VBox: Kernel driver not installed (rc=-1908)

[lads]

Thank you lolpenguin that did it!

I believe there was a kernel update 2 days ago. Why can't this sort of recompiling be triggered automatically? For a basic user things stopping working overnight poses serious difficulties in adopting Ubuntu.

I was also far from realizing that remove/install would trigger a recompilation.

Thanks once again.

[lads]

There was another kernel update yesterday, to release 3.0.0-14-generic, and VirtualBox became inoperable once again. Luckily removing and installing the virtualbox-dkms package solves the issue, since it triggers the re-build against the new kernel. For future reference here it is again the recipe:

sudo apt-get remove virtualbox-dkms
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-dkms

[jcoles]

apt-get install virtualbox-dkms
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package virtualbox-dkms

Any suggestions?

[kaosent]

Setting up a 10.04 LTS box for a family member, encountered this same error (error loading, then, install virtualbox-ose-dkms and run modprobe vboxdrv)... after banging my head against the wall, what worked was to simply add "vboxdrv" to /etc/modules and run update-initramfs.

Rebooted, VirtualBox-OSE loaded up the WinXP instance without error. Hope this helps somebody.

[lads]

Any suggestions?

You're probably missing the Virtualbox repository. Add this entry to /var/apt/sources.list:

deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian oneiric non-free

Hope it helps.

[mashedbear]

There was another kernel update yesterday, to release 3.0.0-14-generic, and VirtualBox became inoperable once again. Luckily removing and installing the virtualbox-dkms package solves the issue, since it triggers the re-build against the new kernel. For future reference here it is again the recipe:

sudo apt-get remove virtualbox-dkms
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-dkms

Thanks lads. Just came across the Kernel driver not installed rc=-1908 error. Removing and installing the virtualbox-dkms package has solved the issue for me as well.

cheers

[lads]

Another kernel update (3.0.0-15-generic) another VBox mess up. Luckily the recipe continues working.

Is there any way to trigger the recompiling of VBox whenever there's a kernel update? Or is this something that should be filed as a bug?

[LordVeovis]

Another kernel update (3.0.0-15-generic) another VBox mess up. Luckily the recipe continues working.

Is there any way to trigger the recompiling of VBox whenever there's a kernel update? Or is this something that should be filed as a bug?

That is specifically what DKMS is supposed to do for you. When you update you kernel DKMS recompiles all modules registered with it.

[Rebelli0us]

I have the latest version Oracle VirtualBox running in host Ubu 10.10 and guest Win7 runs flawless in VM (also Windows 8 Preview, and Win2000). Oracle's installation instructions on their download page work very well if you follow them.

[lads]

I have the latest version Oracle VirtualBox running in host Ubu 10.10 and guest Win7 runs flawless in VM (also Windows 8 Preview, and Win2000). Oracle's installation instructions on their download page work very well if you follow them.

Hi Rebellious. I also never had trouble until I upgraded to Ubuntu 11.04, this issue seems to be restricted to the 11 series, both .04 and .10.