[SOLVED] Cannot install Virtualbox on Slackware 15

lghizoni · 02-11-2024, 05:11 AM

Dear all,

I am trying to install virtualbox on my Slackware 15, but so far no success. I've tried with Sbopkg, Sbotools (sboinstall), and directly downloading the files from Slackbuilds. In the Slackbuilds site, there is a README.SLACKWARE informing that I need to add some lines in /etc/rc.d/rc.local and /etc/rc.d/rc.local_shutdown, which I've done.
With the three options of installing virtualbox, the build starts returning warnings such as:

Code:

/tmp/SBo/VirtualBox-6.1.44/doc/manual/en_US/UserManual.xml:6: warning: failed to load external entity "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd"

And finally I get:

Code:

kmk: *** [/tmp/SBo/VirtualBox-6.1.44/out/linux.amd64/release/obj/manual/xref-to-text.xsl] Deleting file '/tmp/SBo/VirtualBox-6.1.44/out/linux.amd64/release/obj/manual/xref-to-text.xsl.cat'
kmk: *** [/tmp/SBo/VirtualBox-6.1.44/doc/manual/Config.kmk:327: /tmp/SBo/VirtualBox-6.1.44/out/linux.amd64/release/obj/manual/xref-to-text.xsl] Error 6
  Creating stylesheet {T}/manual/xref-to-text.xsl 
kmk: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
  CXX     VBoxSDLHardened - {C}/src/VBox/Frontends/VBoxSDL/VBoxSDLHardened.cpp
  CXX     VBoxNetAdpCtl - {C}/src/VBox/HostDrivers/adpctl/VBoxNetAdpCtl.cpp
kmk: *** Exiting with status 2
Failures:
  virtualbox: virtualbox.SlackBuild return non-zero

Anyone having similar issues? Any help would be more than appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

henca · 02-11-2024, 07:31 AM

I haven't tried virtualbox, but in my experience qemu works fine. Qemu might be less userfriendly as it is more command line orientated than point and click to configure your virtual machine, but I prefer qemu for the follwing reasons:

qemu uses the kvm kernel module included in the Linux sources. If you upgrade your kernel you do not need to worry about yet another third party kernel module.
Qemu is able to emulate more than just x86 guest machines. It can also emulate things like ARM, PowerPC and Sparc machines.

regards Henrik

glorsplitz · 02-11-2024, 07:32 AM

you said install not compile so why not use oracle download and extension pack?

that's all I do

Andersen · 02-11-2024, 12:15 PM

Maybe you could try some of the official binaries, here's the latest one: https://download.virtualbox.org/virt...inux_amd64.run

edit:

6.1 build is outdated anyway

VirtualBox 7.0 (active maintenance)
VirtualBox 6.1 (no longer supported, support ended 2024/01)
VirtualBox 6.0 (no longer supported, support ended 2020/07)
VirtualBox 5.2 (no longer supported, support ended 2020/07)
VirtualBox 5.1 (no longer supported, support ended 2018/04)
VirtualBox 5.0 (no longer supported, support ended 2017/05)
VirtualBox 4.3 (no longer supported, support ended 2015/12)
VirtualBox 4.2 (no longer supported, support ended 2015/12)
VirtualBox 4.1 (no longer supported, support ended 2015/12)
VirtualBox 4.0 (no longer supported, support ended 2015/12)
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Download_Old_Builds

Daedra · 02-11-2024, 12:24 PM

Some of us have got a working Virtualbox 7.0 SlackBuild while we wait for ppr:kut to update his. But the easiest solution, as mentioned above, is to just download the installer oracle provides located here

https://download.virtualbox.org/virt...inux_amd64.run

once downloaded run it as root like this to install...

Code:

./VirtualBox-7.0.14-161095-Linux_amd64.run

Daedra · 02-11-2024, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by henca

I haven't tried virtualbox, but in my experience qemu works fine. Qemu might be less userfriendly as it is more command line orientated than point and click to configure your virtual machine, but I prefer qemu for the follwing reasons:

qemu uses the kvm kernel module included in the Linux sources. If you upgrade your kernel you do not need to worry about yet another third party kernel module.
Qemu is able to emulate more than just x86 guest machines. It can also emulate things like ARM, PowerPC and Sparc machines.

regards Henrik

Use virt-manager and it becomes basically as easy to use as Virtualbox.

bitfuzzy · 02-11-2024, 01:50 PM

I've never had any issues installing Virtualbox using their "run" installer

https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/7.0.14/
https://download.virtualbox.org/virt...inux_amd64.run

lostintime · 02-11-2024, 02:29 PM

Hi lghizoni,

I am using VirtualBox 6.1.44 from SBo on Slackware 15.0.

Some thoughts:

Install the acpica package from SBo.

Next install the virtualbox package from SBo.

Then install the virtualbox-kernel package from SBo.

