How To Install VirtualBox 4.0 Beta In Ubuntu

VirtualBox 4.0 beta was released today with some major changes. The biggest change is that some functionality has moved into a separate package (such as the USB 2.0 support, RDP server and more).

But that's not all: VirtualBox 4.0 beta also comes with a redesigned user interface, settings/disk file layout for VM portability, support for more than 1.5/2 GB guest RAM on 32-bit hosts, support for the Intel ICH9 chipset, support for limiting a VM's CPU time and IO bandwidth, asynchronous I/O for iSCSI, VMDK, VHD and Parallels images, support for resizing VDI and VHD images and more. For a complete list of new features, see the release announcement.

News via h-online.

Install VirtualBox 4.0 beta in Ubuntu

Before installing VirtualBox 4.0, please remember it's still in beta so expect to find bugs (so use it at your own risk)!

1. To install VirtualBox 4.0 beta, remove any older VirtualBox version you may have installed on your system:

sudo apt-get remove virtualbox*

2. In Ubuntu 32bit only, you'll also have to install libstdc++5:

sudo apt-get install libstdc++5

3. Download VirtualBox .deb packages from HERE - install the file appropriate for your Ubuntu version / architecture.

At this point, running a virtual machine won't work - you need the VirtualBox extensions pack (see below).

4. Download the VirtualBox extensions pack. Then, once you've made sure you've closed all open VirtualBox windows, simply double click the "Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.0.0_BETA1-68572.vbox-extpack" file you've just downloaded - this should install the VirtualBox extensions pack and open VirtualBox.

Update: for a repository, see: Install VirtualBox 4.0.x (Stable) In Ubuntu, Via Repository