Virtualbox backport for Debian 10

This repository provides an unofficial (and unsupported) backport of Virtualbox for Debian 10, based on the package available in Debian unstable (see https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/virtualbox).

Since 2020-02-17, the repository also includes backports of:

Note: if you use this, please let me know, so I know if I should continue maintaining it.

Contact: Lucas Nussbaum lucas@debian.org

Usage on Debian 11 (bullseye)

Please use the package from fasttrack.debian.net.

Usage on Debian ‘testing’ or ‘unstable’

This is a package for Debian 10 (buster). It does not work on Debian ‘testing’ or ‘unstable’. If you are using ‘testing’ or ‘unstable’, use the package available in ‘unstable’. If you use ‘testing’, use APT pinning to install the package from ‘unstable’ (see https://wiki.debian.org/AptConfiguration).

Installation instructions

# 1. Enable Debian's backports repository. See https://backports.debian.org/Instructions/

# 2. Download and trust lucas' GPG key
wget -O - https://db.debian.org/fetchkey.cgi?fingerprint=FEDEC1CB337BCF509F43C2243914B532F4DFBE99 | apt-key add

# 3. Add the repository
echo 'deb https://people.debian.org/~lucas/virtualbox-buster/ ./' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox-unofficial.list

# 4. Update and install virtualbox
apt update
apt install virtualbox

# 5. Start virtualbox manually (I'm not sure why this is needed)
systemctl start virtualbox

Context

Virtualbox is not available in Debian 10 (nor in backports). The reasons are discussed at length in https://bugs.debian.org/794466 and various other mailing list threads, but can be summarized as:

Notes

Instructions to build the backport yourself

# install needed packages
apt install --no-install-recommends devscripts build-essential debian-keyring equivs

# download source package
dget http://deb.debian.org/debian/pool/contrib/v/virtualbox/virtualbox_6.0.14-dfsg-2.dsc

# install build dependencies
cd virtualbox-6.0.14-dfsg
mk-build-deps -ir

# create a new changelog entry
# The double '~' makes it rank lower than a hypothetical official backport.
DEBFULLNAME='Lucas Nussbaum' DEBEMAIL='lucas@debian.org' dch -bv 6.0.14-dfsg-2~~bpo10+1 --distribution buster-backports --force-distribution 'New unofficial backport.'