Other thoughts: ensure the build output environment, usually /tmp, is large enough to build packages. Many people use tmpfs for /tmp but on older systems with less RAM this might limit the storage space for compiling.

I found a bug report that might be related to libxml2-2.11.x and virtualbox 6.1.44. I can't confirm the report because I compiled 6.1.44 when libxml2-2.9.x was installed on my 15.0. The libxml2 packages has been patched several times on 15.0 since the original release. If actually related, then a quick test would be to install libxml2-2.9.x from the original 15.0 release and see if 6.1.44 compiles.

saleo · 02-11-2024, 02:32 PM

As henca and Daedra wrote, maybe you could try qemu + virt-manager.
I did it a couple of weeks ago and I'm very satisfied.

qemu

virt-manager

lostintime · 02-11-2024, 03:16 PM

lghizoni,

I tried compiling 6.1.44 on a fully patched 15.0. I received the same build failure.

I restored the libxml2-2.9.12-x86_64-5.txz package from the original 15.0 release. Then 6.1.44 compiled without error.

I then restored libxml2 to the latest patched package.

I have not tried to compile 6.1.46, 6.1.48, 6.1.50, or 7.0.x.

Options to compile 6.1.44 on 15.0:

* Temporarily revert the libxml2 package.
* Find a patch for libxml2-2.11.x.

Perhaps consider reporting the issue to the SBo virtualbox maintainer.

I hope this helps.

Daedra · 02-11-2024, 03:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by saleo

As henca and Daedra wrote, maybe you could try qemu + virt-manager.
I did it a couple of weeks ago and I'm very satisfied.

qemu

virt-manager

To get the full experience I recommend installing these packages in this order

Code:

osinfo-db-tools
osinfo-db
libosinfo
yajl
numactl
libvirt
libvirt-glib
libvirt-python
gtk-vnc
spice-protocol
spice
usbredir
spice-gtk
device-tree-compiler
libnfs
snappy
vde2
virglrenderer
libslirp
qemu
virt-manager

rkelsen · 02-11-2024, 04:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by glorsplitz

you said install not compile so why not use oracle download and extension pack?

that's all I do

Quote:

Originally Posted by bitfuzzy

I've never had any issues installing Virtualbox using their "run" installer

https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/7.0.14/
https://download.virtualbox.org/virt...inux_amd64.run

There is nothing wrong with this approach.

I don't understand why people waste time messing around with other methods. This one is quick, clean, and easy.

lostintime · 02-11-2024, 06:05 PM

lghizoni,

Following the links in the previously mentioned gentoo bug report, this patch allowed me to compile 6.1.44 on 15.0 with the latest patched libxml2-2.11.x.

Code:

diff -urN VirtualBox-6.1.44/doc/manual/en_US/user_Frontends.xml VirtualBox-6.1.44.new/doc/manual/en_US/user_Frontends.xml
--- VirtualBox-6.1.44/doc/manual/en_US/user_Frontends.xml	2023-04-13 04:15:15.000000000 -0500
+++ VirtualBox-6.1.44.new/doc/manual/en_US/user_Frontends.xml	2024-02-11 17:35:12.806444672 -0600
@@ -1205,6 +1205,6 @@

   </sect1>

-  <xi:include href="user_man_VBoxHeadless.xml" xpointer="element(/1)" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" />
+  <xi:include href="user_man_VBoxHeadless.xml" xpointer="element(/1)" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" ><xi:fallback/></xi:include>

 </chapter>
diff -urN VirtualBox-6.1.44/doc/manual/en_US/user_VBoxManage.xml VirtualBox-6.1.44.new/doc/manual/en_US/user_VBoxManage.xml
--- VirtualBox-6.1.44/doc/manual/en_US/user_VBoxManage.xml	2023-04-13 04:15:15.000000000 -0500
+++ VirtualBox-6.1.44.new/doc/manual/en_US/user_VBoxManage.xml	2024-02-11 17:42:46.135268138 -0600
@@ -8975,6 +8975,6 @@
 <!-- TODO: Figure out how we can handle other manpages. The xml is bolted to
              sect1, so it's not possible to have them "in place" -->

-  <xi:include href="user_man_vboximg-mount.xml" xpointer="element(/1)" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" />
+  <xi:include href="user_man_vboximg-mount.xml" xpointer="element(/1)" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" ><xi:fallback/></xi:include>

 </chapter>

I hope this helps.

lghizoni · 02-12-2024, 09:20 AM

Thank you all for the inputs.

My automatic approach was to always look for the slackpg repo, and then in the slackbuilds.

After going for the .run file in the Virtualbox website, as suggested by some, it installed smoothly

Super thanks!

bitfuzzy · 02-12-2024, 10:57 AM

Just for reference,

When you want to update, just run the "new" run file, it will automatically remove the old installation

You'll need to update your extensions as well