VirtualBox 4.0.8 unable to open VMs

[fschutz]

I do not usually need to post questions, because I can usually figure things out. However, I do not consider myself a Linux pro - I hardly ever use the command line etc.

I have been using the Free personal version of VirtualBox for about 3 or 4 years and have had no problems in any version of OpenSuse (at least none that were not easily fixed). I upgraded to OpenSuse 11.4 several weeks ago and cannot get Virtualbox to work. I have tried installing from the opensuse 11.4 package on the VBox site and I have run their generic command line installer and either way I am unable to open my VMs.

When I used their generic installer I got the following errors:
linux-evl8:/home/frank/Downloads/VBox # ./VirtualBox-4.0.8-71778-Linux_amd64.run
Verifying archive integrity… All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox for Linux installation…
VirtualBox Version 4.0.8 r71778 (2011-05-16T17:05:29Z) installer

Installing VirtualBox to /opt/VirtualBox
insserv: FATAL: service syslog is missed in the runlevels 4 to use service vboxdrv
insserv: exiting now!
/sbin/insserv failed, exit code 1
insserv: FATAL: service vboxdrv has to be enabled to use service vboxballoonctrl-service
insserv: exiting now!
/sbin/insserv failed, exit code 1
insserv: FATAL: service vboxdrv has to be enabled to use service vboxweb-service
insserv: exiting now!
/sbin/insserv failed, exit code 1
Python found: python, installing bindings…
Building the VirtualBox kernel modules
insserv: FATAL: service syslog is missed in the runlevels 4 to use service vboxdrv
insserv: exiting now!
/sbin/insserv failed, exit code 1

Error! Your kernel headers for kernel 2.6.37.1-1.2-desktop cannot be found at
/lib/modules/2.6.37.1-1.2-desktop/build or /lib/modules/2.6.37.1-1.2-desktop/source.
…failed
…failed

VirtualBox has been installed successfully.

I googled: insserv: FATAL: service syslog is missed in the runlevels 4 to use service vboxdrv and found some things, but none of them helped.

The GUI opens fine, but when I try to run a VM I get the following 2 messages:

First
Failed to open a session for the virtual machine Windoze_4.0.
The virtual machine ‘Windoze_4.0’ has terminated unexpectedly during startup with exit code 1.

under details is says:

Result Code:
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component:
Machine
Interface:
IMachine {662c175e-a69d-40b8-a77a-1d719d0ab062}

then another message pops up right away:

Kernel driver not installed (rc=-1908)

The VirtualBox Linux kernel driver (vboxdrv) is either not loaded or there is a permission problem with /dev/vboxdrv. Please reinstall the kernel module by executing

‘/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup’

as root. Users of Ubuntu, Fedora or Mandriva should install the DKMS package first. This package keeps track of Linux kernel changes and recompiles the vboxdrv kernel module if necessary.

When I try to run the driver setup I get:

/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
Stopping VirtualBox kernel modules done
Uninstalling old VirtualBox DKMS kernel modules done
Trying to register the VirtualBox kernel modules using DKMS
Error! Your kernel headers for kernel 2.6.37.1-1.2-desktop cannot be found at
/lib/modules/2.6.37.1-1.2-desktop/build or /lib/modules/2.6.37.1-1.2-desktop/source.
failed
(Failed, trying without DKMS)
Recompiling VirtualBox kernel modules failed
(Look at /var/log/vbox-install.log to find out what went wrong)

The vbox-install.log reads:

Uninstalling modules from DKMS
removing old DKMS module vboxhost version 4.0.8

---

Deleting module version: 4.0.8
completely from the DKMS tree.

