Not able to install Virtualbox on ubuntu server 20.04

[ghezzi-alex]

Good evening everybody
I'm trying to launch a new virtual machine on Ubuntu server to run free NAS.
I'm quite sure I miss something but I'm not sure what.
this is the error :

Failed to open a session for the virtual machine FreeNAS.

The virtual machine 'FreeNAS' has terminated unexpectedly during startup with exit code 1 (0x1).

Result Code: NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component: MachineWrap
Interface: IMachine {85632c68-b5bb-4316-a900-5eb28d3413df}

The virtual machine 'FreeNAS' has terminated unexpectedly during startup with exit code 1 (0x1).

Result Code: NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component: MachineWrap
Interface: IMachine {85632c68-b5bb-4316-a900-5eb28d3413df}

The screenshot attached is the error I see just few second after the VM launch. When I click OK the error I posted appear.
Can you help me to fix the problem?
thanks in advance

[TheFu]

Well - freenas was based on BSD last time I checked, not Linux. Did that change? Just for clarity, BSD and Linux are completely different OSes. They are not compatible.
Isn't the freeNAS project dead?

What this means is that virtualbox needs to be using a BSD VM setup, not Linux.

Didn't everyone move to TrueNAS? https://www.servethehome.com/freenas...-truenas-core/

I've not used either. Much prefer rolling my own NAS with Ubuntu Server for 1,000,000x more flexibility, but that does require intermediate-level Linux admin skills. People who need point-n-click, should probably find some NAS-storage distro or buy a commercial NAS.

[ghezzi-alex]

Thanks for the answer TheFu.
Just to understand better: When I create the VM it asked me which OS I was going to install on the VM. Since I know Free NAS is based on BSD I choose "Other OS" option.
I'm not sure but looks like I missed something during the VirtualBOX installation, or maybe I should install something more...
Maybe you already understood I'm a newby in ubuntu server and I'm close to zero in admin skills . I'm trying to get my hands dirty and would like to create my home NAS... Do you think following the right instructions I can roll it out without any third distro?

[TheFu]

Thanks for the answer TheFu.
Just to understand better: When I create the VM it asked me which OS I was going to install on the VM. Since I know Free NAS is based on BSD I choose "Other OS" option.
I'm not sure but looks like I missed something during the VirtualBOX installation, or maybe I should install something more...
Maybe you already understood I'm a newby in ubuntu server and I'm close to zero in admin skills . I'm trying to get my hands dirty and would like to create my home NAS... Do you think following the right instructions I can roll it out without any third distro?

I haven't used virtualbox in many years.
I've never used it on a Linux hostOS.

I wrote:

Much prefer rolling my own NAS with Ubuntu Server for 1,000,000x more flexibility, but that does require intermediate-level Linux admin skills. People who need point-n-click, should probably find some NAS-storage distro or buy a commercial NAS.

Does that sound like you? Only you know if it does. Anyone can accomplish anything they want, if they are dedicated. You can do it, if you want and have purpose.

Rolling your own doesn't have 1 set of instructions and 5 steps. It is hundreds of choices and if those choices aren't so great, then you'll have to constantly tinker to fix prior mistakes and perhaps correct issues that lost data. My NAS doesn't have a pretty webGUI. It is maintained mostly through custom, automatic, scripts I've written over decades. In the last 12 months, 2 HDDs have failed. I lost just a few files which hadn't been backed up since the automatic overnight backup.

Do you know that Ubuntu Server doesn't have a GUI and that for NAS stuff, there isn't any GUI even on Ubuntu Desktop releases? There aren't any GUIs for storage setup or management through RAID or LVM or ZFS. All those are handled using CLI/shell commands.

You can do whatever you want, regardless of what others say. Background in Unix systems will greatly enhance the chances of success. Windows background isn't really relevant. Things are very different in the Unix world. Storage management is different across almost all Unixes and almost nothing like Windows.

[ghezzi-alex]

OK,
Sounds really hard...
I'm not ready. I would prefer to use a ready to use distro.
Do someone know what I'm doing wrong with the VM installation?

[CelticWarrior]

You're probably doing nothing wrong. The error is unrelated to the actual VM, it's a problem with Virtualbox itself.

Let's eliminate the usual culprit first: Disable Secure Boot in UEFI. It prevents loading the (unsigned) virtual drivers.
If this isn't the problem then probably you need to reinstall Virtualbox.

[ghezzi-alex]

You're probably doing nothing wrong. The error is unrelated to the actual VM, it's a problem with Virtualbox itself.

