I have VirtualBox 6 in usage, however I'd like to install ver. 5
beside it. I downloaded the program and tried to install it with
dpkg, which of course complains that a newer version is already
installed. Is there a way to install an older version parallel to
the current one so that files of the current version do not get
overwritten?

On 06/07/2022 21:50, me@privacy.net wrote:
> I have VirtualBox 6 in usage, however I'd like to install ver. 5
> beside it. I downloaded the program and tried to install it with dpkg,
> which of course complains that a newer version is already installed.
> Is there a way to install an older version parallel to the current one
> so that files of the current version do not get overwritten?
Don't waste your time. VirtualBox is not designed for multiple versions
installation. You can have only one Virtual system at any one time. I
believe this is Operating System restriction.

On 7/6/22 13:50, me@privacy.net wrote:
> I have VirtualBox 6 in usage, however I'd like to install ver. 5 beside
> it. I downloaded the program and tried to install it with dpkg, which of
> course complains that a newer version is already installed. Is there a
> way to install an older version parallel to the current one so that
> files of the current version do not get overwritten?

Well you could install a copy of Ubuntu to VirtualBox or other similar
emulator and may be able to run the earlier version of VB from there.
You will need a faster computer with larger memory in Ram and on
disk to do this sort of thing. But the newer machines have more than
4 cores and handle up to 32 GB of memory. I personally think that this
would be a waste of money and time. Upgrades to programs like
VirtualBox plug secuity holes so you would be adding to insecurity.

bliss

--
bliss dash SF 4 ever at dslextreme dot com

On 7/6/2022 5:15 PM, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
> On 7/6/22 13:50, me@privacy.net wrote:
>> I have VirtualBox 6 in usage, however I'd like to install ver. 5 beside it. I downloaded the program and tried to install it with dpkg, which of course complains that a newer version is already installed. Is there a way to install an older version parallel to the current one so that files of the current version do not get overwritten?
>
>     Well you could install a copy of Ubuntu to VirtualBox or other similar emulator and may be able to run the earlier version of VB from there. You will need a faster computer with larger memory in Ram and on
> disk to do this sort of thing.   But the newer machines have more than
> 4 cores and handle up to 32 GB of memory.  I personally think that this would be a waste of money and time.  Upgrades to programs like VirtualBox plug secuity holes so you would be adding to insecurity.
>
>     bliss

That's called "nesting", and is an advanced topic.

(Currently this web page has a rendering problem, so
I have to use an archived copy.)

https://web.archive.org/web/20200929050138/https://ostechnix.com/how-to-enable-nested-virtualization-in-virtualbox/

Rather than a more-fancy computer, I think
I'd want a 4K monitor while testing. The little CPU
I've got is a Zen3, so the recipe would probably work,
but my screen is too small for this.

I would expect there are a ton of challenges, after
you've done all the recipe steps. It's not a given
that it will be 100% functional (on the first day).

It would be a lot faster to install two Ubuntus
and put VBOX5 in one and VBOX6 in the other.
And reboot, to switch between their usage. Getting
one level of virtualization to work, is enough
of a challenge (not everyone gets USB passthru
to work). I'm sure Nesting will cause hair loss,
when you try to get the networking operational.

Generally speaking ("safest option"), you cannot
run two hosting softwares concurrently on the host.
You can only run one at a time, so booting over is
just fine as a solution. For example, I could
run aqemu for a while, quit it, then run vmm next,
but not both of them at the same time. It's just not
a good idea.

Paul

On 7/6/22 13:50, me@privacy.net wrote:
> I have VirtualBox 6 in usage, however I'd like to install ver. 5
> beside it.

Why?

But if you must have two, why not use KVM as your second hyperivsor.
It's better anyway. :)

me@privacy.net writes:

> I have VirtualBox 6 in usage, however I'd like to install ver. 5
> beside it. I downloaded the program and tried to install it with dpkg,
> which of course complains that a newer version is already
> installed. Is there a way to install an older version parallel to the
> current one so that files of the current version do not get
> overwritten?

You can at least extract the package to an alternate directory with
dpkg-deb -x. That isn't an installation but you might be able to run old
VirtualBox and doing that won't overwrite the system provided
VirtualBox.

Another problem is, VirtualBox uses some device drivers e.g. for file
and clipboard sharing between host and guests. I have no idea if those
are in any way compatible between VirtualBox versions and if not, you'll
need to be able to build the drivers manually and manually unload and
load the drivers for the version you're going to need.

So, it's maybe doable, not sure it's worth the effort. No idea why you'd
want to do this, maybe explain?

On 7/6/22 16:15, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
> On 7/6/22 13:50, me@privacy.net wrote:
>> I have VirtualBox 6 in usage, however I'd like to install ver. 5
>> beside it. I downloaded the program and tried to install it with dpkg,
>> which of course complains that a newer version is already installed.
>> Is there a way to install an older version parallel to the current one
>> so that files of the current version do not get overwritten?
>
>     Well you could install a copy of Ubuntu to VirtualBox or other
> similar emulator and may be able to run the earlier version of VB from
> there. You will need a faster computer with larger memory in Ram and on
> disk to do this sort of thing.   But the newer machines have more than
> 4 cores and handle up to 32 GB of memory.

