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In this article, we will see how to install VirtualBox on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. Virtualbox is an extremely powerful, feature rich, free and open source virtualization software available to use in almost all the famous platforms in both enterprise as well as for home use purposes. It supports a huge list of guest operating systems which makes it one of the widely used virtualization software for testing and other development purposes. It provides the flexibility of running multiple guest operating systems, completely independent to each other on same host system.

So it basically solves the problem of using separate infrastructure for each operating system you want to install and use for multiple different purposes. It provides the same capabilities just like any other physical infrastructure. One can install as many virtual machines as required only limited by the host system configuration. Being a cross-platform tool, it can be easily installed on any platform. Here we will see the steps to install VirtualBox on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS based systems. You can also check How to download and install Oracle VirtualBox on Windows 10 to know about the installation steps on Windows 10 based systems.

Also Read: How to Install Nmap on Ubuntu/Debian

a) You should have a running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Server.

b) You should have sudo or root access to run privileged commands.

c) You should have apt or apt-get utility available in your Server.

d) You need atleast 1024MB of ram or more for better experience.

e) While VirtualBox itself takes very less amount of hard disk space but you probably need some space for creating virtual machines depending on your use case.

Before installing VirtualBox, it is required to install all the latest available updates from default Ubuntu repo by using sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade command as shown below.

In the next step, you can install VirtualBox by using any of the below methods depending on your requirements and needs.

a) Using Apt

The most simplest way to install VirtualBox is from the default Ubuntu repo by using apt or apt-get package manager. In this method, you have to run sudo apt install virtualbox command as shown below. This will download and install the package along with all its dependencies from default Ubuntu repo.

If you are looking for extended functionalities like USB support, camera support etc then you have to install virtualbox extended pack by using sudo apt install virtualbox-ext-pack command as shown below.

During installation, it will ask you to configure virtualbox-ext-pack as shown below.

You have to accept the terms of the VirtualBox PUEL license to continue with installation. If everything goes well, then the installation will be completed successfully.

b) Using Debian Package

Then you have another method in which you can download latest debian package for Ubuntu 20.04 from official website using wget command as shown below.

After downloading the debian package, you can install it by using sudo dpkg -i virtualbox-7.0_7.0.12-159484~Ubuntu~focal_amd64.deb command as shown below.

You might notice that during installation above it will complain about unmet dependencies so to install all the missing dependencies you can immediately run sudo apt install -f command as shown below.

To launch VirtualBox, go to Desktop and Click on Activities. Then type VirtualBox in the search bar as shown below. Once it appears, tap on it to open.

It should open like below. Now you can proceed with the creation of Virtual Machine in VirtualBox.

Once you are done using VirtualBox, you can choose to uninstall it from your system by using any of the below methods depending on how you have installed it.

a) Using Apt 

If you installed it from default ubuntu repo then you can uninstall it from your system by using sudo apt remove virtualbox command as shown below. You can also remove all dependent packages by using --auto-remove option. But be careful before using this option as it might delete some of the dependent packages which are actively used by other running applications on your system.

You can also remove the extension package virtualbox-ext-pack by using sudo apt remove virtualbox-ext-pack command if it is not already removed from the previous command.

b) Using Package Version

If you installed VirtualBox manually from the debian package then during uninstallation you have specify the correct version to uninstall. This you can find out by running dpkg -l | grep -i virtualbox command as shown below. As you can see, in our case we have to remove virtualbox version 7.0

After finding out the correct version, you can remove it by using sudo apt remove virtualbox-7.0 command as shown below. You can also remove all dependent packages by using --auto-remove option.