Ubuntu 23.10, no VirtualBox available. What can be done?
VirtualBox is key for me right now as I want to have Cursor IDE in a Windows VM because the Linux AppImage doesn’t work.
Also for some of my security learning running Kali and my VM’s from school.
What is a workaround?
Edit: Virtualbox 7.0 available with (base) nyck33@nyck33-tt:~$ sudo apt install virtualbox
but the tunneler for OpenZiti does not work on 23.10 so I’m starting to wonder if this was a bad idea.
A developer offered a workaround on the OpenZiti forum to use the Jammy version but I heard that could cause problems for the OS.
What are workarounds when I come into this situation again?
Depending on what is an acceptable "workaround" for you, the answer differs.
Workaround 1: Use QEMU/KVM stack with Virt-manager as GUI
Assuming you don’t care about the application used for virtualization and you only care about the end result (Windows VM with your required application running within), I suggest trying to use the QEMU/KVM stack with virt-manager user interface.
Check if your device supports KVM acceleration:
kvm-ok
You should get:
INFO: /dev/kvm exists
KVM acceleration can be used
Install the necessary packages for QEMU/KVM stack:
sudo apt install qemu qemu-kvm libvirt-daemon libvirt-daemon-system libvirt-clients bridge-utils
Now, install the virt-manager frontend:
sudo apt install virt-manager
Now, you can just add the new VM using the GUI and go from there:
KVM should give you near-native performance, so you should not see any performance decrease compared to VirtualBox.
Workaround 2: Build VirtualBox from source
I personally would not do this unless I absolutely must do so, but if you HAVE TO use VirtualBox (for example, you have a specific premade VM image that you have to use that is in exclusive VirtualBox format), then you can try building it according to their build instructions. I would strongly suggest to go with QEMU/KVM stack if you don’t have to use a specific pre-made VM though, it would take considerably less effort and is more likely to work immediately.