VirtualBox-appimage: A Shell repository from ivan-hc

Unofficial AppImage of VirtualBox built on top of "Conty", the portable Arch Linux container that runs everywhere.

This AppImage includes Guest Additions ISO and the Extension Pack.

NOTE, Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack is released with PUEL license https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/VirtualBox_PUEL

How it works

Download the AppImage from https://github.com/ivan-hc/VirtualBox-appimage/releases
Made it executable

chmod a+x ./*.AppImage

Run it, do this the first time from terminal, since the internal "Conty" script may detect if you need Nvidia drivers for your GPU

./*.AppImage

this may need seconds before you can use VirtualBox.

This AppImage does NOT require libfuse2, being it a new generation one.

Also, this VirtualBox AppImage does not require "vboxdrv", being it based on VirtualBox KVM.

USB support

According with this guide, to enable the USB support we need to handle some files using root permissions:

we need to add the "VBoxCreateUSBNode.sh" of VirtualBox into a /usr/lib/virtualbox directory on the host
we need to create the "vboxusers" group and add our $USER in that group
we need to add the "60-vboxusb.rules" file to /etc/udev/rules.d and then we need to reload these rules

I have resumed all these steps into one function available in the AppRun script of the AppImage, name of the function is "VBoxUSB_enable".

To enable the USB support you must run the following command:

./*.AppImage --vbox-usb-enable

this is the message that will appear, you need to enter the "sudo" password

these are the commands included in this function:

# Create the "vboxusers" group and add $USER
sudo groupadd -r vboxusers -U "$USER"

# Create the directory /usr/lib/virtualbox on the host system
sudo mkdir -p /usr/lib/virtualbox

# Install the "VBoxCreateUSBNode.sh" script in /usr/lib/virtualbox
QUIET_MODE=1 NVIDIA_HANDLER=0 "${HERE}"/conty.sh cp /usr/share/virtualbox/VBoxCreateUSBNode.sh ./
chmod a+x VBoxCreateUSBNode.sh
sudo mv VBoxCreateUSBNode.sh /usr/lib/virtualbox/
sudo chown -R root:vboxusers /usr/lib/virtualbox

# Create the directory /etc/udev/rules.d
sudo mkdir -p /etc/udev/rules.d

# Create and install the 60-vboxusb.rules file in /etc/udev/rules.d
cat <<-'HEREDOC' >> ./60-vboxusb.rules
SUBSYSTEM=="usb_device", ACTION=="add", RUN+="/usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxCreateUSBNode.sh $major $minor $attr{bDeviceClass}"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="add", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device", RUN+="/usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxCreateUSBNode.sh $major $minor $attr{bDeviceClass}"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb_device", ACTION=="remove", RUN+="/usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxCreateUSBNode.sh --remove $major $minor"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="remove", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device", RUN+="/usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxCreateUSBNode.sh --remove $major $minor"
HEREDOC
sudo mv 60-vboxusb.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/

# Reload the udev rules
sudo systemctl reload systemd-udevd

Alternativelly you can follow the guide at https://github.com/cyberus-technology/virtualbox-kvm#usb-pass-through and enable the USB support manually.

NOTE: the function above extracts the "VBoxCreateUSBNode.sh" from the internal Conty build, if you want to do it manually, you can download any VirtualBox package and check for "VBoxCreateUSBNode.sh" and made it executable. You can also extract it from the AppImage when it is mounted, in /tmp/conty_*/mnt/usr/share/virtualbox.

How to build it

Currently, the AppImage I produced contains the following structure:

|---- AppRun
|---- virtualbox.desktop
|---- virtualbox.svg
|---- conty.sh

The AppRun is the core script of the AppImage
The .desktop file of Virtualbox
The icon of Virtualbox
The Arch Linux container named "conty.sh", it contains Virtualbox KVM.

Points 1, 2 and 3 are the essential elements of any AppImage.

The script "conty.sh" (4) is the big one among the elements of this AppImage.

This is what each file of my workflow is ment for:

create-arch-bootstrap.sh creates an Arch Linux chroot, where VirtualBox KVM is installed from ChaoticAUR. This is the first script to be used ("root" required);
create-conty.sh is the second script used in this process, it converts the Arch Linux chroot created by "create-arch-bootstrap.sh" into a big script named "conty.sh", that includes "conty-start.sh";
conty-start.sh is the script responsible of startup inizialization processes to made Conty work. It includes a function that detects the version of the Nvidia drivers needed, if they are needed, the script downloads and installs them in ~/.local/share/Conty. Also it is responsible of full integration of Conty with the host system, using "bubblewrap;
utils_dwarfs.tar.gz contains "dwarfs", a set of tools similar to squashfs to compress filesystems, and it is needed to compress "conty.sh" as much as possible;
virtualbox-conty-builder.sh is a script i wrote to pundle "conty.sh" near the AppRun, the .desktop file and the icon to convert everything into an AppImage. It is ment to be used in github actions.

Files 1, 2, 3 and 4 come from my fork of https://github.com/Kron4ek/Conty

Files 1, 2 and 3 are a mod of the original ones to made them smaller and with only what its needed to made VirtualBox work.

To learn more about "Conty", to download more complete builds or to learn more on how to create your own, visit the official repository of the project:

https://github.com/Kron4ek/Conty

Known issues

◆ Very slow first startup for Nvidia users

At the first start, if necessary, the drivers for your video card will be downloaded, via Conty (see screenshot above). This may take several seconds or even minutes. This behaviour will only be noticed if when you first start it, you launch VirtualBox from the terminal instead of using the launcher.

◆ Shortcuts

If you right-click on the VM to createa launcher, open the .desktop file and change the "Exec=" entry from

Exec=/usr/lib/virtualbox/VirtualBoxVM --comment ...

Exec=/path/to/VirtualBox-{VERSION}-x86_64.AppImage VirtualBoxVM --comment ...

or if you use "AM" or "AppMan" (see below)

Exec=virtualbox VirtualBoxVM --comment ...

Credits

Conty https://github.com/Kron4ek/Conty
VirtualBox KVM team https://github.com/cyberus-technology/virtualbox-kvm
ChaoticAUR team https://aur.chaotic.cx

Install and update it with ease

"AM" Application Manager

Package manager, database & solutions for all AppImages and portable apps for GNU/Linux!

"AM"/"AppMan" is a set of scripts and modules for installing, updating, and managing AppImage packages and other portable formats, in the same way that APT manages DEBs packages, DNF the RPMs, and so on... using a large database of Shell scripts inspired by the Arch User Repository, each dedicated to an app or set of applications.

The engine of "AM"/"AppMan" is the "APP-MANAGER" script which, depending on how you install or rename it, allows you to install apps system-wide (for a single system administrator) or locally (for each user).

"AM"/"AppMan" aims to be the default package manager for all AppImage packages, giving them a home to stay.

You can consult the entire list of managed apps at portable-linux-apps.github.io/apps.

Go to https://github.com/ivan-hc/AM* for more!*

Install "AM"	See all available apps	Support me on ko-fi.com	Support me on PayPal.me

ivan-hc/VirtualBox-appimage