In this article, we would discuss how to install VirtualBox Extension Pack in Ubuntu. But, before that a bit about VirtualBox Extension Pack itself.
VirtualBox Extension Pack provides us the extended functionality like support for USB devices, Remote Desktop Protocol, Host webcam passthrough, PCI Passthrough on Linux hosts and Intel PXE boot ROM among others. To install VirtualBox Extension Pack we need to first download the package from the official website. The version of VirtualBox Extension Pack must match with the version of VirtualBox installed.
We have already discussed installation steps required for VirtualBox in Ubuntu 20.04. And, for VirtualBox Guest Additions here. We would like to clarify, although we can install VirtualBox Extension Pack from the standard Ubuntu repository itself. For the purpose of this article, we have taken an alternative approach.
Note: Following operations would require you to have superuser privileges. In case you don’t have one, then contact your System Administrator for assistance.
Install VirtualBox Extension Pack in Ubuntu
VirtualBox Extension Pack can be downloaded from the Download section (All supported platforms link) on VirtualBox official website.
For instance, if you have VirtualBox version 6.1.6 installed. Then, file to download – Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-6.1.6.vbox-extpack. We reiterate that only use the version of VirtualBox Extension Pack which matches with the VirtualBox version installed.
Now, open VirtualBox application from the main menu. And, click on File –> Preferences. Then, click on Extensions and Adds new package symbol. Head to the path where you have saved the file – Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-6.1.6.vbox-extpack. And, install the package – it will ask you for the superusers’ password.
Still, the installation part isn’t finished. We can enable USB devices through Virtual Machine’s Settings –> USB –> Add new USB filter option. But, if you try to add a USB device inside the Virtual Machine, then it will throw an error –
<no devices available>
Therefore, we need to issue the following in terminal –
sudo adduser $USER vboxusers
where,
adduser – adds the $USER to the Group vboxusers.
And, then reboot or logout to reflect the necessary changes.
In conclusion, we have discussed how to install VirtualBox Extension Pack in Ubuntu distribution.
