VirtualBox – No VirtualBox Available on Ubuntu 23.10

23.10virtualbox

VirtualBox is key for me right now as I want to have Cursor IDE in a Windows VM because the Linux AppImage doesn't work.

Also for some of my security learning running Kali and my VM's from school.

What is a workaround?

Edit: Virtualbox 7.0 available with (base) nyck33@nyck33-tt:~$ sudo apt install virtualbox

but the tunneler for OpenZiti does not work on 23.10 so I'm starting to wonder if this was a bad idea.

A developer offered a workaround on the OpenZiti forum to use the Jammy version but I heard that could cause problems for the OS.

What are workarounds when I come into this situation again?

Best Answer

Depending on what is an acceptable "workaround" for you, the answer differs.

Workaround 1: Use QEMU/KVM stack with Virt-manager as GUI

Assuming you don't care about the application used for virtualization and you only care about the end result (Windows VM with your required application running within), I suggest trying to use the QEMU/KVM stack with virt-manager user interface.

Check if your device supports KVM acceleration:

kvm-ok

You should get:

INFO: /dev/kvm exists
KVM acceleration can be used

Install the necessary packages for QEMU/KVM stack:

sudo apt install qemu qemu-kvm libvirt-daemon libvirt-daemon-system libvirt-clients bridge-utils

Now, install the virt-manager frontend:

sudo apt install virt-manager

Now, you can just add the new VM using the GUI and go from there: virt-manager GUI

KVM should give you near-native performance, so you should not see any performance decrease compared to VirtualBox.

Workaround 2: Build VirtualBox from source

I personally would not do this unless I absolutely must do so, but if you HAVE TO use VirtualBox (for example, you have a specific premade VM image that you have to use that is in exclusive VirtualBox format), then you can try building it according to their build instructions. I would strongly suggest to go with QEMU/KVM stack if you don't have to use a specific pre-made VM though, it would take considerably less effort and is more likely to work immediately.

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