# build the package
dpkg-buildpackage

# generate a proper Debian repo
dpkg-scanpackages . > Packages
gzip < Packages > Packages.gz
apt-ftparchive -o "APT::FTPArchive::Release::Origin=virtualbox-unofficial" release . > Release
gpg --yes --sign --armor --output Release.gpg Release
gpg --yes --sign --armor --clearsign --output InRelease Release
Icon  Name                                                             Last modified      Size  Description
[PARENTDIR] Parent Directory - [   ] virtualbox_6.1.18-dfsg.orig.tar.xz 2021-02-20 06:52 67M [   ] virtualbox_6.1.18-dfsg-2~~bpo10+1_amd64.deb 2021-02-20 06:52 20M [   ] virtualbox_6.1.18-dfsg-2~~bpo10+1_amd64.changes 2021-02-20 06:52 6.3K [   ] virtualbox_6.1.18-dfsg-2~~bpo10+1_amd64.buildinfo 2021-02-20 06:52 25K [TXT] virtualbox_6.1.18-dfsg-2~~bpo10+1.dsc 2021-02-20 06:52 2.7K [   ] virtualbox_6.1.18-dfsg-2~~bpo10+1.debian.tar.xz 2021-02-20 06:52 85K [TXT] virtualbox_6.1.18-dfsg-2.dsc 2021-02-20 06:52 3.5K [   ] virtualbox_6.1.18-dfsg-2.debian.tar.xz 2021-02-20 06:52 85K [   ] virtualbox-source_6.1.18-dfsg-2~~bpo10+1_amd64.deb 2021-02-20 06:53 842K [   ] virtualbox-qt_6.1.18-dfsg-2~~bpo10+1_amd64.deb 2021-02-20 06:52 21M [   ] virtualbox-qt-dbgsym_6.1.18-dfsg-2~~bpo10+1_amd64.deb 2021-02-20 06:53 51M [   ] virtualbox-guest-x11_6.1.18-dfsg-2~~bpo10+1_amd64.deb 2021-02-20 06:52 572K [   ] virtualbox-guest-x11-dbgsym_6.1.18-dfsg-2~~bpo10+1_amd64.deb 2021-02-20 06:52 1.9M [   ] virtualbox-guest-utils_6.1.18-dfsg-2~~bpo10+1_amd64.deb 2021-02-20 06:52 881K [   ] virtualbox-guest-utils-dbgsym_6.1.18-dfsg-2~~bpo10+1_amd64.deb 2021-02-20 06:52 5.0M [   ] virtualbox-guest-source_6.1.18-dfsg-2~~bpo10+1_all.deb 2021-02-20 06:52 1.1M [   ] virtualbox-guest-dkms_6.1.18-dfsg-2~~bpo10+1_all.deb 2021-02-20 06:52 681K [   ] virtualbox-guest-additions-iso_6.1.18.orig.tar.xz 2021-02-20 06:52 43M [   ] virtualbox-guest-additions-iso_6.1.18-1~~bpo10+1_amd64.changes 2021-02-20 06:52 2.0K [   ] virtualbox-guest-additions-iso_6.1.18-1~~bpo10+1_amd64.buildinfo 2021-02-20 06:52 4.8K [   ] virtualbox-guest-additions-iso_6.1.18-1~~bpo10+1_all.deb 2021-02-20 06:52 43M [TXT] virtualbox-guest-additions-iso_6.1.18-1~~bpo10+1.dsc 2021-02-20 06:52 1.4K [   ] virtualbox-guest-additions-iso_6.1.18-1~~bpo10+1.debian.tar.xz 2021-02-20 06:52 8.9K [TXT] virtualbox-guest-additions-iso_6.1.18-1.dsc 2021-02-20 06:52 2.2K [   ] virtualbox-guest-additions-iso_6.1.18-1.debian.tar.xz 2021-02-20 06:52 8.9K [   ] virtualbox-ext-pack_6.1.18.orig.tar.xz 2021-02-20 06:52 192 [   ] virtualbox-ext-pack_6.1.18-1~~bpo10+1_amd64.changes 2021-02-20 06:52 1.8K [   ] virtualbox-ext-pack_6.1.18-1~~bpo10+1_amd64.buildinfo 2021-02-20 06:52 4.7K [   ] virtualbox-ext-pack_6.1.18-1~~bpo10+1_all.deb 2021-02-20 06:52 13K [TXT] virtualbox-ext-pack_6.1.18-1~~bpo10+1.dsc 2021-02-20 06:52 1.2K [   ] virtualbox-ext-pack_6.1.18-1~~bpo10+1.debian.tar.xz 2021-02-20 06:52 14K [TXT] virtualbox-ext-pack_6.1.18-1.dsc 2021-02-20 06:52 2.1K [   ] virtualbox-ext-pack_6.1.18-1.debian.tar.xz 2021-02-20 06:52 14K [   ] virtualbox-dkms_6.1.18-dfsg-2~~bpo10+1_amd64.deb 2021-02-20 06:52 707K [   ] virtualbox-dbgsym_6.1.18-dfsg-2~~bpo10+1_amd64.deb 2021-02-20 06:52 66M [   ] vagrant_2.2.6+dfsg.orig.tar.xz 2020-02-17 21:53 603K [   ] vagrant_2.2.6+dfsg-2~~bpo10+1_amd64.changes 2020-02-17 21:53 1.7K [   ] vagrant_2.2.6+dfsg-2~~bpo10+1_all.deb 2020-02-17 21:53 483K [TXT] vagrant_2.2.6+dfsg-2~~bpo10+1.dsc 2020-02-17 21:53 1.6K [   ] vagrant_2.2.6+dfsg-2~~bpo10+1.debian.tar.xz 2020-02-17 21:53 14K [TXT] vagrant_2.2.6+dfsg-2.dsc 2020-02-17 21:53 2.4K [   ] vagrant_2.2.6+dfsg-2.debian.tar.xz 2020-02-17 21:53 14K [DIR] staging/ 2020-10-16 07:09 - [   ] ruby-vagrant-cloud_2.0.3-1~~bpo10+1_amd64.changes 2020-02-17 21:51 1.8K [   ] ruby-vagrant-cloud_2.0.3-1~~bpo10+1_all.deb 2020-02-17 21:51 9.6K [TXT] ruby-vagrant-cloud_2.0.3-1~~bpo10+1.dsc 2020-02-17 21:51 1.3K [   ] ruby-vagrant-cloud_2.0.3-1~~bpo10+1.debian.tar.xz 2020-02-17 21:51 2.2K [TXT] ruby-vagrant-cloud_2.0.3-1.dsc 2020-02-17 21:51 2.1K [   ] ruby-vagrant-cloud_2.0.3-1.debian.tar.xz 2020-02-17 21:51 2.1K [TXT] header.html 2021-08-31 20:02 4.3K [DIR] bak/ 2020-12-07 21:58 - [   ] backport.rb 2021-02-20 06:52 2.4K [   ] Release.gpg 2021-02-20 06:54 2.6K [   ] Release 2021-02-20 06:53 2.4K [TXT] README.md 2020-11-02 08:49 3.5K [   ] Packages.gz 2021-02-20 06:53 6.2K [   ] Packages 2021-02-20 06:53 20K [   ] InRelease 2021-02-20 06:54 3.2K
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