Done.
Attempting to install using DKMS

Creating symlink /var/lib/dkms/vboxhost/4.0.8/source ->
/usr/src/vboxhost-4.0.8

DKMS: add Completed.
You can use the --kernelsourcedir option to tell DKMS where it’s located.
Failed to install using DKMS, attempting to install without
Makefile:172: Warning: using /usr/src/linux as the source directory of your Linux kernel. If this is not correct, specify KERN_DIR=<directory> and run Make again.
make KBUILD_VERBOSE=1 SUBDIRS=/tmp/vbox.0 SRCROOT=/tmp/vbox.0 -C /usr/src/linux modules
test -e include/generated/autoconf.h -a -e include/config/auto.conf || (
echo;
echo " ERROR: Kernel configuration is invalid.";
echo " include/generated/autoconf.h or include/config/auto.conf are missing.";
echo " Run ‘make oldconfig && make prepare’ on kernel src to fix it.";
echo;
/bin/false)

ERROR: Kernel configuration is invalid.
include/generated/autoconf.h or include/config/auto.conf are missing.
Run ‘make oldconfig && make prepare’ on kernel src to fix it.

mkdir -p /tmp/vbox.0/.tmp_versions ; rm -f /tmp/vbox.0/.tmp_versions/*

WARNING: Symbol version dump /usr/src/linux-2.6.37.6-0.5/Module.symvers
is missing; modules will have no dependencies and modversions.

make -f scripts/Makefile.build obj=/tmp/vbox.0
/tmp/vbox.0/Makefile:172: Warning: using /usr/src/linux as the source directory of your Linux kernel. If this is not correct, specify KERN_DIR=<directory> and run Make again.
gcc -Wp,-MD,/tmp/vbox.0/linux/.SUPDrv-linux.o.d -nostdinc -isystem /usr/lib64/gcc/x86_64-suse-linux/4.5/include -I/usr/src/linux-2.6.37.6-0.5/arch/x86/include -Iinclude -include include/generated/autoconf.h -D__KERNEL__ -Wall -Wundef -Wstrict-prototypes -Wno-trigraphs -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -Werror-implicit-function-declaration -Wno-format-security -fno-delete-null-pointer-checks -O2 -m64 -mno-red-zone -mcmodel=kernel -funit-at-a-time -maccumulate-outgoing-args -DCONFIG_AS_CFI_SIGNAL_FRAME=1 -DCONFIG_AS_CFI_SECTIONS=1 -DCONFIG_AS_FXSAVEQ=1 -pipe -Wno-sign-compare -fno-asynchronous-unwind-tables -mno-sse -mno-mmx -mno-sse2 -mno-3dnow -fno-stack-protector -fomit-frame-pointer -Wdeclaration-after-statement -Wno-pointer-sign -fno-strict-overflow -fconserve-stack -DCC_HAVE_ASM_GOTO -include /tmp/vbox.0/include/VBox/SUPDrvMangling.h -I/usr/src/linux/include -I/tmp/vbox.0/ -I/tmp/vbox.0/include -I/tmp/vbox.0/r0drv/linux -I/tmp/vbox.0/vboxdrv/ -I/tmp/vbox.0/vboxdrv/include -I/tmp/vbox.0/vboxdrv/r0drv/linux -D__KERNEL__ -DMODULE -DRT_OS_LINUX -DIN_RING0 -DIN_RT_R0 -DIN_SUP_R0 -DVBOX -DRT_WITH_VBOX -DVBOX_WITH_HARDENING -DCONFIG_VBOXDRV_AS_MISC -DRT_ARCH_AMD64 -DVBOX_WITH_64_BITS_GUESTS -DMODULE -D"KBUILD_STR(s)=#s" -D"KBUILD_BASENAME=KBUILD_STR(SUPDrv_linux)" -D"KBUILD_MODNAME=KBUILD_STR(vboxdrv)" -c -o /tmp/vbox.0/linux/SUPDrv-linux.o /tmp/vbox.0/linux/SUPDrv-linux.c
cc1: fatal error: include/generated/autoconf.h: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.
make[2]: *** [/tmp/vbox.0/linux/SUPDrv-linux.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [module/tmp/vbox.0] Error 2
make: *** [vboxdrv] Error 2

---

I did a reinstall of OpenSuse for several reasons and it is working great in everyway except I am still having this issue and at this point I am lost as to what to do next. Can any one point me in the right direction?

