Solved Virtual Machine Questions; Privacy, Isolation of Apps,

[osprey]

It appears to be enabled

The command you gave me (grep vmx /proc/cpuinfo)
doesn't show anything. I guess because vmx is a newer technology with a different name?

From the images in post #17 it's looks like intel virtualisation is present on the machine with vt-x, but without the enhancement which vmx provides. It means that virtualisation will be fine on the machine, but not as optimal as that which vmx can provide. If both flags were there, the two technologies would work in together. However, there shouldn't be any fundamental problem, but things might be a little laggy. It'll depend in part on the pressures you impose on the virtual machine, but for light work, it should be fine.

 

[theLegionWithin]

if virutalbox isnt working, have you tried bottles? like, create a bottle, install zoom in it & see how it does with system resources?

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

if virutalbox isnt working, have you tried bottles? like, create a bottle, install zoom in it & see how it does with system resources?

I haven't installed it yet. I was checking that my CPU supports virtualization technology. It was disabled in BIOS.

I'm trying to figure out an Ubuntu driver update now.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

So I figured out what's going on with the Ubuntu package upgrade... For what it's worth and because I spent so much time figuring this out, I'm posting what I found out


"The following upgrades have been deferred due to phasing:
ubuntu-drivers-common"


Apparently Ubuntu isn't giving this upgrade to everyone all at the same time. I'm not on the list to get it now.

Now back to installation instructions provided by @bob466

sherri@sherri-K30AD-M31AD-M51AD:~$ sudo apt update
[sudo] password for sherri:            
Ign:1 http://packages.linuxmint.com xia InRelease
Hit:2 http://packages.linuxmint.com xia Release
Hit:4 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-security InRelease        
Hit:5 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble InRelease                  
Hit:6 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates InRelease
Hit:7 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-backports InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
1 package can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see it.
sherri@sherri-K30AD-M31AD-M51AD:~$ sudo apt upgrade -y
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following upgrades have been deferred due to phasing:
  ubuntu-drivers-common
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
sherri@sherri-K30AD-M31AD-M51AD:~$

 

[wizardfromoz]

OK, you are doing well. Now the next thing you need to think about is what distro to install in the virtual machine.

The distro that will be running in the VM is the Guest, and the distro that runs on your rig, and in which the VM is installed, is the Host.

Now typically, you would install a different distro in the VM, to try it, or even Windows, if you needed it.

However you have said that you don't particularly want to try another distro, so you could actually install Xia (LM 22.1) in the VirtualBox machine, and then install Zoom in that. Not so much learning curve, then.

Give it some thought.

Others than me, will be better in helping you to optimise VirtualBox.

HTH

Chris

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

Now typically, you would install a different distro in the VM, to try it, or even Windows, if you needed it.

I need to clarify this part.I DO want to use a different distro as the guest for a couple of reasons.

One. A couple of people have said they no longer have the same issues, but they use a different distro. Since LM is built on Ubuntu, maybe one that isn't.

It would be a good chance to learn another distro without giving up one that I'm familiar with.

If something goes wrong, especially at an inconvenient time I still have LM.

I might first try Ubuntu though. The terminal commands are starting to make sense.

-grep roughly means 'search' then add what you're looking for .

pgrep.... Search process followed an app name, particularly Zoom

Kill followed by the process to force stop Zoom..

However you have said that you don't particularly want to try another distro, so you could actually install Xia (LM 22.1) in the VirtualBox machine, and then install Zoom in that. Not so much learning curve, then.

Give it some thought.

Others than me, will be better in helping you to optimise VirtualBox.

HTH

Chris

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

wizardfromoz said:
Does it matter? No, IMO.

My CPU does support virtualization, but with an earlier technology. VT-x. It was disabled in BIOS. I enabled it.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

@bob466

I can't believe I"m about to say this, not only because I have relatively little practical experience with Linux and especially since I'm still getting over the brain fog from chemo...

I'm finding this a lot easier to do through the terminal...

I can't believe I just said that....

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

It's easier for me to understand exactly what I'm doing using the terminal. I'm following the instructions on this website.

How to Install VirtualBox on Linux Mint 22 Step-by-Step

I fully updated my system yesterday.

