1.5. Installing VirtualBox and extension packs

Oracle VM VirtualBox

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1.5. Installing VirtualBox and extension packs

VirtualBox comes in many different packages, and installation depends on your host operating system. If you have installed software before, installation should be straightforward: on each host platform, VirtualBox uses the installation method that is most common and easy to use. If you run into trouble or have special requirements, please refer to Chapter 2, Installation details for details about the various installation methods.

Starting with version 4.0, VirtualBox is split into several components.

  1. The base package consists of all open-source components and is licensed under the GNU General Public License V2.

  2. Additional extension packs can be downloaded which extend the functionality of the VirtualBox base package. Currently, Oracle provides the one extension pack, which can be found at http://www.virtualbox.org and provides the following added functionality:

    1. The virtual USB 2.0 (EHCI) device; see Section 3.11.1, “USB settings”.

    2. The virtual USB 3.0 (xHCI) device; see Section 3.11.1, “USB settings”.

    3. VirtualBox Remote Desktop Protocol (VRDP) support; see Section 7.1, “Remote display (VRDP support)”.

    4. Host webcam passthrough; see chapter Section 9.7.1, “Using a host webcam in the guest”.

    5. Intel PXE boot ROM.

    6. Experimental support for PCI passthrough on Linux hosts; see Section 9.6, “PCI passthrough”.

    7. Disk image encryption with AES algorithm; see Section 9.31, “Encryption of disk images”.

    VirtualBox extension packages have a .vbox-extpack file name extension. To install an extension, simply double-click on the package file and a Network Operations Manager window will appear, guiding you through the required steps.

    To view the extension packs that are currently installed, please start the VirtualBox Manager (see the next section). From the "File" menu, please select "Preferences". In the window that shows up, go to the "Extensions" category which shows you the extensions which are currently installed and allows you to remove a package or add a new one.

    Alternatively you can use VBoxManage on the command line: see Section 8.41, “VBoxManage extpack” for details.

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