[martin_helm]

fschutz wrote:

> Error! Your kernel headers for kernel 2.6.37.1-1.2-desktop cannot be
> found at
> /lib/modules/2.6.37.1-1.2-desktop/build or
> /lib/modules/2.6.37.1-1.2-desktop/source.
>
Install the kernel-devel and kernel source and try again. I am not sure for
vbox if you need both or anything else, since I use the package from the
repository.

By the way I wonder what error you got with the version from the openSUSE
repository?

–
PC: oS 11.3 64 bit | Intel Core2 Quad Q8300@2.50GHz | KDE 4.6.3 | GeForce
9600 GT | 4GB Ram
Eee PC 1201n: oS 11.4 64 bit | Intel Atom 330@1.60GHz | KDE 4.6.0 | nVidia
ION | 3GB Ram

[slowcoach]

I had no end of problems trying to start/restart Oracle’s Virtualbox on openSUSE, then I read a post which explained which packages need to be installed prior to installing Virtualbox, they are:

kernel-source
linux-kernel-headers (linux-glibc-devel)
kernel development Eg: kernel-default-devel
pam-devel
gcc
make

Linux_Downloads - VirtualBox

I then followed the instructions at the bottom of the page:
Users of openSUSE can add the proper repo file for 10.3 (VirtualBox 3.0.x only), 11.0 (VirtualBox 3.2.x only), 11.1, 11.2,11.3 or 11.4 to /etc/zypp/repos.d/.

Works a treat now.

[fschutz]

Install the kernel-devel and kernel source and try again. I am not sure for
vbox if you need both or anything else, since I use the package from the
repository.

By the way I wonder what error you got with the version from the openSUSE
repository?

–
Thanks for the reply Martin and slowcoach too.

You both suggested things to install - the only one I had not yet installed was pam-devel. I went ahead and installed that and still got the same errors.

Martin also wondered what happened when I installed from the openSUSE repository. I just uninstalled and then installed from the repository and still got the same errors.

A few other things I note:

One of the errors indicates it could be a permissions problem on /dev/vboxdrv. vboxdrv does not exist in the /dev folder. It is where I would expect it to be in /etc/init.d. Root does have full access to the /dev folder so there shouldn’t have been a reason it would not have been installed.

There are several (a confusing number of them) things like this in all those messages. Another that seems significant is a number of places that seem to kernel source, even though I have all kernel related items mentioned in all the documentation I can find installed.

Unless you guys have better ideas, I think I might just reinstall openSUSE and then install from the repository because I do not know enough about all these errors (and searching on the vbox site, and googling did not help) to start messing with the system. I hate to admit defeat, but, if this would work, it would be a quick resolution and I have put too much time into this already.

I think I will try that and let you know what happens - thanks again

[please_try_again]

@fschutz

Unless you guys have better ideas, I think I might just reinstall openSUSE and then install from the repository because I do not know enough about all these errors (and searching on the vbox site, and googling did not help) to start messing with the system. I hate to admit defeat, but, if this would work, it would be a quick resolution and I have put too much time into this already.

I don’t know what you did or did not (your post is too long and you should use CODE tags for command outputs.) Do that and don’t worry about error messages while trying to deinstall packages that are not installed or install ones that are already there:

su -l
zypper in -t pattern devel_basis
zypper in  kernel-devel kernel-source kernel-desktop-devel kernel-default-devel
zypper rm virtualbox
zypper rm VirtualBox-4.0
zypper ar http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/rpm/opensuse/11.4/ virtualbox
zypper refresh virtualbox
zypper in VirtualBox-4.0

If you want to install the VirtualBox extensions, have a look at this thread VirtualBox 4.0 and use this script: Update VirtualBox-4.0 Extension Pack. (if it doesn’t sound too complicated).