[Request] Is there a way to make this work on immutable Linux distros?

[hobbesjaap]

Hi, first of all - thank you so much for your work on this! VirtualBox is still the best option for me out there when it comes to virtualising Windows on Linux.

I've recently changed my distro to Bazzite, which is an immutable distro based on Fedora Silverblue. This means that the /usr/ folder can't be modified, even as root user.

When I try to run the script to enable USB, it fails, telling me:

mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/usr/lib/virtualbox’: Read-only file system
mv: inter-device move failed: 'VBoxCreateUSBNode.sh' to '/usr/lib/virtualbox/'; unable to remove target: Read-only file system
chown: cannot access '/usr/lib/virtualbox': No such file or directory

This is expected behaviour on Bazzite, but means that I'm stuck with no VirtualBox. I'd hate to distrohop, but may need to...

Right now, I can't seem to get NAT/networking to function, so no internet = no product activation on Affinity, for example.

Would you know if there's any way to have these scripts and features run from the user directory, and not from the root /usr/ directory?

[ivan-hc]

Hi, the issue here is "Does Oracle VirtualBox provide an alternate path for the VirtualBox libraries?"

[hobbesjaap]

Ah, gotcha. Thanks for your quick response!On 1 Nov 2025, at 21:27, iVAN ***@***.***> wrote:ivan-hc left a comment (ivan-hc/VirtualBox-appimage#26) Hi, the issue here is "Does Oracle VirtualBox provide an alternate path for the VirtualBox libraries?" —Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[ivan-hc]

If this issue has been inactive for so long, it's because I haven't received any information about it.

The question is, where does VirtualBox install files and libraries on an immutable distro?

I could even refine the script to create the files in different paths... but I can't guarantee it'll work. The app is built for Arch Linux by default, and it's possible it's coded to only recognize specific paths. So, hypothetically, if I were to redirect everything to /var/etc or /var/lib (just guessing, I don't know how much immutable distros have actually "altered" the structure of the standard GNU/Linux file system), will the basic app understand that it needs to use different paths than Arch Linux and other standard distros?

I'll just say that the part of the code that handles USB support is this one:

VirtualBox-appimage/virtualbox-kvm-junest.sh

Lines 188 to 207 in 0ef1b7e

	if ! test -f /usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxCreateUSBNode.sh; then
	# Create the "vboxusers" group and add $USER
	$SUDOCMD groupadd -r vboxusers -U "$USER"
	# Create the directory /usr/lib/virtualbox on the host system
	$SUDOCMD mkdir -p /usr/lib/virtualbox
	# Install the "VBoxCreateUSBNode.sh" script in /usr/lib/virtualbox
	_JUNEST_CMD -- cp /usr/share/virtualbox/VBoxCreateUSBNode.sh ./
	chmod a+x VBoxCreateUSBNode.sh
	$SUDOCMD mv VBoxCreateUSBNode.sh /usr/lib/virtualbox/
	$SUDOCMD chown -R root:vboxusers /usr/lib/virtualbox
	fi
	if ! test -f /etc/udev/rules.d/60-vboxusb.rules; then
	# Create the directory /etc/udev/rules.d
	$SUDOCMD mkdir -p /etc/udev/rules.d
	# Create and install the 60-vboxusb.rules file in /etc/udev/rules.d
	_JUNEST_CMD -- cp /etc/udev/rules.d/60-vboxusb.rules ./
	$SUDOCMD mv 60-vboxusb.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/
	# Reload the udev rules
	$SUDOCMD systemctl reload systemd-udevd
	fi

Determine whether it's feasible for your system.