Fedora Stuff

Robust Install of VirutalBox on Fedora 42

Fedora + VirtualBox can be a little inconsistent..Fedora’s kernel updates more quickly and VirtualBox. So do this:

  1. Make sure we have access to the RPMFusion package
sudo dnf install https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm
  1. Install VirtualBox and kernel modules
sudo dnf install VirtualBox
  1. Install build dependencies
sudo dnf install gcc make perl kernel-devel kernel-headers dkms
  1. Add yourself to the vboxusers group
sudo usermod -aG vboxusers $USER
  1. Log out/in (or reboot) to apply.
sudo akmods
sudo modprobe vboxdrv
# Optional
# reboot now
  1. Keeping things working after Fedora kernel updates

Confirm modules are rebuilt correctly, run after a kernel update:

bash systemctl status akmods

ERROR: VirtualBox can't enable the AMD-V extension

If you see this:

VirtualBox can't enable the AMD-V extension.
Please disable the KVM kernel extension, recompile your kernel and reboot (VERR_SVM_IN_USE).

What’s happening:

  • VirtualBox wants to use AMD-V hardware virtualization (SVM).
  • But your host Fedora 42 already has KVM/QEMU loaded (because GNOME Boxes uses it).
  • AMD-V / Intel VT-x can only be held by one hypervisor at a time → VirtualBox and KVM fight for it → VirtualBox fails with VERR_SVM_IN_USE.

This is a classic conflict between VirtualBox vs KVM.

Solutions

  1. Temporarily disable KVM modules (before running VirtualBox)

Unload KVM modules from the host kernel:

sudo modprobe -r kvm_amd kvm_intel kvm

Then start your VirtualBox VM. ⚠️ Downside: this breaks GNOME Boxes/virt-manager until you reboot or reload the modules:

sudo modprobe kvm_amd   # (or kvm_intel if Intel CPU)
sudo modprobe kvm
  1. Prevent KVM from autoloading at boot (if you want to switch fully to VirtualBox)

Blacklist KVM modules:

echo "blacklist kvm" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/disable-kvm.conf
echo "blacklist kvm_amd" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/disable-kvm.conf

(or kvm_intel if Intel CPU). Then reboot. Now VirtualBox will work, but GNOME Boxes / QEMU won’t.

  1. Stick with KVM/Boxes and skip VirtualBox

Honestly, on Fedora the most robust hypervisor is KVM (Boxes/virt-manager). VirtualBox is a bit of a second-class citizen on Fedora because the kernel moves so fast, and it constantly collides with KVM. If you just want Linux Mint guests, Boxes with spice-vdagent is much less painful.

Installing Virt-Manager

  1. Install Virtual Machine Manager if it's not already installed
sudo dnf install virt-manager

Setup KDE Wallet (Needed, for example by PikaBackup)

  1. Install
sudo dnf install kwallet kwalletmanager pam-kwallet libsecret
  1. Open System Settings and
  2. Check Enable the KDE wallet subsystem

  3. Check Use KWallet for the Secret Service interface (exposes the Freedesktop Secret Service that Pika expects)

  4. Log Out and Log In

  5. Open System Settings and

  6. Create a new wallet (e.g., "kwallet") and set a password

  7. It might seem like nothing happened, that's ok, log-out and log back in.

  8. Now Pika should allow you to create an encrypted backup.