Re: Unity 15.04 vboxdrv needs to be setup after every reboot

[amgelinux]

Hi!!

Same problem. Not needed to setup again and again (too slow). I realized that my problem is that the vboxdrv is not automatically starting with the operating system.
I write:

service vboxdrv start

and I can use VirtualBox.
Maybe the problem is with upstart script??

[gwm]

Thank you Amgelinux!
I was looking into somehow modifying the vboxdrv initialization script since the compile simply produced exactly what was there already.
That means that dkms somehow starts something when it registers the modules.
I don't think I would have got to your solution. So, BRAVO!

[gwm]

Now I am looking into how to make it happen each time I reboot.
I found something called Startup Applications in the Head Up Display and I have added your command there. service needs super user privileges so I am now going to discover how it works by rebooting my machine.

[gwm]

It works!
Once the Graphic User Interface starts up, I get asked for a password again and after that I can use vbox.
I opened a command line window and executed the command repeatedly to see if this does any damage but it doesn't seem to hurt anything. So I am going to leave it in my Startup Applications until maybe the Oracle guys fix their client startup script and maybe tell us about it.

Thank you once again Amgelinux!

[ajgreeny]

To avoid the password request at boot add the command to /etc/rc.local (no sudo needed) and it should be executed when the OS starts.

[gwm]

Thanks for the suggestion ajgtreeny.

I think I'll leave it where it is though, because it keeps reminding me that I have this cludge fix in there. If I put it away down in the start up sequence, while we are still running as root, I'll forget about it and I hate that.
Littering my system with commands that shouldn't be needed and that get forgotten just grates my developer sense of tidiness. We're applying a bandage to a wounded system.

My senses want to find what happened that it ceased to be started. That is actually what needs correction. Hopefully, one day, that will be fixed and then my reminder mechanism will remind me to remove the bandage.

It could be that the update to some other package overwrote a module that both packages have in common and thus wiped the service start command. If I try reinstalling Virtual Box, it might fix this issue but that other package will then start breaking and we won't know why. If one of us knew where, when and how in the boot sequence, this driver is supposed to be started, I would feel better about going to that module and fixing it.

Thanks again for all your help.

[dan188]

I had the exact same problem, the error when launching a Windows VM. It turns out that "This can be simply solved by adding the line "vboxdrv" to /etc/modules" per http://binbashblog.blogspot.com/2010...compiling.html

[sicvolo]

To anyone stumbling here - this problem is caused by the vboxdrv not starting on boot. In my case the reason for it not starting on boot it was a collision between the /etc/init.d/virtualbox from the opensource distro and the Oracle vboxdrv.
You can start it manually after each boot per the posts above, or fix the autostart issue by removing virtualbox remnants and reenabling vboxdrv in systemd:

sudo /usr/sbin/update-rc.d -f virtualbox remove 
sudo rm /etc/init.d/virtualbox
sudo systemctl enable vboxdrv

[Mac_Huang]

Hey guys, this solution worked for my Ubuntu 15.04: http://binbashblog.blogspot.com/2010...compiling.html

[frans-duijnhouwer]

Hi,
I have the same problem. Just reinstalled the vboxdrv modules yesterday with the suggested command and today the same message popped up.
However, the driver modules are present in the /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/updates/dkms directory, so I guess the problem is not absence, but rather omitting to load them. You can load the modules into the kernel with the commands:

sudo modprobe vboxdrv
sudo modprobe vboxnetadp
sudo modprobe vboxnetflt
sudo modprobe vboxpci

This worked for me and is faster than reinstalling the modules.
A proper solution should load the modules automatically at boot time. On Ubuntu 15.04 this should be hooked into systemd somehow.

Cheers,
Frans