Hey @petro thanks for the help… I finally fixed the problem!! 
I am kinda new to Linux & HA & actually to forums also… Will anyone else in my standing find my solution?
To all the newbies who know enough to seriously break things, but not usually enough knowledge to fix them (my standing) & you are trying to use Oracle VirtualBox VM for HA with errors, the first step, after a bit of digging, is to switch to VMWare Workstation Player (ver 16 at this time) to create your VM. There are lots of posts available for help & its very easy to use (see guide below).
The only bit of confusion i had was whether or not the latest version of install was free for home use. And it is, after agreeing to two eula’s 
, by selecting the non-commercial use version.
Home Assistant installed just the way I imagined it would (smooth / first try / no errors / not even 8 mins) after only 2 months of VirtualBox attempts!