Virtualbox uninstalling problem 16.04

Question

I have virtualbox, i don't remember how i did download it. I want to update, so i am going to delete this version. To use my virtualbox i type virtualbox in terminal, but when i type sudo apt-get remove virtualbox it says;

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Package 'virtualbox' is not installed, so not removed
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

So how am i supposed to uninstall it?

Solution 1

Run the following commands:

$ whereis vbox

copy all the folders in the output

$ sudo rm -rf (all the folders)

$ whereis virtualbox

copy all the folders in the output

$ sudo rm -rf (all folders)

$ sudo apt-get remove virtualbox-* --purge

This is how i removed it. Hope it helps.

Solution 2

Depending on your version... try this command

sudo apt-get remove VirtualBox-5.1

Find your version by launching the app, then select Help->About. You will get a long version number (eg. 5.1.18r114002). Ignore anything past the second decimal point; in my case it is version "5.1".

Solution 3

The package is not called Virtualbox probably. One way to find out the name is to type

aptitude search virtualbox*

in a terminal and it's going to show you all the virtualbox related packages including the one installed. Installed packages begin with letter i.

Another way is to use synaptic and type virtualbox in the search box. It will show you how the installed packages are called.

Solution 4

If you have manually installed the Virtualbox package from Oracle's website, use this:

sudo dpkg -r virtualbox-5.2

Change the "5.2" for the version that you have installed.

If you need to check the virtualbox version installed in you pc, use this:

dpkg-query --show |grep -i virtualbox

Solution 5

If you didn't install it from the repsoitories and you can't find it with dpkg -l you may have obtained it from the Oracle website and installed it manually. If so, this quote from section 2.3.3.4 (Pg 40) of the manual relates to your situation.

Before updating or uninstalling VirtualBox, you must terminate any virtual machines which are
currently running and exit the VirtualBox or VBoxSVC applications. To update VirtualBox, simply
run the installer of the updated version. To uninstall VirtualBox, invoke the installer like this:
sudo ./VirtualBox.run uninstall
or as root
./VirtualBox.run uninstall
. Starting with version 2.2.2, you can uninstall the .run package by invoking
/opt/VirtualBox/uninstall.sh
To manually uninstall VirtualBox, simply undo the steps in the manual installation in reverse
order. 

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Comments

[Boris Hamanov]

In terminal, type: "dpkg -l virtualbox", without the quotes, and that'll tell you the correct name to use. It's probably something like "virtualbox-5.0".

[Stormlord]

You have to remember how you installed it. If it's not listed, you probaly didn't use a .deb package.

[Jihlak]

How many ways are there to install a package?

[Stormlord]

deb packages, snaps, compile from source.

[Jihlak]

A lot, i guess :) askubuntu.com/questions/445903/…

[Elder Geek]

Did you test this by any chance?

[Osmar]

This is what I needed as I downloaded the installer from VirtualBox's web site, thanks!

[node_man]

This solution works. I tested it on my Ubuntu 16.04

[Ashwani]

It worked for me, Thanks!!