Installed VirtualBox - but where is it?

[Andrew Farris]

On Tue, 2010-04-06 at 11:58 +0900, Thomas Blasejewicz wrote:
> The other day I used under Ubuntu 9.04 Synaptic to install VirtualBox OSE.
> The computer says, the installation has been successfully completed.
> Fine.
> Now, where am I supposed to look for it??

For me, Virtualbox installs itself under "Applications > System Tools >
VirtualBox". The executable itself is just called 'VirtualBox' (i.e. Alt
+F2 > and typing: VirtualBox in the command window and pressing <Return>
should run it. You can also make sure it's 'recognized' by clicking the
'Show list of known applications' in the Alt+F2 dialog to see if it
shows up there as you are typing)

> I cannot find it anywhere under application,
> there is no icon or stuff like that on the desktop
> and when I try Alt+F2: VirtualBox (all different forms of spelling,
> capitalization I can think of),
[snip]

see above... it should be there.

> Is there any way to describe this in a manner that even a "regular Joe"
> (a person without degree in computer science and understanding of the
> inner secrets of linux) - like me - can understand?

If you ever have this issue in the future, you can see what executable
is installed by doing this:
      * Go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager
      * Search for the app/package you're interested in ('virtualbox' in
        this case)
      * right-click on the package > Properties | Installed Files tab
      * look for lines starting with /usr/bin, as those are most likely
        the executables (usually near the bottom of the list)
      * you can also see if the package installed a menu entry by
        looking for lines starting with /usr/share/applications/ (these
        are usually closer to the top)

> (the other day I tried to install wine (could not make it work);
> attempts at reading the instruction manual were like trying to read
> ancient hiroglyphs from an Egyptian tomb)

what were you trying to do with it? Generally, although Wine is a nice
piece of software, generally if you can avoid using it, it's best that
you did.

However, if you do need to use it, remember that before you can do
anything wit hit, you have to run the config program for it at least
once to create a default config ("Applications > Wine > Configure
Wine"... waiting till the window pops up, then closing it, should be
sufficient for most needs). You can also look into using a front-end for
Wine that makes it a little easier to deal with. I personally use
Play-on-Linux (its not just for games) because it allows for easily
sandboxing individual programs, so if one thing breaks the wine install,
it doesn't ruin all of your other installed apps... only that one
environment.

Hope that helps!


-- 
Andrew
_____________________________
Registered Linux User: 473690
Registered Ubuntu User: 22747