Skipping some difficulties and details, with a written backup of my Oracle Virtual Machine (VM) VirtualBox- (hereafter called simply “VirtualBox”) 7.2.6, “guest,” Leap 15.6 operating system, on April 21, 2026 I upgraded my installed version of Leap from 15.6 to 16.0 via the command, as a so-called “root” user,
opensuse-migration-tool
. Very helpful to me in understanding what occurred during April 20-21, 2026 and knowing what to do in this regard were the postings by the poster crmrhm on Query about upgrading to Leap 16 - #16 by determined_suse_noob on the Internet, especially his comment that after checking for file conflicts and answering “y” or “yes” to “Continue?” led to all of the software packages to be installed being downloaded a second time from the Internet. Today, April 22, 2026, I installed an update for opensuse-migration-tool in my Leap-16.0 installation. So the function of that opensuse-migration-tool in Leap 16.0 on April 22, 2026 might be more efficient or different than the function of opensuse-migration-tool in my previous, Leap-15.6 installation during April 20-21, 2026.
A brief review: My computer’s “host” operating system has recently been 64-bit Windows 11 Professional Edition. VirtualBox is a hypervisor, or “container” for a second operating system, that I have installed in that Windows-11, “host” operating system. My “guest” operating system in VirtualBox was upgraded from Leap 15.6 to Leap 16.0.
The first “booting” of my Leap-16.0 was taking considerable time; and initially it appeared to have had numerous problems. In fact, I gave up on it, terminated it, and tried to “boot” Leap 16.0 again. Afterward gratefully I could eventually reach a so-called “desktop” screen in my Leap-16.0 installation! From my reading on the Internet I learned that the Lightweight X Windows system, version 11 (X11) Desktop Environment (LXDE) was not available via Leap-16.0 online software repositories because the necessary software package of lxde-common was not available for the LXDE via Leap-16.0, online, software repositories. So far my preferred substitute for the LXDE in my Leap-16.0 installation has been the “Plasma (X11)” “desktop”, which I could choose via the lower-left corner of the login screen for Leap 16.0. In fact, it appeared that the desktop shortcuts I had in the LXDE of my previous Leap-15.6 installation had been transferred to the “Plasma (X11)” desktop. And the double-clicking of the to-me important ones among those desktop shortcuts gratefully continued to work for me!
Afterward in that Leap-16.0 installation in VirtualBox 7.2.6, and with the Linux kernel 6.12.0-160000.28.1.x86_64 “running,” I made the following tests.
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the production of a Portable Document Format (.pdf) output file by executing the commands of pdflatex on a LaTeχ-coded .tex file and bibtex on a bibliographic file containing references to publications and/or writings. The so-produced .pdf output file gratefully looked good in the computer program Okular in my Leap-16.0 installation!
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The compilation, linking, and execution of the result of an initially Fortran-language-coded, .f file gratefully also worked well!
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The functions of file sharing via a folder shared by my Windows-11, “host” operating system and my Leap-16.0, “guest” operating system and the copying and “pasting” of text via the so-called “clipboard” of computer memory in each direction between my Windows-11 “host” and Leap-16.0 “guest” operating systems also gratefully worked well!
Then on April 21, 2026 the new version 7.2.8r173730 of VirtualBox was released. So on that same day I updated or upgraded VirtualBox 7.2.6 and its Extension Pack to and for that new version of VirtualBox. And I tried to update the VirtualBox Guest Additions for that new version 7.2.8r173730 of VirtualBox via, in the window provided by VirtualBox for my “guest” operating system, “Devices, Upgrade Guest Additions…” But that attempt and some later attempts to have VirtualBox Guest Additions produced for Leap-16.0 in VirtualBox 7.2.8r173730 were reported to have failed. Afterward the operation of copying and “pasting” text between my Windows-11, “host” and Leap-16.0, “guest” operating systems was still successful. But the sharing of folders within the folder designed to be shared by my “host”, Windows-11 and “guest”, Leap-16.0 operating systems unfortunately no longer occurred.
