So I have been trying to install virtualbox on my live usb with persistent storage. I have about 100GB so I know that is not the issue, I have followed several youtube video through the process of installing virtualbox, but no matter how hard I try I cannot get virtualbox to ever install. I download the virtualbox software from the website, then I open terminal in downloads, run sudo dpkg -i install <name of file> and then run sudo apt-get -f install but instead of installing dependencies, it just forces me to uninstall the virtualbox installation. The files doesn't disappear from my downloads, but no matter what it will never download the dependencies.
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Seems like you are describing the correct, expected behavior.
dpkg does not handle dependencies or repositories. It only installs or uninstalls the package that it's told to (that's an oversimplification).
Instead, most folks use apt when possible. Apt does handle repositories and dependencies.
- You can use apt to install downloaded packages:
sudo apt install /path/to/file_name.deb - Generally, it's easier to use the Ubuntu repositories than to download software yourself:
sudo apt install virtualbox
Opinion: I've used Virtualbox every workday for years. Most users do not need to expend the extra effort to download Vbox from upstream and puzzle out the dependencies. The Ubuntu package works quite well, is already meshed to the correct dependencies, and is fully-featured.
user535733
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