contrib/virtualbox/README

README for virtualbox


REQUIREMENTS

  Kernel headers needed to build virtualbox's modules.


PRE-INSTALL

  -- IMPORTANT --
  Run the post-install script in order to add a vboxusers group to your system.
  After that, add your user to the vboxusers group:
  # usermod -a -G vboxusers <your_user> 
  ---------------


POST-INSTALL

  During installation 'vboxdrv.ko' has been installed to your modules directory
  and you can load it using modprobe vboxdrv (needed before run VirtualBox).
  Also make sure you give yourself read and write access to /dev/vboxdrv.
  For this, virtualbox port has their own udev rules.

  Also is a good idea to fine tune your udev rules as you want.
  For getting some info from your system run udevinfo:
  # udevadm info -a -p /sys/class/misc/vboxdrv

  Udevadm info starts with the device specified by the devpath and then
  walks up the chain of parent devices. It prints for every device
  found, all possible attributes in the udev rules key format.
  A rule to match, can be composed by the attributes of the device
  and the attributes from one single parent device.

    looking at device '/devices/virtual/misc/vboxdrv':
    KERNEL=="vboxdrv"
    SUBSYSTEM=="misc"
    DRIVER==""


PRECAUTION

  Virtualbox by default uses /usr/src/linux as the source directory of your
  Linux kernel. To use an alternative kernel directory you should type
  something like:
  # env KERN_DIR=/not-default-path/src/linux pkgmk


NOTES

  Upgrading a kernel should not affect external modules. Modules which are
  included in the kernel are installed in: /lib/modules/$(KERNELRELEASE)/kernel
  And external modules are installed in: /lib/modules/$(KERNELRELEASE)/extra

  Anyway if you want to compile and install virtualbox modules again you have
  some alternatives:
  # make -C /usr/share/virtualbox/bin/src \
    MODULE_DIR=/lib/modules/$(uname -r)/extra install

  Or if you want to an specific kernel version (for example: 4.1.8)
  # make -C /usr/share/virtualbox/bin/src \
    KERN_DIR=/usr/src/linux-4.1.8 \
    MODULE_DIR=/lib/modules/4.1.8/extra install