Compiling VirtualBox 2.0.2 OSE in Fedora 9

Unable to compile VirtualBox with the source package? Get errors like the following?

$ ./configure --with-gcc=gcc422 --with-g++=g++422
Checking for environment: Determined build machine: linux.amd64, target machine: linux.amd64, OK.
Checking for kBuild: found, OK.
Checking for gcc: Checking for as86: 
  ** as86 (variable AS86) not found!

Check if the following work helps. ;)

# Install necessary packages, including the following but not exhausive list. This requires root.
% yum install dev86 iasl pulseaudio-devel pulseaudio-libs-devel glibc-devel.i386 libX11-devel.i386 libXt-devel.i386 libXext-devel.i386 libXmu-devel.i386 compat-gcc-34 compat-gcc-34-c++ kernel-devel kernel-headers libxml2-devel libxslt-devel SDL-devel python-devel

# Obtain the source from http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

# Prepare and compile the source.
$ tar jxvf VirtualBox-2.0.2-OSE.tar.bz2
$ cd VirtualBox-2.0.2
$ ./configure --with-gcc=gcc34 --with-g++=g++34    # I was able to build with gcc424 and g++424 too.
$ source env.sh
$ kmk    # This compiles the VirtualBox. You may do 'kmk -j 4' if you have a quad-core processor.
$ cd ./out/linux.ARCH/release/bin/src    # ARCH depends on the architecture of your system.
$ make    # This build the kernel module vboxdrv.
% make install    # Requires root, to copy vboxdrv.ko to /lib/modules/`uname -r`/misc/vboxdrv.ko

# Load the VirtualBox kernel module.
% modprobe vboxdrv    # Requires root.

# Create a group of users for accessing the VirtualBox.
% groupadd vboxusers    # Requires root.
% chown root.vboxusers /dev/vboxdrv
% usermod -a -G vboxusers USERNAME    # USERNAME is your account username who should have accesses to VirtualBox.

# Logout and login for the group information to get updated.
# Check if your user is in group vboxusers.
$ groups    # This should show at least vboxusers

# Try running your newly built VirtualBox.
$ cd VirtualBox-2.0.2/out/linux.ARCH/release/bin
$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ./VirtualBox

If you get the following error (happens in version 2.0.2),

VirtualBox: SUPR3HardenedMain: effective uid is not root (euid=500 egid=501 uid=500 gid=501)

try

% cd VirtualBox-2.0.2/out/linux.ARCH/release/bin
% chmod +s VirtualBox VBoxSDL VBoxHeadless

Save the script below to /etc/init.d/vbox and make sure it's executable. The script helps to load and unload the kernel module during system boot up and shutdown.

#!/bin/bash
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: vbox
# Required-Start: $syslog $local_fs
# Required-Stop: $syslog $local_fs
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description: The Virtual Box kernel module
# Description: The Virtual Box kernel module
### END INIT INFO

start () {
        echo -n $"Starting Virtual Box: "
        modprobe vboxdrv
        sleep 1
        [ -c /dev/vboxdrv ] && chown root.vboxusers /dev/vboxdrv && echo " OK"
        [ ! -c /dev/vboxdrv ] && echo "Failed"
        return 0
}

stop () {
        echo -n $"Stopping Virtual Box: "
        [ -c /dev/vboxdrv ] && rmmod vboxdrv && echo " OK"
        [ ! -c /dev/vboxdrv ] && echo
        return 0
}

restart() {
        stop
        start
}

case $1 in
        start)
                start
        ;;
        stop)
                stop
        ;;
        restart)
                restart
        ;;
        status)
                [ -c /dev/vboxdrv ] && echo "Virtual Box is loaded"
                [ ! -c /dev/vboxdrv ] && echo "Virtual Box is not loaded"
        ;;
        *)

        echo $"Usage: vbox {start|stop|restart|status}"
        exit 3
esac

exit 0

Then,

% chkconfig --add vbox    # Add vbox as a service.
% service vbox status    # Check if the Virtual Box module is loaded.
% service vbox start    # Load the Virtual Box kernel module.
% service vbox stop    # Unload the Virtual Box kernel module.

Though the script is rather ugly, it should work ok for our purpose.