How to Install Virtualbox on Fedora Workstation 23

In This Tutorial we are going to install Oracle VM VirtualBox on Fedora 23 Workstation, which is the Desktop Version of the Fedora Linux.

This is what we are going to do.

Update the Linux kernel – First we install latest kernel updates for Fedora Linux.
Prepare Fedora 23 for VirtualBox – First, we need to install dependence package that needs to install VirtualBox in fedora 23 workstation. these packages are included gcc, kernel-headers and keren-devel
Then we configure the fedora virtualbox repository and install virtualbox using dnf install command. So let’s get started.

Install Virtualbox on Fedora Workstation 23

Step One

Update the Fedora Linux kernel

First, Update the Fedora Kernel using dnf update Command.

dnf update kernel

Then restart your computer.

systemctl reboot

When you update the kernel in fedora, your existing kernel will not be removed. The dnf update command will install the new kernel while keeping the old kernel. You can Select the old kernel during the boot process if you want.

Step Two

Install gcc and kernel headers packages.

To Install VirtualBox on Fedora, we need following dependence packages kernel-headers, kernel-devel and gcc. We can install These three packages using dnf install command.

dnf install kernel-devel kernel-headers gcc

Step Three

Add Fedora VirtualBox Repository

Create the fedora virtualbox repository file inside the /etc/yum.repos.d with .repo extension.

touch /etc/yum.repos.d/virtualbox.repo

Then Open the virtualbox.repo file and add following lines.

[virtualbox]

name=Fedora $releasever – $basearch – VirtualBox

baseurl=http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/rpm/fedora/$releasever/$basearch

enabled=1

gpgcheck=1

repo_gpgcheck=1

gpgkey=https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox.asc

Then run the dnf repolist command to make sure that fedora virtualbox repository is active.

dnf repolist

Step Four

Install VirtualBox using dnf install command

First run dnf search command to list available VirtualBox versions to install.

dnf search virtualbox

In our case you can see we have two versions available, VirtualBox 4.0 and 5.0. We will Install the latest version 5.0 using dnf install command.

dnf install VirtualBox-5.0

Add user to vboxusers group

Now the Installation is finished, but there is one more thing you should remember. In order to use some VirtualBox features like USB device Sharing , Linux user who uses the VirtualBox must be a member of the vboxusers Linux group.

We can add users to the vboxusers group using the usermod command.

usermod -a -G vboxusers username

Replace the username with your actual Linux login name. For example, if your username is admin, then execute the usermod command as follows.

usermod -a -G vboxusers admin

Even Though you don’t need to be a member of the vboxusers Linux group to create and run the virtual machines, You won’t be able to share host USB devices with Virtual Computers without being a member of the vboxusers group.

Now we have finished the Oracle VM VirtualBox installation on Fedora 23 workstation, We can open the VirtualBox manager from the Activities Menu.

Summary : What We Learned

In This Tutorial We Learned How to Install Oracle VM VirtualBox on Fedora Workstation 23.

First we update the Fedora kernel and install the dependence packages kernel-headers, kernel-devel and gcc.
Then We create the VirtualBox repository and install the VirtualBox using dnf install command.
Finally, we add users to the vboxusers group to access additional VirtualBox Features.

What Next ?

In the Next Tutorial We will learn how to install THE VirtualBox extension pack on Fedora Linux.

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