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Is it possible to, for example, have the main system be Ubuntu 15.04 and install a virtual box that runs Ubuntu 15.10 inside of it? Or does the host system have to have a Linux kernel that is at least as new as the Linux Kernel of the distro installed in the virtual box? I searched but could not find any documentation discussing this.

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    Of course you can do this. The virtual machine is isolated from the host machine unless you enable the software features to connect them.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jan 19, 2016 at 19:22
  • I see. Perhaps I was confused by Virtual Box requirements. Maybe it was that Virtual Box version X was needed to install 15.10 but in the Ubuntu version I had the repos only had version Y, where Y < X. Could that be possible? Is it common to need to upgrade Virtual Box in order to install a certain kernel version or should those be independent also?
    – Xu Wang
    Commented Jan 19, 2016 at 19:59

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It is possible to run any kernel version inside the virtual machine, just as it is possible to run other operating systems or even emulate other processor architectures. The virtual machine software runs on the host kernel, and the the virtual hardware executes the guest system.

There may be some features (such as seamless desktop integration) that only work with a compatible host and guest, but even those don't usually require matching kernel versions.

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  • I see. Perhaps I was confused by Virtual Box requirements. Maybe it was that Virtual Box version X was needed to install 15.10 but in the Ubuntu version I had the repos only had version Y, where Y < X. Could that be possible? Is it common to need to upgrade Virtual Box in order to install a certain kernel version or should those be independent also?
    – Xu Wang
    Commented Jan 19, 2016 at 19:59
  • @XuWang - Sounds like you are just mistaken.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jan 19, 2016 at 22:11
  • @Ramhound that does happen often so likely the cause! Thank you.
    – Xu Wang
    Commented Jan 20, 2016 at 16:24
  • Actually, this article suggests news.softpedia.com/news/… that I have reason. Because upgrade is required for newest kernel. Now things make sense to me. Kind regards to all.
    – Xu Wang
    Commented Jan 20, 2016 at 16:36
  • @XuWang What it says is that the Linux Additions of VirtualBox have received support for Linux 4.5 kernel. This is NOT about being able to run the kernel. This is about the special integration features that I mention in the end of my post.
    – Metabolix
    Commented Jan 20, 2016 at 16:58

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