VirtualBox installation error in Linux - Error: Dependency is not satisfiable: libc6 (>=2.28)

This is one of the strange problems of VirtualBox which drives me crazy until I figured out, how simple the solution was.

If you are running from the same problem, don't worry. Just make sure you are using the right installer for your distribution/OS

By the way, Error: Dependency is not satisfiable: libc6 (>=2.28) or libc6 (>=2.29) is referred to as the same problem

OK, Let me explain a bit further, A few months ago I was wanted to install VirtualBox on my Linux Mint computer, So, I went to the VirtualBox Official website (https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads) but I won't found the installer for Linux Mint Version there ( It's still not present here as you can see in the picture below)

So, I choose Ubuntu 19.10 / 20.04 / 20.10 / 21.04 from the available list because I knew Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu. so, whatever works on Ubuntu should be work on Linux Mint as well. It was not a big deal. But in the installation, it just won't worked and threw this Dependency is not satisfiable: libc6 (>=2.28) error.

At that moment I reconsider my OS. I was using Linux Mint 19.3 Cinnamon. OS version placed a critical role here. I simply Googled "Linux Mint 19.3 Ubuntu Version" and found Mint 19.3 is based on Ubuntu 18.04 .

I revisit the download page and download it again but now from the Ubuntu 18.04 / 18.10 / 19.04 option and run the installer and Guess what, It was running absolutely fine without any issue. Through the installer required some extra dependency, not an issue, just allowed it

Maybe you downloaded the Debian 10 version installer, not working.. then download it for Debian 9. Fedora 33/34 not working... download it for Fedora 32. Just make sure that the VirtualBox installer is compatible with your OS version :)

OR,

just download the VirtualBox from the Software Center. that will work fine too

Share your thoughts if you find something more interesting...

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Thanks for reading. Have a great day :)

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Comments

[Ganesh Das]

Hi, I followed your technique and found that with my linux mint 21.1 cinnamon all other versions of virtual box gives error only ubuntu 22.0 version worked . download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox...

[Andrei Dascalu]

Linux world is strange like that with all the modern flavors based on some of the "classics". Mint is based on Ubuntu which in turn is based on Debian (though that link is less technical nowadays and more like a historic factoid)

[Mir Rahed Uddin]

True indeed. Being a closed source Microsoft Windows gets a great advantage here. Most of the third-party application works on any version of Windows, if you do a little bit of tweak or simply use an older version, they can work on XP, Vista even in Windows 95. Other hand being an open-source Linux got too many flavors, distributions, package managers, and one distribution fork from another, that fork top of another one (as Linux Mint <- Ubuntu <- Debian case) , all of these things creates a bit of confusion at the beginning. And top of that unlike Windows if you face any particular issue in Linux you will hardly get any useful link/posts, as they are just not available :(

[Justummar]

Thank you so much, this worked for me too. Same issue but with different software.

[Mir Rahed Uddin]

You are Welcome :)