VirtualBox

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.

Tip

In order to affect your system by your nix-language-specific changes you have to evaluate it, run (as root):

# nixos-rebuild switch

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

In this case, the audio driver causes a crash. This can be fixed by switching to another driver such as PULSE.

VirtualBox Oracle Extensions

Note: This package is unfree. Read the FAQ entry to know how to use unfree packages.

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;
}

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..

Warning: Host extensions cause frequent recompilation.

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 (not on your NixOS host):

{
  virtualisation.virtualbox.guest.enable = true;
  virtualisation.virtualbox.guest.dragAndDrop = true;
}

See also

• virtualisation.virtualbox options