install VBox on linux

This guide shows howto install VirtualBox 4.0 (currently 4.0.10) on Fedora 15, Fedora 14, Fedora 13, Fedora 12, CentOS 5.6, Red Hat (RHEL) 5.6 and Red Hat (RHEL) 6. This howto uses Virtual Box yum repositories.

1. Change to root User

su - ## OR ## sudo -i

2. Install Fedora or RHEL Repo Files

cd /etc/yum.repos.d/  

## Fedora 15/14/13/12 and RHEL 6 users 

wget http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/rpm/fedora/virtualbox.repo   

## CentOS 5.6 and RHEL 5.6 users 

wget http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/rpm/rhel/virtualbox.repo

3. Update latest packages

yum update

Note: Reboot if you got kernel update.

4. Install following dependency packages

yum install gcc kernel-devel kernel-headers   

## PAE kernel users install ## 

yum install gcc kernel-PAE-devel kernel-headers

5. Install VirtualBox Latest Version (current 4.0.10)

yum install VirtualBox-4.0

Note:
This command create automatically vboxusers group and VirtualBox user must be member of that group.
This command also build needed kernel modules.

6. Add VirtualBox User to vboxusers Group

usermod -a -G vboxusers user_name

7. Start VirtualBox

Use launcher or simply:

VirtualBox

Troubleshooting

If you have problems with KERN_DIR parameter or your kernel directory is not automatically detected then set KERN_DIR environment variable manually, using following method:

## Current running kernel on Fedora ## 

KERN_DIR=/usr/src/kernels/`uname -r`   

## Current running kernel on CentOS and Red Hat (RHEL) ## 

KERN_DIR=/usr/src/kernels/`uname -r`-`uname -m`   

## Fedora example ## KERN_DIR=/usr/src/kernels/2.6.33.5-124.fc13.i686   

## CentOS and Red Hat (RHEL) example ## 

KERN_DIR=/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-194.11.1.el5-x86_64   

## Export KERN_DIR ## 

export KERN_DIR