Member Avatar for VEL Hassan

If I upgrade ubuntu 11.10 to 12.04 will it affects Virtual Box

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Short answer for : your VM files (the .vdi/.vbox files under your home folder) are not deleted by a distro upgrade — what usually breaks is the VirtualBox host package and its kernel modules, which need to be rebuilt or reinstalled after the kernel changes. As implied, treat your VMs as data you should back up before touching the host OS. (docs.oracle.com)

Practical pre-upgrade checklist (fast, safe):

  • Shut down all VMs (don't leave them saved/suspended), then export important VMs to an appliance (.ova) and copy your machine folder off the disk: 
    VBoxManage export "My VM Name" -o ~/MyVM.ova
tar -czf ~/VirtualBox-VMs-backup.tgz "$HOME/VirtualBox VMs"

    Exporting creates a portable backup you can import if anything goes wrong. Record your VirtualBox version and any Extension Pack revision before upgrading. (docs.oracle.com)

After the release-upgrade: if VirtualBox shows “kernel driver not installed” or VMs won’t start, install the build toolchain/headers and force a DKMS rebuild (this fixes the usual kernel-module mismatch):

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential dkms linux-headers-$(uname -r)
sudo dpkg-reconfigure virtualbox-dkms
sudo dpkg-reconfigure virtualbox
# or, for newer Oracle packages:
sudo /sbin/vboxconfig

If those rebuilds fail, check /var/log/vbox-setup.log and dmesg for build errors (missing headers, wrong gcc, etc.). (askubuntu.com)

Notes and gotchas: if the host uses UEFI Secure Boot you may need to enroll the machine-owner key (MOK) or sign modules so the kernel will accept the vbox modules; Ubuntu documents the MOK/DKMS flow. Extension Packs and Guest Additions are separate — reinstall the Extension Pack that exactly matches your VirtualBox build if you need its features (USB, encrypted VDIs, etc.). If your hardware is marginal (see ) or non-PAE (see ), test with a live USB or export/import approach rather than risking an in-place upgrade. (documentation.ubuntu.com)

Summary: back up (export OVA + copy the VirtualBox VMs folder), upgrade, then reinstall/reconfigure VirtualBox and rebuild kernel modules if required. If you run into build errors, paste the vbox setup log and dmesg lines — they usually point to the missing headers or signing problem.

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Member Avatar for CimmerianX

Do you mean the App or the VDI disk files? THe virtual machines will be safe (always have a backup regardless).

I checked distrowatch for vbox package but it wasn't listed, but the vbox site does have different packages for the different Ubuntu releases. It's a fair bet that the worst case scenarios (so long as the upgrade goes ok) is that you'll remove the previous VBox package and install the newer one instead.

BTW, here's the site to check for package releases.
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=ubuntu

Member Avatar for mjdodd

This may not be relevant but I tried update fron 11 to12 on an older machine only to find it was not possible even though it appeared to go through the motions! It failed due to hardware incompatibility and you may need to consider the hardware requirements.
Bol m

Member Avatar for Nutster

I upgraded my old laptop, which does not support PAE, by downloading and using the 12.04 LTS mini installer. It will download what it needs from the internet, including the non-PAE generic kernal, from the repositories, so everything will be up to date. Just make sure you have a way to connect to the Internet. Depending on your choices during installation it can eat up a lot of your bandwidth allowance. Mind took just over 4GB according to my ISP. I am usually only 100-200 MB a day, except the day I upgraded my Ubuntu.

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