Install VirtualBox on MacOS using HomeBrew

I’m fairly new on using MacOS. I’ve been struggling finding shortcuts and keys that I was very comfortable with in Windows. I friend of mine helped me with tips and also mentioned to install HomeBrew in order to install VirtualBox. Here’s a short post on how to do it.

First you need to install Xcode. Xcode is a MacOS development framework application.

$:~ user$ xcode-select --install

xcode-select: note: install requested for command line developer tools

Then, you need to install HomeBrew. This version of HomeBrew doesn’t require to install Cask separately.

$:~ user$ ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

==> This script will install:

/usr/local/bin/brew

/usr/local/share/doc/homebrew

/usr/local/share/man/man1/brew.1

/usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions/_brew

/usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d/brew

/usr/local/Homebrew

…

==> Homebrew is run entirely by unpaid volunteers. Please consider donating:

  https://github.com/Homebrew/brew#donations

==> Tapping homebrew/core

Cloning into '/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core'...

remote: Enumerating objects: 4894, done.

remote: Counting objects: 100% (4894/4894), done.

remote: Compressing objects: 100% (4697/4697), done.

remote: Total 4894 (delta 52), reused 324 (delta 6), pack-reused 0

Receiving objects: 100% (4894/4894), 4.00 MiB | 372.00 KiB/s, done.

Resolving deltas: 100% (52/52), done.

Tapped 2 commands and 4680 formulae (4,936 files, 12.4MB).

Already up-to-date.

==> Installation successful!

==> Homebrew has enabled anonymous aggregate formulae and cask analytics.

Read the analytics documentation (and how to opt-out) here:

  https://docs.brew.sh/Analytics

==> Homebrew is run entirely by unpaid volunteers. Please consider donating:

  https://github.com/Homebrew/brew#donations

==> Next steps:

- Run `brew help` to get started

- Further documentation:

    https://docs.brew.sh

As I previously mentioned, Cask is already included in the HomeBrew installation.

Now, lest try to use HomeBrew to search for the VirtualBox package.

$:~ user$ brew search virtualbox

==> Casks

homebrew/cask-versions/virtualbox-beta

homebrew/cask-versions/virtualbox-extension-pack-beta

homebrew/cask/virtualbox

homebrew/cask/virtualbox-extension-pack

$:~ user$ brew cask info virtualbox

==> Tapping homebrew/cask

Cloning into '/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-cask'...

remote: Enumerating objects: 4195, done.

remote: Counting objects: 100% (4195/4195), done.

remote: Compressing objects: 100% (4185/4185), done.

remote: Total 4195 (delta 26), reused 915 (delta 7), pack-reused 0

Receiving objects: 100% (4195/4195), 1.33 MiB | 241.00 KiB/s, done.

Resolving deltas: 100% (26/26), done.

Tapped 1 command and 4096 casks (4,205 files, 4.2MB).

virtualbox: 6.0.0,127566

https://www.virtualbox.org/

Not installed

From: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask/blob/master/Casks/virtualbox.rb

==> Name

Oracle VirtualBox

==> Artifacts

VirtualBox.pkg (Pkg)

==> Caveats

To install and/or use virtualbox you may need to enable their kernel extension in

  System Preferences → Security & Privacy → General

For more information refer to vendor documentation or the Apple Technical Note:

  https://developer.apple.com/library/content/technotes/tn2459/_index.html

Now is time to install VirtualBox.

$:~ user$ brew cask install virtualbox

==> Caveats

To install and/or use virtualbox you may need to enable their kernel extension in

  System Preferences → Security & Privacy → General

For more information refer to vendor documentation or the Apple Technical Note:

  https://developer.apple.com/library/content/technotes/tn2459/_index.html

==> Satisfying dependencies

==> Downloading https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/6.0.0/VirtualBox-6.0.

######################################################################## 100.0%

==> Verifying SHA-256 checksum for Cask 'virtualbox'.

==> Installing Cask virtualbox

==> Running installer for virtualbox; your password may be necessary.

==> Package installers may write to any location; options such as --appdir are i

Password:

installer: Package name is Oracle VM VirtualBox

installer: Installing at base path /

installer: The install failed (The Installer encountered an error that caused the installation to fail. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance.)

==> Purging files for version 6.0.0,127566 of Cask virtualbox

Error: Failure while executing; `/usr/bin/sudo -E -- env LOGNAME=user USER=user USERNAME=user /usr/sbin/installer -pkg /usr/local/Caskroom/virtualbox/6.0.0,127566/VirtualBox.pkg -target /` exited with 1. Here's the output:

installer: Package name is Oracle VM VirtualBox

installer: Installing at base path /

installer: The install failed (The Installer encountered an error that caused the installation to fail. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance.)

Follow the instructions here:

  https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask#reporting-bugs

/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/system_command.rb:107:in `assert_success'

/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/system_command.rb:50:in `run!'

/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/system_command.rb:27:in `run'

/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/system_command.rb:31:in `run!'

/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/artifact/pkg.rb:59:in `block in run_installer'

/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/artifact/pkg.rb:65:in `with_choices_file'

/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/artifact/pkg.rb:52:in `run_installer'

/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/artifact/pkg.rb:32:in `install_phase'

/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/installer.rb:209:in `block in install_artifacts'

/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.3/usr/lib/ruby/2.3.0/set.rb:674:in `each'

/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.3/usr/lib/ruby/2.3.0/set.rb:674:in `each'

/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/installer.rb:200:in `install_artifacts'

/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/installer.rb:95:in `install'

/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/cmd/install.rb:21:in `block in run'

/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/cmd/install.rb:14:in `each'

/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/cmd/install.rb:14:in `run'

/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/cmd/abstract_command.rb:34:in `run'

/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/cmd.rb:89:in `run_command'

/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/cmd.rb:155:in `run'

/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/cmd.rb:120:in `run'

/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cmd/cask.rb:7:in `cask'

/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb:88:in `<main>'

$:~ user$

As you can see, my installation failed. This is due to a new MacOS Sierra feature that prevents to load external libraries. I had to follow the instructions in below note:

https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/technotes/tn2459/_index.html

Now that I have approved the extension let’s execute the install again.

$:~ user$ brew cask install --force virtualbox

==> Caveats

To install and/or use virtualbox you may need to enable their kernel extension in

  System Preferences → Security & Privacy → General

For more information refer to vendor documentation or the Apple Technical Note:

  https://developer.apple.com/library/content/technotes/tn2459/_index.html

==> Satisfying dependencies

==> Downloading https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/6.0.0/VirtualBox-6.0.

Already downloaded: /Users/user/Library/Caches/Homebrew/downloads/c68cfddc9133da5c221557cd77b23f34e0b513dc380e6b010dc36b3d0eb2df45--VirtualBox-6.0.0-127566-OSX.dmg

==> Verifying SHA-256 checksum for Cask 'virtualbox'.

==> Installing Cask virtualbox

==> Running installer for virtualbox; your password may be necessary.

==> Package installers may write to any location; options such as --appdir are i

installer: Package name is Oracle VM VirtualBox

installer: Installing at base path /

installer: The install was successful.

virtualbox was successfully installed!

Now, just use spotlight search to find the VirtualBox application.

Hope this helps.

Alfredo