Then why say…
I don’t get it!
To see if it works with virtualbox, where it doesn’t with KVM/virt-manager … obviously ???
but I can’t say what the differences are …
If abiword didn’t work, I’d suggest libreoffice … doesn’t mean I’ve ever used abiword, or know what the difference is ???
It even failed to perform as expected on a ‘live’ install - It fubar’d my BIOS!
I’ll install Virtualbox somewhere other than where KVM is. does the SPM install put everything needed on a system or have you a better idea of an install?
Ahh, took me a while to work out what SPM was …
The following assumes you’re installing it in Kubuntu 12.04
No don’t use the version from the default repo, instead run:
wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -
then
sudo kate /etc/apt/sources.list
add these 2 lines at the bottom
# Virtualbox repository
deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian precise contrib
Save the file, and close kate.
Now run:
sudo apt-get update
then
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.2
It even failed to perform as expected on a 'live' install - It fubar'd my BIOS!
I very much doubt that it It fubar’d your BIOS. BIOS operates on hardware level. Though you can upset it by pulling the plug on the power supply (as I have found out not that long ago) but the install would not have done that.
I get
QDBusConnection: session D-Bus connection created before QCoreApplication. Application may misbehave.
after entering
sudo kate /etc/apt/sources.list
ignore it, or use kdesudo
OK
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.2
The following extra packages will be installed:
libsdl-ttf2.0-0
The following NEW packages will be installed
libsdl-ttf2.0-0 virtualbox-4.2
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 64.2 MB of archives.
After this operation, 139 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
When it gets here, after pressing ‘y’ it just does nothing, stops working…
I take it you hit y then hit enter ?
or try:
sudo apt-get clean
then
sudo apt-get install --reinstall libsdl-ttf2.0-0
then
sudo apt-get install --reinstall virtualbox-4.2
I’ve never had a major problem with the version of Virtualbox from Synaptic, does the job for what I need (testing new distros, nothing too taxing)
The version from the default repos doesn’t have USB passthrough … and as the OP has 2 external USB HDD’s…
Mine supports USB (that module isn’t FOSS, hence why it’s ommited frequently - weird, as this isn’t Debian!). I’m pretty sure I didn’t download a .deb from Oracle, I think either there’s an extra package containing it, or you install it as an extension from within VB itself. Been a while though, can’t quite remember…
You could mount them in the host, then share them to the guest, but that’s just moving further from the point 
Edit: Might be a different repo come to think of it, can’t check till I get home unfortunatly…
Edit 2: By the look of this (Downloads – Oracle VM VirtualBox), I just used the default version found in the Mint/Ubuntu repos, then downloaded the extension pack
You’re probably right, it may come with the extensions pack … or maybe they’ve now added it to the version in the repos … all I know is that it didn’t USED to be in the repo version, so I’ve always just added their repo as a matter of course 