Let's eliminate the usual culprit first: Disable Secure Boot in UEFI. It prevents loading the (unsigned) virtual drivers.
If this isn't the problem then probably you need to reinstall Virtualbox.

Thanks CelticWarrior
To restart everything I tried to reinstall Virtualbox...
First I tried to remove the old Virtualbox with this command:

sudo apt-get purge virtualbox

Then starting from the downloaded folder I gave the command:

sudo dpkg -i virtualbox*.deb

but now it gave me back this error:

(Reading database ... 132156 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack virtualbox-6.1_6.1.18-142142_Ubuntu_eoan_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking virtualbox-6.1 (6.1.18-142142~Ubuntu~eoan) over (6.1.18-142142~Ubuntu~eoan) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of virtualbox-6.1:
 virtualbox-6.1 depends on python (<< 2.8); however:
  Package python is not installed.
 virtualbox-6.1 depends on python (>= 2.7); however:
  Package python is not installed.
 virtualbox-6.1 depends on python:any (>= 2.6.6-7~); however:


dpkg: error processing package virtualbox-6.1 (--install):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for systemd (246.6-1ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.24-1ubuntu4) ...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.64ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.17-2) ...
Processing triggers for shared-mime-info (2.0-1) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 virtualbox-6.1

do you have any suggestion to try to reinstall it?

[TheFu]

There is a choice in the version of virtualbox you install. One from the Canonical Repos and one from an Oracle PPA. My understanding is that the Oracle PPA version is better.

So ... you need to completely remove all the Canonical virtualbox stuff first and any left over dependencies. Get the package names using

dpkg -l 'vbox*'

and

dpkg -l 'virtualbox*'

Remove those using

sudo apt purge {insert list of package names from both commands above}

Next, get completely updated/patched.

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

Finally, clean up dependencies.

sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt autoclean

You may need to reboot here. Check if "/var/run/reboot-needed" exists. If so, reboot.

Ok, assuming that all went well, it is time to follow the Oracle install instructions.
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linu...xdistributions has instructions for adding the PPA to your system. You'll need to CAREFULLY follow those instructions, since they are different for different versions of VirtualBox and different versions of Ubuntu. I don't think you need to download the .deb file. In fact, that is something to avoid.

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2458475 is another thread about doing the vbox install.

[ghezzi-alex]

Hi TheFu,
thanks for the suggestion.
Some issue:
When I enter:

dpkg -l 'virtualbox*'

it shows me:

Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name                           Version                       Architecture Description
+++-==============================-=============================-============-============================================================
rc  virtualbox                     6.1.16-dfsg-6~ubuntu1.20.10.1 amd64        x86 virtualization solution - base binaries
un  virtualbox-2.0                 <none>                        <none>       (no description available)
un  virtualbox-2.1                 <none>                        <none>       (no description available)
un  virtualbox-2.2                 <none>                        <none>       (no description available)
un  virtualbox-3.0                 <none>                        <none>       (no description available)
un  virtualbox-3.1                 <none>                        <none>       (no description available)
un  virtualbox-3.2                 <none>                        <none>       (no description available)
un  virtualbox-4.0                 <none>                        <none>       (no description available)
un  virtualbox-4.1                 <none>                        <none>       (no description available)
un  virtualbox-4.2                 <none>                        <none>       (no description available)
un  virtualbox-4.3                 <none>                        <none>       (no description available)
un  virtualbox-5.0                 <none>                        <none>       (no description available)
un  virtualbox-5.1                 <none>                        <none>       (no description available)
un  virtualbox-5.2                 <none>                        <none>       (no description available)
un  virtualbox-6.0                 <none>                        <none>       (no description available)
iU  virtualbox-6.1                 6.1.18-142142~Ubuntu~eoan     amd64        Oracle VM VirtualBox
ii  virtualbox-dkms                6.1.16-dfsg-6~ubuntu1.20.10.1 amd64        x86 virtualization solution - kernel module sources for dkms
un  virtualbox-guest-additions-iso <none>                        <none>       (no description available)
un  virtualbox-guest-modules       <none>                        <none>       (no description available)
un  virtualbox-modules             <none>                        <none>       (no description available)
un  virtualbox-ose                 <none>                        <none>       (no description available)
rc  virtualbox-qt                  6.1.16-dfsg-6~ubuntu1.20.10.1 amd64        x86 virtualization solution - Qt based user interface
un  virtualbox-source              <none>                        <none>       (no description available)
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lines 1-28/28 (END)

Starting a never ending loop (I left it all night long) without any result.
If I try to close the Terminal windows it show me the attached warning.

Whats going wrong?

[TheFu]

<cntl>-c