Trying to Run Virtual Box on Manjaro

Support Virtualization
1

I am trying to run Virtual Box on Manjaro (CPU is an AMD A9-9425 RADEON R5) but I can’t seem to get it to work; here’s the text I am seeing:

[administrator@administrator ~]$ sudo pacman -Syu virtualbox
:: Synchronizing package databases…
core is up to date
extra is up to date
community is up to date
multilib is up to date
:: Starting full system upgrade…
:: Replace hwids with core/hwdata? [Y/n] Y
:: Replace kvantum-qt5 with community/kvantum? [Y/n] Y
:: Replace lib32-libcanberra-pulse with multilib/lib32-libcanberra? [Y/n] Y
:: Replace libcanberra-pulse with extra/libcanberra? [Y/n] Y
:: Replace pamac-common with extra/libpamac? [Y/n] Y
:: Replace pamac-flatpak-plugin with extra/libpamac-flatpak-plugin? [Y/n] Y
:: Replace pamac-snap-plugin with extra/libpamac-snap-plugin? [Y/n] Y
:: Replace xdg-desktop-portal-gtk with extra/xdg-desktop-portal-gnome? [Y/n] Y
resolving dependencies…
:: There are 12 providers available for VIRTUALBOX-HOST-MODULES:
:: Repository extra

  1. linux414-virtualbox-host-modules 2) linux419-virtualbox-host-modules
  2. linux44-virtualbox-host-modules 4) linux49-virtualbox-host-modules
  3. linux510-virtualbox-host-modules 6) linux514-virtualbox-host-modules
  4. linux515-virtualbox-host-modules 8) linux516-virtualbox-host-modules
  5. linux54-virtualbox-host-modules
    :: Repository community
  6. linux510-rt-virtualbox-host-modules 11) linux515-rt-virtualbox-host-modules
  7. virtualbox-host-dkms

Enter a number (default=1): 1
looking for conflicting packages…
error: failed to prepare transaction (could not satisfy dependencies)
:: installing lib32-libcanberra (0.30+2+gc0620e4-5) breaks dependency ‘lib32-libcanberra=0.30+2+gc0620e4-3’ required by lib32-libcanberra-gstreamer
:: installing libcanberra (0.30+2+gc0620e4-5) breaks dependency ‘libcanberra=0.30+2+gc0620e4-3’ required by libcanberra-gstreamer

What do the lines about breaking dependencies and errors mean? Is there a work around for this?

2

Unless you run kernel version 4.14
which I somehow doubt
you did choose to install the wrong version of the virtualbox-host-modules
and virtualbox is not going to work for you.

You need to choose the version that matches the kernel version you are running.
Or the dkms-version, but this entails further work and setup …

I do not know about the other thing (libcanberra)
which is what is holding you up.
This has surely been mentioned more than once here on the forum - just search for it …
I guess that pamac (instead of pacman) will be able to solve that dependency problem for you.
But this is just a guess.

3

You should first update the system fully before installing additional software.

I guess from your experience, you’re on the stable channel, so please first read and understand the Announcement post(s) [Stable Update] 2022-01-23 - OpenSearch, Kernels, KDE Software, Cinnamon, Pipewire, Mesa, Gnome, LibreOffice - #2 by philm

Then, you can go ahead and install virtualbox with pamac install virtualbox.
You have to choose those virtualbox-host-modules that match the kernel you’re using.

4

Some additional information that may be helpful:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/VirtualBox

5

My personal preference when installing VBox is to use virtualbox-host-dkms and the kernel modules for my kernel. The active kernel can be found using uname -r

$ uname -r
5.15.18-1-MANJARO
$ sudo pacman -Syu virtualbox linux515-headers

Either reboot or run

sudo vboxreload

Done!