Install VirtualBox 6.1 on Debian 11 / Debian 10

In this guide, we will look at how to install the latest release of VirtualBox 6.1 on Debian 11 / Debian 10. VirtualBox is a powerful, feature-rich, high-performance and open source x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization solution for both home users and enterprise.

VirtualBox is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2 and it runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, e.t.c. There are two ways to install VirtualBox on Debian based systems. One method is using OS upstream repositories, and the other is from a manually downloaded .deb package.

Here are key features in VirtualBox 6.1.

• Implemented support for exporting a virtual machine to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
• User interface: greatly improved HiDPI and scaling support, including better detection and per-machine configuration
• Major rework of user interface with simpler and more powerful application and virtual machine set-up
• User interface: a new file manager enabling user to control the guest file system and copy files between host and guest.
• Added support for surround speaker setups (as used by Windows 10 Build 1809)
• Added utility vboximg-mount on Apple hosts to access the content of guest disks on the host
• Added support for using Hyper-V as the fallback execution core on Windows host, to avoid the inability to run VMs at the price of reduced performance
• Graphics: major update of 3D graphics support for Windows guests, and VMSVGA 3D graphics device emulation on Linux and Solaris guests

Install VirtualBox 6.1 on Debian 11 / Debian 10

To get the latest release of VirtualBox on your Debian 11 / Debian 10 system, the recommended way of installation is from apt repository. Follow steps below to have the latest VirtualBox installed on your Debian 11 / Debian 10.

Step 1: Import GPG apt repository

Install required tools

sudo apt update
sudo apt install curl gpg gnupg2 software-properties-common apt-transport-https lsb-release ca-certificates

Add repository key:

curl -fsSL https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox_2016.asc|sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/oracle_vbox_2016.gpg
curl -fsSL https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox.asc|sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/oracle_vbox.gpg

Step 2:  Add the VirtualBox repository

Once GPG signing keys have been imported in your Debian system, you can then add VirtualBox 6.1 APT repository by running the commands below in your terminal.

echo "deb [arch=amd64] http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian $(lsb_release -sc) contrib" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list

Step 3:  Install VirtualBox & Extension pack on

Finally, install VirtualBox & Extension pack on yourDebian 11 / Debian 10 Linux system by running the commands:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r) dkms
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-6.1

Download Extension Pack:

cd ~/
wget https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/6.1.34/Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-6.1.34.vbox-extpack

The same Extension pack can be downloaded manually from the URL – https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Once the file is downloaded, install the extension pack by clicking on the Downloaded file.

Step 4: Launching VirtualBox 6.1 onDebian 11 / Debian 10

Once VirtualBox is installed, you can launch it using the terminal or Desktop applications search.

From terminal, use:

$ virtualbox

The new user interface for VirtualBox interface looks like below:

VirtualBox 6.1 has been installed successfully onDebian 11 / Debian 10 system. You can now begin the creation of Linux, Windows or BSD based operating systems and enjoy.