Install Oracle Virtualbox on Linux Mint 17

This is a quick tip on how to install the closed-source version of Virtualbox, currently at version 4.3.16, on a machine with Linux Mint 17.

The open-source version of Virtualbox is available in the default repositories for Linux Mint, but the version offered at the Virtualbox website itself is newer, and in fact easier to install.

So, here we go:

  1. Remove previously installed Virtualbox packages:

    sudo apt-get purge virtualbox*
    
  2. Install dependencies:

    sudo apt-get install dkms
    sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`
    
  3. Download Virtualbox from Virtualbox Downloads.

  4. Install with dpkg (note that the filename might be different):

    sudo dpkg -i Downloads/virtualbox-4.3.deb
    

See also


Image credit: Edited from Ferns of Great Britain and Ireland: Polypodium Phegopteris, by Henry Bradbury. In the Public Domain. Source.

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