed in the Beta (6.1.x) - I prefer not to use a beta if I can get an official release working.

I have read in a few places in recent months that installing VB can change the distro such that it cannot be reversed - and in my earlier attempts this seemed to be plausible - if I had made an error or just went down the wrong path - the Host OS was never the same.

I will attempt to get a compatible version of Guest Additions from Open Suse - or at least instructions on how to solve the issue.
I am moderately happy that it is not crashing the Guests each time I try to download the GA - it does get to 100% before I get the dreaded "unknown failure" message that many people are getting.

I appreciate your position in advising users to not use the versions in software repos - and to only use Oracle downloads and instructions - but for a less experienced user like myself - the process seems too unreliable to mess with and I just want to be safe and reliable and not have to constantly re install the host each time something does not run as it would for you who knows exactly what they are doing and have specific experience in VB.

Again thank you for your time to read this and I believe if there is no other option I will wait for the bug fix in the next versions,
Cheers

[socratis]

For some reason or another, you seem to be fixated on the idea that installing VirtualBox is akin to taking out your wisdom tooth, which breaks halfway, and then you get an infection, and they have to remove half of your jaw to save your life. I bet this is all from reading random blog posts here and there. You talk about integration, hassle and problems. None of that exists in RealLife™.

Just pick a standard distro from DistroWatch, the popular ones, on the right-hand side that VirtualBox is officially supported; Mint is your best choice, OpenSUSE works for your tastes as well. Download the official VirtualBox, i.e. not from the distro. Install it. Done. It's that simple really, it's going to take you less time than the time it took you to write your last post/essay...

[ozfossil]

Thank you Socratis for the entertaining response

For some reason or another, you seem to be fixated on the idea that installing VirtualBox is akin to taking out your wisdom tooth, which breaks halfway, and then you get an infection, and they have to remove half of your jaw to save your life. I bet this is all from reading random blog posts here and there.

Well actually it is from my personal experiences over the last year or so - and since there are so many like me who have also had this issue (which I found by searching for answers to my issues) and yes there are posts in many places and it seems to me that it is since the versions 6.0.10 onwards - and these posts and comments are from much smarter people than me!

You talk about integration, hassle and problems. None of that exists in RealLife™.

I was under the impression I was living a real life - could be wrong - but I have certainly tried your suggestions with some of those famously popular distros - the last one I spent much time on is No.1 at the moment with DistroWatch - MX18 linux - that host installation is broken beyond my ability to fix - and had to assume that VB and MX were not that good a match (MX does have some oddities - but I liked it because if it was lightweight and had some security/cloning features too)
:

Just pick a standard distro from DistroWatch, the popular ones, on the right-hand side that VirtualBox is officially supported; Mint is your best choice, OpenSUSE works for your tastes as well.

I have downloaded and installed OpenSUSE now many times, and on each occasion I tried a slightly different instruction set - the only option that worked partially for me was the inbuilt REPO in OpenSUSE - Guest additions as you know would not work, however I almost got a win when I created a Peppermint 10 Guest and it seemed to be VB aware on the first few cycles (boot and shutdown) then it failed and I am back to a tiny sceen view and not able to download guest additions etc (as you advised). I have followed the VB installation instructions a few times (i.e. followed your advice) however I suspect the failures are due to some information not being provided so that ordinary people will be able to get it "just right" and hence it would not install at all (using terminal).
I finally googled "Install VB on OpenSUSE" and found a more fleshed out instruction using your install files however it too would not complete as I suspect VB has changed the location or names of its repos.

https://www.tecmint.com/install-virtualbox-in-opensuse/

my error snipit:
Repository 'openSUSE-Tumbleweed-Non-Oss' is up to date.
Repository 'openSUSE-Tumbleweed-Oss' is up to date.
Repository 'openSUSE-Tumbleweed-Update' is up to date.
Retrieving repository 'VirtualBox for openSUSE 20190930 - x86_64' metadata .....................................[error]
Repository 'VirtualBox for openSUSE 20190930 - x86_64' is invalid.
[virtualbox|http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualb ... 930/x86_64] Valid metadata not found at specified URL
Please check if the URIs defined for this repository are pointing to a valid repository.
Skipping repository 'VirtualBox for openSUSE 20190930 - x86_64' because of the above error.
Some of the repositories have not been refreshed because of an error.

it's going to take you less time than the time it took you to write your last post/essay...

I have spent days on this now and you are wrong - these and this essay takes an insigificant amount of time by comparison - and now I don't think I am trying to get a solution anymore - if I find one - it might be from one of those random posts or even YouTube videos - but it appears to me that there are some distros that work with VB and some that will be a problem (I always had good results with 5.x and was so pleased that USB 3.0 was supported in VB 6.x and thought nothing of what is still to be sorted out and polished in it)

I may give up on OpenSUSE as it takes too long to reinstall after the host is no longer standard. I will try Peppermint as the Host (that is close to your suggestion of Mint and lower overheads and RAM usage - Open SUSE is to my surprise very resource efficient using just 600 ish MB out of the box.

If you have read this far - thank you - it has been a ride so far
I just hope one day to be using VB again with confidence and not have to bother you busy people again.
Cheers