Script: latest VirtualBox with Extension Pack

[marwenius]

In the context of the other topic, which was also about VirtualBox, I have put together my own script to get the latest, stable version including the extension pack. Maybe this is also interesting or useful for someone else.

Here is the complete script. The breakdown comes afterwards.

#! /bin/bash
# get_virtualbox.sh
# inspired by: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=2052713#p2052713

# VBLV = VirtualBoxLatestVersion
# VBGI = VirtualBoxGenericInstaller
# VBEP = VirtualBoxExtensionPack

VBLV=$(wget -qO- https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/LATEST-STABLE.TXT)
VBGI=$(wget -qO- https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/${VBLV}/SHA256SUMS | grep ".run" -m1 | awk '{print $2}' | sed 's/*//g')
VBEP=$(wget -qO- https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/${VBLV}/SHA256SUMS | grep ".extpack" -m1 | awk '{print $2}' | sed 's/*//g')

wget "https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/${VBLV}/${VBGI}"
wget "https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/${VBLV}/${VBEP}"

chmod +x ${VBGI}
sudo ./${VBGI} install

sudo rcvboxdrv setup
sudo usermod -a -G vboxusers $(logname)

sudo VBoxManage extpack install --replace ${VBEP}

Breakdown:

VBLV=$(wget -qO- https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/LATEST-STABLE.TXT)

The content of the file LATEST-STABLE.TXT gives us gives us the version (and with it the folder name) we need. We save this in the variable VBLV which we can use in the next commands:

VBGI=$(wget -qO- https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/${VBLV}/SHA256SUMS | grep ".run" -m1 | awk '{print $2}' | sed 's/*//g')
VBEP=$(wget -qO- https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/${VBLV}/SHA256SUMS | grep ".extpack" -m1 | awk '{print $2}' | sed 's/*//g')

The SHA256SUMS file contains a list of file names with the respective hash. Here is an example:

[...]
ace74a8a7997b514b7c69a042edfe138d45fa1851435a94ae66a0f1c6db1962f *VirtualBox-7.0-7.0.20_163906_openSUSE153-1.x86_64.rpm
2b4c3522987cd7c97f54757de1e1afa106b725f99080d0c38ddf0448941ebf6b *VirtualBox-7.0.20-163906-Linux_amd64.run
3d7b8833780cb274419a6209995f45889e96ad68fddb993fbeea0ad69722a821 *VirtualBox-7.0.20-163906-OSX.dmg
42c6e1357c4bcaa46d74e8ec56ec45a62948052361eed0d9a01c8275f8fec0d7 *VirtualBox-7.0.20-163906-Solaris.p5p
[...]

With grep we get the lines with the generic installer and the extension pack. Then we use awk to get the second column and sed takes care of the asterisk, which we don't need. We save the results in the variables VBGI and VBEP respectively.

wget -qO- is the short version of wget -q -O - and means quiet (-q) output to standard output (-O -)

Now we can download the generic installer and the extension pack:

wget "https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/${VBLV}/${VBGI}"
wget "https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/${VBLV}/${VBEP}"

Then we have to make the installer executable and can run it afterwards:

chmod +x ${VBGI}
sudo ./${VBGI} install

The first of the next commands is not actually necessary and is only included for safety reasons. It ensures that the necessary kernel modules are built. The second command ensures that our currently logged-in user (logname) is assigned to the correct user group (this is necessary for accessing USB):

sudo rcvboxdrv setup
sudo usermod -a -G vboxusers $(logname)

And in the last step, we install the current extension pack:

sudo VBoxManage extpack install --replace ${VBEP}

Sources that I used:

• https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=2052713#p2052713
• https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/290462
• https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/414657
• https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/294493
• https://stackoverflow.com/a/43763737
• https://stackoverflow.com/a/42258826
• https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch02.html#install-linux-host
• https://cheat.sh/

Edited due to typos and adjusted the download of the extension pack.