Here is an example of the notification of such a failure.
“Guest Additions Update failed: Files were installed, but kernel modules were not reloaded automatically. Please consider reloading the guest.” error code 0x80bb000f. But “rebooting” Leap 16.0 unfortunately did not result in any improvement in this regard.
I also tried to have the new VirtualBox Guest Additions “built” via, in the window provided by VirtualBox for my Leap-16.0 “guest” operating system, “Devices, Insert Guest Additions CD” (Compact Disc) “image…” And I had the directory C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox’s file VBoxGuestAdditions.iso listed and chosen among other files under VirtualBox 7.2.8’s “Settings, Storage, Controller: IDE” [Via “Devices, Optical Drives, IDE (IDE Primary Device 0)>” a check mark was visible on the left-hand side of VBoxGuestAdditions.iso.].–But nothing visible occurred after clicking on that “Insert Guest Additions CD image…”
Concerning kernel modules I also entered, as a so-called “root” user, the command
/sbin/rcvboxadd quicksetup all
with an apparent purpose of “Building the VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel modules”. But the result included some reports of “No such file or directory” for the files vboxguest.ko, vboxdrv.ko, vboxvideo.ko, vboxnetfit.ko, vboxnetflt.ko, and vboxnetadp.ko. My Mozilla Firefox Web browser’s DuckDuckGo’s search “engine’s” “Search Assist” gave me this explanation from the Internet for .ko files. “Yes, .ko files are loadable kernel modules in Linux, which are used to extend the functionality of the kernel, such as adding support for new hardware or filesystems. These modules can be loaded and unloaded dynamically without needing to reboot the system.” With this understanding the kernel modules needed for “building” VirtualBox Guest Additions for VirtualBox 7.2.8r173730 could not be found by a portion of computer code which was designed to “build” such Guest Additions!
In the file /var/log/vboxadd-setup.log some relevant information concerning one or more errors was
MODPOST /tmp/vbox.0/Module.symvers
scripts/mod/modpost -M -m -a -l /tmp/vbox.0/modules.livepatch -o /tmp/vbox.0/Module.symvers -n -S Module.supported -T /tmp/vbox.0/
modules.order -i Module.symvers -e
ERROR: modpost: “is_endbr” [/tmp/vbox.0/vboxguest.ko] undefined!
make[2]: *** [/usr/src/linux-6.12.0-160000.28/scripts/Makefile.modpost:152: /tmp/vbox.0/Module.symvers] Error 1
make[1]: *** […/…/…/linux-6.12.0-160000.28/Makefile:1923: modpost] Error 2
make: *** [/tmp/vbox.0/Makefile-footer.gmk:146: vboxguest] Error 2
Consider that whatever tasks were performed concerning VirtualBox Guest Additions during the installation of Leap 16.0 worked concerning the copying-and-“pasting” and file sharing between my “host” and “guest” operating systems via their shared folder. Therefore if those general operations could be reproduced now for the new version of VirtualBox and the current Linux kernel in Leap 16.0, it seems to an “outsider” like myself, who did not write any part of the computer codes for the VirtualBox Guest Additions, that the functions of the so-produced VirtualBox Guest Additions ought to be successful. And whatever was so-done might have somehow circumvented the need for one or more precompiled kernel modules. Could there be a need here of compiling the source codes for both the relevant kernel modules and the Linux kernel together, especially when, as poster OrsoBruno here referenced, that at least as of April 16, 2026, there were no precompiled “guest” kernel modules for VirtualBox in Leap 16.0, in order to make well-working VirtualBox Guest Additions?
In the meantime I do have one so-called “workaround” solution for transferring files between my Leap-16.0, “guest” and Windows-11, “host” operating systems.–For example, in an electronic- (e-) mail account of mine I could attach a .pdf file I produced in my Leap-16.0 operating system and send that e-mail letter via the Internet to that same e-mail account. Then in my Windows-11 I could open that e-mail letter and download its attachment to my computer’s Windows-11 downloads folder.