VirtualBox
From NixOS Wiki
NixOS Installation
VirtualBox can be installed on NixOS without problems, put this snippet in your configuration.nix
{
virtualisation.virtualbox.host.enable = true;
users.extraGroups.vboxusers.members = [ "user-with-access-to-virtualbox" ];
}
Adding users to the group vboxusers allows them to use the virtualbox functionality.
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Tip
In order to affect your system by your nix-language-specific changes you have to evaluate it, run (as root):
# nixos-rebuild switch |
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Tip
When starting a VM, you may run into NS_ERROR_FAILURE. If you check the log you might see something like
00:00:00.616892 Audio: Initializing ALSA driver
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VirtualBox Oracle Extensions
Oracle VirtualBox Extensions are required if you want to forward usb2 or usb3 to your guests. The Extensions are unfree.
{
nixpkgs.config.allowUnfree = true;
virtualisation.virtualbox.host.enable = true;
virtualisation.virtualbox.host.enableExtensionPack = true;
}
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Tip
If USB forwarding is only advanced feature used in virtualization, then consider using an open-source virtualization solution such as GNOME Boxes or Virt-manager to avoid frequent recompilations..
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Possible solutions:
- Use a pinned vbox module, see how to pin: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/41212
- Also see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48838411/install-virtualbox-modules-from-nixos-unstable-in-configuration-nix
- Use module from https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/71127 (unsafe) if you'd like to avoid recompilation.
- Use Virt-manager instead of VirtualBox
VirtualBox Guest Additions
The Guest Additions are designed to be installed inside a virtual machine after the guest operating system has been installed (more info). So you only need to enable this in your NixOS virtual machine (but on your NixOS host):
{
virtualisation.virtualbox.guest.enable = true;
virtualisation.virtualbox.guest.dragAndDrop = true;
}