How to Install VirtualBox 6 in Debian and Ubuntu

VirtualBox is a powerful, general-purpose and cross-platform full virtualization software, targeted at server, desktop and embedded use. It can be installed on any operating system (Linux, Windows, Mac, etc) and allow you to install and run multiple guest operating systems on same computer.

Recently Oracle has released latest stable version of Virtualbox 6.0.0, the newest a major update which ships in with lots of major changes and new features.

Whats new in Virtualbox 6.0

• Supports Linux Kernel 4.20.
• A major update of 3D graphics device emulation on Linux guests.
• Support for exporting a virtual machine to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
• A better HiDPI and scaling support, along with superior detection and per-machine configuration.
• Much improved and better looking user interface with smooth and easy setup of virtual machines.
• A new file manager enables user to manage the guest file system and copy files between host and guest.
• vboximg-mount utility for hosts enables users to access the content of guest disks on the host.
• Also comes with serial port emulation fixes and so much more.

You can see the complete new change log details about VirtualBox 6.0 on their Official Changelog Page.

In this article, we will explain how to install VirtualBox 6.0 on Debian and Ubuntu distributions using VirtualBox’s own repository with APT package manager.

Installing VirtualBox 6.0 in Debian and Ubuntu

To install VirtualBox 6.0, first you need to add the following line to your /etc/apt/sources.list file. As per your distribution, change ‘<mydist>‘ with ‘artful‘, ‘zesty‘, ‘yakkety‘, ‘xenial‘, ‘trusty‘, ‘stretch‘, ‘jessie‘, or ‘wheezy‘ (older versions of VirtualBox supported different distributions):

If you don’t know what’s your distribution version name, you can use the following command to find out your Debian or Ubuntu Linux version.

# lsb_release -a         [On Debian]
$ cat /etc/lsb-release   [On Ubuntu]

Check Debian Release Version

Once you know the release version, you can add the following line to your /etc/apt/sources.list file as shown.

deb https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian <mydist> contrib

Add Virtualbox Repository in Debian and Ubuntu

Next, download and install the Oracle public key for apt-secure on your system as follows.

$ wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox_2016.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -
$ wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Add Oracle Public Key

Then update system package sources and install VirtualBox 6.0 with the following commands.

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install virtualbox-6.0

Once the package is installed, simply execute following command to start it from the terminal or use launcher from menu to start.

$ VirtualBox

Virtualbox Running on Debian 9

Read Also: How to Enable USB in VirtualBox

That’s all! In this article, we have shown how to install VirtualBox 6.0 in Debian and Ubuntu. You can ask questions or share your thoughts with us via the feedback form below.