Services missing in service manager for virtualbox

English Virtualization
#1

Hi all,

I have installed virtualbox from the community repository recently on my OpenSuSE 13.1 GNOME 64 bit home desktop. It worked very well on the first day. Subsequently I disabled the services from YAST->Services Manager. There were two services one for virtualbox and other for guest additions. After 3 days I tried enabling it again, and to my surprise I find both the services are missing from service manager.

When I try starting the virtualbox-qt application it fails to launch the appliance window and asks me to run vboxdrv setup. I tried reinstalling the application. But did not help. Kindly advise.

Regards
Ganesh

#2

Well, have you installed all updates?

vboxdrv is an old style sysvinit script, and there was a bug in YaST’s Service Manager module that it didn’t show those unless they were already started.

But vbroxdrv is shown here with an updated system, so… :wink:

You can also enable it in a terminal window with:

sudo systemctl enable vboxdrv.service
#3

Hello wolfi323,

I have installed all the available updates. When I try running this service from command line as you indicated, I get the following message.

anuganesh-desktop1:/home/ganeshp # systemctl enable vboxdrv.service
vboxdrv.service is not a native service, redirecting to /sbin/chkconfig.
Executing /sbin/chkconfig vboxdrv on
The unit files have no [Install] section. They are not meant to be enabled
using systemctl.
Possible reasons for having this kind of units are:
1) A unit may be statically enabled by being symlinked from another unit's
   .wants/ or .requires/ directory.
2) A unit's purpose may be to act as a helper for some other unit which has
   a requirement dependency on it.
3) A unit may be started when needed via activation (socket, path, timer,
   D-Bus, udev, scripted systemctl call, ...).

Following are the installed packages of virtualbox.

anuganesh-desktop1:/home/ganeshp # rpm -qa '*vbox*'
vboxgtk-0.8.2-21.3.noarch
vboxgtk-lang-0.8.2-21.3.noarch

anuganesh-desktop1:/home/ganeshp # rpm -qa '*virt*'
virtualbox-4.2.18-98.3.x86_64
virtuoso-server-6.1.6-7.1.2.x86_64
virtualbox-guest-kmp-desktop-4.2.18_k3.11.6_4-98.3.x86_64
soprano-backend-virtuoso-2.9.4-4.1.x86_64
texlive-tex-virtual-academy-pl-2013.72.svn15878-11.2.1.noarch
python-virtualbox-4.2.18-98.3.x86_64
virtuoso-drivers-6.1.6-7.1.2.x86_64
virtualbox-host-kmp-desktop-4.2.18_k3.11.6_4-98.3.x86_64
virtualbox-qt-4.2.18-98.3.x86_64
virtualbox-guest-tools-4.2.18-98.3.x86_64

Regards
Ganesh

#4

It has been enabled.
The rest you can ignore, that’s a “glitch” in systemd’s legacy sysvinit script support.

You can check if it really is enabled with “chkconfig vboxdrv” or YaST->System->Service Manager.
“systemctl status vboxdrv.service” should show if it is active, too.

Following are the installed packages of virtualbox.

anuganesh-desktop1:/home/ganeshp # rpm -qa '*vbox*'
vboxgtk-0.8.2-21.3.noarch
vboxgtk-lang-0.8.2-21.3.noarch
python-virtualbox-4.2.18-98.3.x86_64

You could uninstall those.
vboxgtk doesn’t work 100% anyway with recent VirtualBox versions, f.e. you can’t even create a VM.
And virtualbox-qt is the official GUI anyway.

virtualbox-guest-kmp-desktop-4.2.18_k3.11.6_4-98.3.x86_64
virtualbox-guest-tools-4.2.18-98.3.x86_64

You can uninstall those as well, they are only needed if openSUSE is installed as guest in VirtualBox, not on the host.

Does it work now?
Everything looks fine.

If not, don’t forget you have to add your user to the “vboxusers” group. (YaST->Security and Users->User and Group Management)

#5

Hello Wolfi,

Thanks a ton again for your detailed reply. I have uninstalled the unwanted packages as indicated. You were right. The service was indeed present internally and once the service started virtualbox started working fine. I still dont find this service in Yast->Service Manager though. Anyway, it does not matter anymore…

anuganesh-desktop1:/home/ganeshp # systemctl status vboxdrv.service
vboxdrv.service - LSB: VirtualBox Linux module
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/vboxdrv)
   Active: inactive (dead)


anuganesh-desktop1:/home/ganeshp # systemctl start vboxdrv.service

Regards
Ganesh

#6

It is there for me:http://wstaw.org/m/2013/12/03/yast.png
Make sure you have the latest version of yast2-services-manager from the update repo:

# rpm -qi yast2-services-manager
Name        : yast2-services-manager
Version     : 0.0.11
Release     : 3.4.1
Architecture: noarch
Install Date: Don 14 Nov 2013 18:59:47 CET
Group       : System/YaST
Size        : 72354
License     : GPL-2.0+
Signature   : RSA/SHA256, Don 14 Nov 2013 16:14:00 CET, Key ID b88b2fd43dbdc284
Source RPM  : yast2-services-manager-0.0.11-3.4.1.src.rpm
Build Date  : Mon 04 Nov 2013 17:08:04 CET
Build Host  : cloud114
Relocations : (not relocatable)
Packager    : http://bugs.opensuse.org
Vendor      : openSUSE
URL         : https://github.com/yast/yast-services-manager
Summary     : YaST2 - Services Manager
Description :
Provides user interface and libraries to configure systemd
services and targets.
Distribution: openSUSE 13.1
# rpm -q --changelog yast2-services-manager | head
* Mon Nov 04 2013 vmoravec@suse.com
- 0.0.11
- list missing LSB services bnc#846422


* Fri Oct 25 2013 vmoravec@suse.com
- 0.0.10
- add alias services for services-manager client
- replace old tests with rspec tests
- add yast clients: target_proposal, services_proposal, target_finish
- various fixes of modules' API


anuganesh-desktop1:/home/ganeshp # systemctl status vboxdrv.service
vboxdrv.service - LSB: VirtualBox Linux module
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/vboxdrv)
   Active: inactive (dead)

anuganesh-desktop1:/home/ganeshp # systemctl start vboxdrv.service

Right, “systemctl enable” only marks a service to be started at boot, it does not actually start it. Just like chkconfig.