Installing VirtualBox on Debian 11

Install VirtualBox

Note: To get VirtualBox working on my machine, I had to disable “secure boot” in the machine’s BIOS settings so that the vboxdrv kernel module could be loaded. The vboxdrv module appears to be unsigned.

Go to this page:

• https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads

Download this file:

• https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/6.1.38/virtualbox-6.1_6.1.38-153438~Debian~bullseye_amd64.deb

Install the VirtualBox package as follows:

sudo dpkg -i virtualbox-6.1_6.1.38-153438~Debian~bullseye_amd64.deb
sudo apt -f install

Loading an existing machine image

To load an existing virtualbox machine image (e.g. “FooBar”), first ensire that the existing machine’s folder structure is all owned by your user. If necessary…

sudo chown -R user FooBar/
sudo chgrp -R user FooBar/

Run vboxconfig

sudo apt update
sudo apt install linux-headers-amd64 linux-headers-$(uname -r)
sudo vboxconfig

Install Extension Pack

Go to this page:

• https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Download this file:

• https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/6.1.38/Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-6.1.38.vbox-extpack

In the VirtualBox main control panel, go to…

• Tools -> Preferences -> Extensions -> Add New Package (blue button on right with green plus sign)

Select the downloaded file, “Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-6.1.38.vbox-extpack” to add it to the VirtualBox installation.

Install Guest Additions

Download the Guest Additions iso file from this link:

• https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/6.1.38/VBoxGuestAdditions_6.1.38.iso

Start the virtual machine.

From the Devices menu, select “Insert Guest Additions CD image…” and select the Guest Additions iso file.

Open a file explorer window (within the virtual machine) and from the (virtual) CD drive, run the file “VBoxWindowsAddition.exe”.

Reboot the virtual machine.