I have installed dependencies
sudo apt install dkms build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r) -y

sherri@sherri-K30AD-M31AD-M51AD:~$ sudo apt install dkms build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r) -y
[sudo] password for sherri:             
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
dkms is already the newest version (3.0.11-1ubuntu13).
build-essential is already the newest version (12.10ubuntu1).
linux-headers-6.8.0-57-generic is already the newest version (6.8.0-57.59).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

The repository

$ sudo apt install curl wget apt-transport-https gnupg2 -y

$ wget -O- https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox_2016.asc | sudo gpg --yes --output /usr/share/keyrings/oracle-virtualbox-2016.gpg --dearmor

$ echo "deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/oracle-virtualbox-2016.gpg] https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian noble contrib" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list

sherri@sherri-K30AD-M31AD-M51AD:~$ sudo apt install curl wget apt-transport-https gnupg2 -y
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
curl is already the newest version (8.5.0-2ubuntu10.6).
wget is already the newest version (1.21.4-1ubuntu4.1).
apt-transport-https is already the newest version (2.7.14build2).
gnupg2 is already the newest version (2.4.4-2ubuntu17.2).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
sherri@sherri-K30AD-M31AD-M51AD:~$ wget -O- https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox_2016.asc | sudo gpg --yes --output /usr/share/keyrings/oracle-virtualbox-2016.gpg --dearmor
--2025-04-06 15:18:42--  https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox_2016.asc
Resolving www.virtualbox.org (www.virtualbox.org)... 2600:1407:3c00:9a4::37b7, 2600:1407:3c00:995::37b7, 23.49.185.164
Connecting to www.virtualbox.org (www.virtualbox.org)|2600:1407:3c00:9a4::37b7|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 3157 (3.1K) [application/pgp-signature]
Saving to: ‘STDOUT’

-                   100%[===================>]   3.08K  --.-KB/s    in 0.001s 

2025-04-06 15:18:42 (4.43 MB/s) - written to stdout [3157/3157]

sherri@sherri-K30AD-M31AD-M51AD:~$ echo "deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/oracle-virtualbox-2016.gpg] https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian noble contrib" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list
deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/oracle-virtualbox-2016.gpg] https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian noble contrib

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

Install Virtual Box

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install virtualbox-7.1 -y

I was going to add all the code generated...

I got this message about Secure Boot. If I had known I would run into this I would have disabled Secure Boot before installing VB.
I'm going to move forward with these directions.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

"There were problems setting up VirtualBox. To re-start the set-up process, run /sbin/vboxconfig" More instructions follow that involve concepts I know next to nothing about. I think I see a way around this.

Until the Secure Boot problem everything was going along smoothly.
I"m going to uninstall Virtual Box.
Disable Secure Boot in BIOS
Start over.

Hopefully this will work! I'll see you on the other side!

There were problems setting up VirtualBox.  To re-start the set-up process, run
  /sbin/vboxconfig
as root.  If your system is using EFI Secure Boot you may need to sign the
kernel modules (vboxdrv, vboxnetflt, vboxnetadp, vboxpci) before you can load
them. Please see your Linux system's documentation for more information.
Setting up libqt6wlshellintegration6:amd64 (6.4.2-5build3) ...
Setting up libqt6waylandcompositor6:amd64 (6.4.2-5build3) ...
Setting up libqt6waylandeglcompositorhwintegration6:amd64 (6.4.2-5build3) ...
Setting up libqt6waylandeglclienthwintegration6:amd64 (6.4.2-5build3) ...
Setting up qt6-wayland:amd64 (6.4.2-5build3) ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.17-2) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.36.0-1.1ubuntu3) ...
Processing triggers for mate-menus (1.26.1+mint1) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.39-0ubuntu8.4) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.12.0-4build2) ...
Processing triggers for shared-mime-info (2.4-4) ...
Processing triggers for mailcap (3.70+nmu1ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.27-2build1) ...
N: Ignoring file 'virtualbox.lis' in directory '/etc/apt/sources.list.d/' as it has an invalid filename extension

 

[KGIII]

I got this message about Secure Boot. If I had known I would run into this I would have disabled Secure Boot before installing VB.

That should be harmless. That should just enable secure boot as an option for virtualized operating systems. You're just signing a certificate, more or less.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

@Sherri is a Cat
Hopefully your UEFI firmware isn't buggy, because otherwise the only way to remove newly added MOK from NVRAM will be to clear CMOS.

You'll know if that's the case next time you attempt to install OS in UEFI mode.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

@Sherri is a Cat
Hopefully your UEFI firmware isn't buggy, because otherwise the only way to remove newly added MOK from NVRAM will be to clear CMOS.

I'm not worried. It takes 5 minutes to do that.

I think I know what happened...

When I first installed LM I wiped and reformatted the HDD using EXT4.
I also changed the 'Secure Boot State' to 'Other OS'.

