Virtualbox problem in hardy

[Dalstal]

Since I updated to Hardy i can't make VirtualBox anymore, all I get is "run 'sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup'" and it does not seem to help. What should I do?

[Rocket2DMn]

Sounds like you may need to reinstall virtualbox, but you should be able to recover the virtual machines you have already setup. Here is the guide I followed to setting up VB in Hardy, you can probably do without most of the post-install stuff, but it walks you through the install, too - http://lifehacker.com/367714/run-windows-apps-seamlessly-inside-linux
You may want to backup your VMs first, they should be in ~/.VirtualBox/Machines
It may be prudent to remove the existing VB install from Synaptic before reinstalling VB.

[Dalstal]

I've tried removing and reinstalling virtualbox but it still doesnt work properly, while trying to start my virtual machine I get the message
"VirtualBox kernel driver not installed. The vboxdrv kernel module was either not loaded or /dev/vboxdrv was not created for some reason. Please install the virtualbox-ose-modules package for your kernel, e.g. virtualbox-ose-modules-generic..
VBox status code: -1908 (VERR_VM_DRIVER_NOT_INSTALLED).


Result Code:
0x80004005
Component:
Console
Interface:
IConsole {1dea5c4b-0753-4193-b909-22330f64ec45}"

What should I do?

[andrewoftheelves]

yeah, i get the same thing. I even installed the virtualbox-ose-modules-generic package. when I do :

dpkg -l | grep virtualbox-ose
ii virtualbox-ose 1.5.6-dfsg-6ubuntu1 x86 virtualization solution - binaries
ii virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.24-16-generic 24 virtualbox-ose module for linux-image-2.6.24
ii virtualbox-ose-modules-generic 24
which proves that I have it installed, so if anyone understands this problem I would greatly appreciate help as well.

[Rocket2DMn]

Are you running a custom kernel or the generic kernel? Did you follow the directions on that link I gave and make sure to include virtualbox-ose-modules-generic in the install command?
You can try manually adding the kernel module, I'm not sure exactly how it goes, but it should be something like

sudo modprobe vboxdrv
sudo depmod -a
I'm not in Ubuntu right now to check my configuration, but I will get back to you later today after I check.

[RichardG891]

Had the same problem with the OSE packages in Mandriva and couldn't really resolve it - needed to have the kernel source and headers present... but still couldn't make it work. In Gutsy and Hardy, I just installed the Binary Deb package from the VirtualBox website... and works perfectly.

[Dalstal]

Are you running a custom kernel or the generic kernel? Did you follow the directions on that link I gave and make sure to include virtualbox-ose-modules-generic in the install command?
You can try manually adding the kernel module, I'm not sure exactly how it goes, but it should be something like

sudo modprobe vboxdrv
sudo depmod -a
I'm not in Ubuntu right now to check my configuration, but I will get back to you later today after I check.

no stupid as I am I missed that pert and did a regular apt-get install. I'll retry it immediately

[Dalstal]

I think it did the trick:) thanks a lot for the help

[andrewoftheelves]

hey, I know that I installed the virtualbox-ose-modules-generic package, but I think that the problem I'm having is that my computer's archetecture is x86-64, I have tried completely uninstalling, and reinstalling virtualbox. when I use the code Rocket2DMn described in the hyperlink I get this:


sudo apt-get install virtualbox-ose virtualbox-ose-modules-generic
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
virtualbox-ose-modules-generic is already the newest version.
Suggested packages:
bridge-utils virtualbox-ose-source
The following NEW packages will be installed:
virtualbox-ose
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/6632kB of archives.
After this operation, 21.9MB of additional disk space will be used.
Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously deselected package virtualbox-ose.
(Reading database ... 136479 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking virtualbox-ose (from .../virtualbox-ose_1.5.6-dfsg-6ubuntu1_amd64.deb) ...
Setting up virtualbox-ose (1.5.6-dfsg-6ubuntu1) ...
* Starting VirtualBox host networking... [ OK ]
* Starting VirtualBox kernel module [COLOR="Lime"]vboxdrv
* No suitable module for running kernel found.


the green text is where the problem is I think, if anyone knows a solution for this I would greatly appreciate it, thanks.

[Rocket2DMn]

I had a problem like that when I reinstalled with the 386 version actually, and I think somewhere along the line a ended up with a new kernel (-386 instead of -generic). You should remove that kernel and use the generic kernel. Then run

sudo modprobe vboxdrv
sudo depmod -a
and you should be able to use virtualbox.

If it turns out you have a different kernel now than the generic kernel (like something-amd64 or something-i386), open Synaptic and search for "linux-image". You can then find the one to remove, completely remove it (make sure the generic kernel still exists!), then reboot into the generic kernel.

[andrewoftheelves]

ha im trying to delete this post but its not working.

[andrewoftheelves]

hey, I tried changing kernels but to no avail. So i googled my problem and found this workaround that worked for me:
sudo insmod /lib/modules/2.6.24-16-generic/misc/vboxdrv.ko
I have no idea what this code does(If anyone wants to explain I would greatly appreciate it) but thanks to everyone for their help.

[albeano2004]

Hi,
According to this page http://linux.about.com/od/commands/l/blcmdl8_insmod.htm, lsmod does the following

insmod installs a loadable module in the running kernel.

insmod tries to link a module into the running kernel by resolving all symbols from the kernel's exported symbol table.

So, from that, I gather that this command loads the Virtualbox kernel module into the kernel. I would say that this problem is occurring because of a difference in the version of kernel that the module is designed for, and the latest kernel???

[andrewoftheelves]

yeah I agree with you, after the ubuntu kernel 17 came out virtualbox worked perfectally fine, and when I did that ismod code i was using the kernel 16 so that is why it was working.