about virtualbox, linux-headers and build-essential

Discussion in 'HOWTO-Related Questions' started by fdelval, Dec 23, 2010.

  1. fdelval

    fdelval New Member

    Hello all!,

    New here, but i have been following heaps of good tutorials.

    This time, i got a doubt about this one:
    http://www.howtoforge.com/vboxheadl...rtualbox-3.0-on-a-headless-ubuntu-9.04-server

    In the line referring to the virtualbox instalation:

    sudo aptitude install linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential virtualbox-3.0 dkms



    The question is, what are linux-headers used for, and what is build-essential for?

    Thank you
     
  2. till

    till Super Moderator Staff Member ISPConfig Developer

    Linux headers are the development files that are nescessary to build / compile kernel modules.
     
  3. fdelval

    fdelval New Member

    Hello till,

    Then i guess that build-essentials are necessary for linux-headers.

    I have seen another how-to's which didnt specified about those commands.
    Are they really important? having in mind that DKMS package is not available in debian (not in an easy way), are they necessary?
     
  4. till

    till Super Moderator Staff Member ISPConfig Developer

    Yes. Otherwise they wont be listed in the tutorial. Some other titorial might assume that you have installed a build enviroment before or that you installed a full debian system with all packages selected and not a minimal install as we assume in the howtoforge tutorials.
     
  5. fdelval

    fdelval New Member

    and when are they necessary? always? or for some programs like vbox?

    how to differenciate them?
     

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