A few days ago and again yesterday I couldn't boot into BIOS.I had to reset CMOS to get in. I'm pretty sure that's how the Secure Boot State got changed to Windows blah blah blah!

Someone tried to get into my computer while I was sick in the hospital. She's a total idiot, couldn't have know I would find out. My password is 14 characters of cryptic gibberish. She packed up my PC too... Nothing damaged but she did do something that could cause problems that are easily solved by removing the CMOS battery.

We'll see...

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

No problems this time...


I have to do a little reading to understand exactly what the next part is about...
Adding a local user...

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

@osprey

Would you help me understand what a local user is and if I need one? I think it's a networking term, but I'm really not sure. I found the 5 types of Linux users, none of them are 'local users'.

I asked this question over in Networking
What is a 'Local User'? Do I need one?


Root
Supper
Sudo
Regular
Service

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

I haven't figured what a 'Local User' is, but I guess it won't hurt to add one, delete later...

But I have run into another problem..

I entered sudo virtualbox

The GUI opened and I got errors in the terminal.

sherri@sherri-K30AD-M31AD-M51AD:~$ sudo usermod -aG vboxusers $USER
[sudo] password for sherri:             
sherri@sherri-K30AD-M31AD-M51AD:~$ sudo usermod -aG vboxusers $USER
sherri@sherri-K30AD-M31AD-M51AD:~$ newgrp vboxusers.
newgrp: group 'vboxusers.' does not exist
sherri@sherri-K30AD-M31AD-M51AD:~$ newgrp vboxusers
sherri@sherri-K30AD-M31AD-M51AD:~$ sudo virtualbox
error: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is invalid or not set in the environment.
Qt WARNING: QStandardPaths: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR not set, defaulting to '/tmp/runtime-root'
error: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is invalid or not set in the environment.

 

[osprey]

@osprey

Would you help me understand what a local user is and if I need one? I think it's a networking term, but I'm really not sure. I found the 5 types of Linux users, none of them are 'local users'.

I asked this question over in Networking
What is a 'Local User'? Do I need one?


Root
Supper
Sudo
Regular
Service

A "local" user is just an ordinary user on the machine. When installing a distro, the installer usually has an option to set up a user. That user is the local user. If none has been set up, then root can set one up using the useradd command after the installation has been completed and usually after a reboot of the machine.

On a machine here the local user is ben and this can seen in the /etc/passwd file:

<snip>
colord:x:109:115:colord colour management daemon,,,:/var/lib/colord:/usr/sbin/nologin
ben:x:1000:1000:,,,:/home/ben:/bin/bash <----LOCAL USER
sshd:x:110:65534::/run/sshd:/usr/sbin/nologin
<snip>

The local user, usually has an id of 1000, though some distros start at 500 for a local user. When adding a second user to the installation, the id number of that second user would be 1001, or 501 in the latter case.

So "local user" is just the user on a machine that has been created at install time or subsequently.

Running the command whoami will show the user, who is a local user:

whoami
ben

Running the command id will show the user with their id number and the groups they belong to with the id numbers of those groups:

[ben@min ~]$ id
uid=1000(ben) gid=1000(ben) groups=1000(ben),4(adm),5(tty),6(disk),24(cdrom),25(floppy),27(sudo),29(audio),30(dip),44(video),46(plugdev),100(users),101(netdev),106(bluetooth),108(lpadmin),112(scanner),116(pipewire),999(systemd-journal)

On one's own computer one can create as many users as one wishes using the useradd command as root. If one is just a solitary user of the computer there's usually no need to do that, but sometimes when there seems to be an issue with the functioning of a user's account, creating another user to test out some aspect that functioning may be useful.

 

[osprey]

I haven't figured what a 'Local User' is, but I guess it won't hurt to add one, delete later...

But I have run into another problem..

I entered sudo virtualbox

The GUI opened and I got errors in the terminal.

sherri@sherri-K30AD-M31AD-M51AD:~$ sudo usermod -aG vboxusers $USER
[sudo] password for sherri:            
sherri@sherri-K30AD-M31AD-M51AD:~$ sudo usermod -aG vboxusers $USER
sherri@sherri-K30AD-M31AD-M51AD:~$ newgrp vboxusers.
newgrp: group 'vboxusers.' does not exist
sherri@sherri-K30AD-M31AD-M51AD:~$ newgrp vboxusers
sherri@sherri-K30AD-M31AD-M51AD:~$ sudo virtualbox
error: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is invalid or not set in the environment.
Qt WARNING: QStandardPaths: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR not set, defaulting to '/tmp/runtime-root'
error: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is invalid or not set in the environment.

Perhaps try useradd instead of usermod.