Hi Andy,
2008/6/6 Andy Smith <andy@???>:
> Hi Richard,
>
> On Fri, Jun 06, 2008 at 12:50:16PM +0100, Richard Danter wrote:
>> I have a .deb file (it's the PUEL version of VirtualBox) that I want
>> to install on a headless server.
>
> Installing non-official debs is a good way to break your system.
Well, it was built by Sun Micro and is specifically for my distro so I
hope it won't break anything.
>
>> Best I can see so far is to use dpkg -i and then run aptitude to fix
>> all the broken dependencies but that seems rather an ugly solution and
>> I am not sure what the correct sequence is.
>
> If you're going to be installing random .deb files then this is
> probably the best you can do. But you shouldn't be doing it, you
> should be looking for an official package, backport, or at least a
> .deb built for your distribution by a third party. Failing that
> compile from source..
The problem with the PUEL version of VirtualBox is that it is not open
source and not distributed by anyone else (not sure it even can be,
Sun may have some restrictions). So I have no choice but to download
from Sun and install myself.
There is an open source version included in the repositories but it
does not have the remote connection capabilities that I need given
that my server is headless. I have tried using it with X11 forwarding
over SSH but performance is terrible. Using VNC would be a little
better but then I would have to start installing window managers, etc.
Thanks anyway.
Rich
