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I have x64 bit VirtualBox. I installed it on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.

I now need the extension package for my VirtualBox, but I am not sure which one and how to install it?

I only know that I should download it from virtualbox.org. Also, I need it because I followed this tutorial and at one part you can read the following message:

You should download the main program and the Extension Pack, which will give you support for USB devices.

How can I install the VirtualBox Extension Pack?

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4 Answers 4

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If you installed virtualbox from Ubuntu repositories, just install the package named virtualbox-ext-pack.

sudo apt install virtualbox-ext-pack

This way you can be sure that the right version will be installed, and they will also upgrade together if needed. So the name of the game is to use same version for the packages, possibly use the same repository as well, preferably your distribution's repos. After installation you possibly need to

sudo modprobe vboxdrv

otherwise you may still get configuration errors in VirtualBox settings. Besides virtualbox-ext-pack I have virtualbox, virtualbox-dkms, and virtualbox-qt packages installed, a bunch of gvfs packages, and of course dkms.

(You'd want to go to a PPA and fiddle around yourself only if your distribution's offered packages are missing some features and the PPA would offer a later version with those fatures. But then I'd advise to use the PPA for all virtualbox packages and don't mix and match.)

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  • Actually PPA could be useful if your distro's VirtualBox's version is too old for some feature or bigfix. The thing in this case is that don't mix the PPA packages with the native repo ones
    – Csaba Toth
    Jun 4, 2018 at 17:11
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    For me this only worked after I did sudo modprobe vboxdrv after installation, otherwise I still got configuration errors in VirtualBox settings.
    – Ruslan
    Apr 22, 2020 at 11:01
  • @Ruslan thanks I updated the answer, also better PPA clause
    – Csaba Toth
    Apr 22, 2020 at 17:58
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    I hade to do modprobe -r on vboxnetadp, vboxnetflt and vboxdrv and then modprobe them again, since I already had Virtualbox installed. Then I loaded them again and I had USB 3 in the settings.
    – thomasa88
    Sep 30, 2020 at 17:51
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To install an extension pack once VirtualBox is installed; click on

File > Preferences > Extensions > Adds New Package (icon on right side)

It is important that the extension pack match the version of VirtualBox installed. If VirtualBox gets updated via a ppa or however, you need to remove the old extension pack, download the new one, and install it.

Extension dialog

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You are referring to an article about installing VB on a Windows machine, but you are installing it on Ubuntu.

A Google search for "Install VirtualBox on Ubuntu" will get you a lot of options including videos. Here is one link I found: Install VirtualBox on Ubuntu using PPA

As for which extensions pack, on the download page, click the "All supported platforms" link.

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You need to install the Extensions for exact the same VirtualBox version. In VirtualBox press Help > About VirtualBox. On my machine with 14.04 this is 4.3.10 (Link to Extension)

You can find old versions on VirtualBox Old Builds Page. 4.3.10 is hidden under the VirtualBox 4.3 older builds link

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