install virtualbox on centos server

This article introduces how to download and install virtualbox on centos 7.2 server, and record the problems encountered:

• The CentOS kernel version is inconsistent with the version of yum install kernel-devel

And the process of solving problems by yourself.

Env

• CentOS 7.2-1511 (I used the U disk image to install on the physical machine)

Add repo url

cd /etc/yum.repos.d
wget http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/rpm/rhel/virtualbox.repo

install denpendiencies

yum --enablerepo=epel install dkms

install epel

CentOS/RHEL 7,64Bit(x86_64):
# rpm -Uvh http://epel.mirror.net.in/epel/7/x86_64/e/epel-release-7-8.noarch.rpmCentOS/RHEL 6,64Bit(x86_64):
# rpm -Uvh http://epel.mirror.net.in/epel/6/x86_64/epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm

An error was reported at this step: the url could not be found. The author copied the url to the browser and found that there is no such link. But I found another link under the warehouse:

http://epel.mirror.net.in/epel/7/x86_64/e/epel-release-7-9.noarch.rpm

Just replace it.

Install kernel-devel

sudo yum install kernel-devel

Kernel-devel is the kernel (kernel) source code and will be installed under the /usr/src/kernels directory by default. The kernel source code is needed. It is because virtualbox needs to compile a specific kernel version module with the kernel source code.

The problem I encountered is that the version of yum install kernel-devel is inconsistent with the version of the kernel on CentOS. As follows (the following results are listed after the author has solved all the problems, you can see that the uninstalled version 3.10.0-514.2.2.el7 is inconsistent with the host version):

➜  alpine uname -r                  
3.10.0- 327.36.3. el7.x86_64
➜  alpine sudo yum list kernel-devel
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: mirror.0x.sg
* epel: mirror.smartmedia.net.id
* extras: mirror.0x.sg
* updates: mirror.0x.sg
Installed Packages
kernel-devel.x86_64                       3.10.0-327.36.3.el7                       installed
Available Packages
kernel-devel.x86_64                       3.10.0-514.2.2.el7                        updates

This leads to inconsistencies between the compiled and installed virtualbox module and the host kernel version and cannot run.

There are two broad categories of solutions:

• Download and host the source code of the kernel version.
• Upgrade the kernel version to 3.10.0-514.2.2.el7. After thinking deeply, I feel that this method is not appropriate, because upgrading the kernel will cause the software incompatibility problem. The subsequent workload is huge.

Finally, I decided to download the kernel source code of the version. Proceed as follows:

• Google kernel-devel-3.10.0-327.36.3.el7.x86_64
  Successfully find the effective address of the kernel source code and download it decisively.
  reference
• installation
  sudo yum install kernel-devel-3.10.0-327.36.3.el7.x86_64.html
• Add source code to environment variables
  # export KERN_DIR=/usr/src/kernels/3.10.0-327.36.3.el7.x86_64
• Install virtualbox (see next step)

List pkg

~ yum search virtualbox
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Determining fastest mirrors
* base: centos.usonyx.net
* epel: mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn
* extras: centos.usonyx.net
* updates: centos.usonyx.net
virtualbox                                                                                                                                                                             31/31
VirtualBox-4.3.x86_64 : Oracle VM VirtualBox
VirtualBox-5.0.x86_64 : Oracle VM VirtualBox
VirtualBox-5.1.x86_64 : Oracle VM VirtualBox

Install

yum install VirtualBox-5.1