I have 48 GB in the machine I bought last year. Its supposed to be able
to handle up to 128 GB.

Memory is important for VMs. Also, disk speed. My VM speed got much more
reasonable when I switched to NVMe.

> I personally think that this
> would be a waste of money and time.  Upgrades to programs like
> VirtualBox plug secuity holes so you would be adding to insecurity.
>
>     bliss

--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"The sense of spiritual relief which comes from rejecting the idea of
God as a supernatural being is enormous." [Julian Huxley]

Anssi Saari wrote:
> me@privacy.net writes:
>
>> I have VirtualBox 6 in usage, however I'd like to install ver. 5
>> beside it. I downloaded the program and tried to install it with dpkg,
>> which of course complains that a newer version is already
>> installed. Is there a way to install an older version parallel to the
>> current one so that files of the current version do not get
>> overwritten?
>
> You can at least extract the package to an alternate directory with
> dpkg-deb -x. That isn't an installation but you might be able to run old
> VirtualBox and doing that won't overwrite the system provided
> VirtualBox.
>
> Another problem is, VirtualBox uses some device drivers e.g. for file
> and clipboard sharing between host and guests. I have no idea if those
> are in any way compatible between VirtualBox versions and if not, you'll
> need to be able to build the drivers manually and manually unload and
> load the drivers for the version you're going to need.
>
> So, it's maybe doable, not sure it's worth the effort. No idea why you'd
> want to do this, maybe explain?

I want to run unsupported systems like Windows 9x that could be
installed in ver. 5 but cannot in ver. 6. I hoped someone before
me already had this idea and a solution for the problem.

me@privacy.net wrote:
> I want to run unsupported systems like Windows 9x that could be
> installed in ver. 5 but cannot in ver. 6. I hoped someone before me
> already had this idea and a solution for the problem.

For my own reasons, I run lots of .iso/s live under Ventoy USB but don't VM.

So... if I were going to run such as W98se, I would run the .iso live
under Ventoy USB.

In the future I'm going to use a Ventoy SSD instead of USB.

I looked around to see if there were W98se available. I don't know if
this is a good site and I haven't tried the .iso:

https://archive.org/details/windows-98-se-isofile

--
Mike Easter

On 7/10/2022 2:33 PM, me@privacy.net wrote:
> Anssi Saari wrote:
>> me@privacy.net writes:
>>
>>> I have VirtualBox 6 in usage, however I'd like to install ver. 5
>>> beside it. I downloaded the program and tried to install it with dpkg,
>>> which of course complains that a newer version is already
>>> installed. Is there a way to install an older version parallel to the
>>> current one so that files of the current version do not get
>>> overwritten?
>>
>> You can at least extract the package to an alternate directory with
>> dpkg-deb -x. That isn't an installation but you might be able to run old
>> VirtualBox and doing that won't overwrite the system provided
>> VirtualBox.
>>
>> Another problem is, VirtualBox uses some device drivers e.g. for file
>> and clipboard sharing between host and guests. I have no idea if those
>> are in any way compatible between VirtualBox versions and if not, you'll
>> need to be able to build the drivers manually and manually unload and
>> load the drivers for the version you're going to need.
>>
>> So, it's maybe doable, not sure it's worth the effort. No idea why you'd
>> want to do this, maybe explain?
>
> I want to run unsupported systems like Windows 9x that could be installed
> in ver. 5 but cannot in ver. 6. I hoped someone before me already had this
> idea and a solution for the problem.

Do some of the choices in the menu not work ?

[Picture]

https://i.postimg.cc/L8XrdPNP/vbox6-OS-menu.gif

It lists all the way back to Win3.1 on VBox6.

You can tune some of the options, to be more historically correct.
An old OS would appreciate seeing four IDE devices on ribbon
cables. Rather than an offering of SATA ports necessarily.
The IDE ports would be mapped to interrupt 14 and interrupt 15
or something.

When I compare the OS menu in VBox 5 to 6 in the Windows
section, it's just new items added at the bottom.

The graphics choices could make a difference. Maybe that's
a contributing factor.

One thing I can tell you, is I made the mistake the first
time I used VBox, of changing settings :-) And my first
OS install black screened in the Guest. That's when I
realized the settings were not amenable to random adjustment.

Paul

On 7/10/22 13:33, me@privacy.net wrote:
> Anssi Saari wrote:

[snip]

> I want to run unsupported systems like Windows 9x that could be
> installed in ver. 5 but cannot in ver. 6. I hoped someone before me
> already had this idea and a solution for the problem.

I have VirtualBox 6.1 here. When I start to create a new VM there are
options for Windows 3.1 and 9x (95, 98, ME).

--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things
and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil
things, that takes religion."