Virtualbox VM won't start after kernel upgrade

[onero]

Am using Feisty 7.04, and previously I was using a Windows XP guest on Virtualbox with no problems. Today, the update notifier informed me that there were updates to the kernel, so I went ahead and updated. I was previously using the low-latency 2.6.20.15 kernel, and when I upgraded and rebooted, I used the low-latency 2.6.20.16 kernel. I logged into Ubuntu and everything was fine, but when I started my Windows XP VM, I got an error saying:


VirtualBox kernel driver not installed. The vboxdrv kernel module was either not loaded or /dev/vboxdrv was not created for some reason. Re-setup the kernel module by executing '/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup' as root.
VBox status code: -1908 (VERR_VM_DRIVER_NOT_INSTALLED).


I tried to run /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup, but when I did, I got this error in vbox-install.log:

Makefile:73: *** Error: unable to find the sources of your current Linux kernel. Specify KERN_DIR=<directory> and run Make again.. Stop.


Any idea what I should do? I don't know where to specify the kernel directory, and even if I did I wouldn't know what directory to put. Thanks.

[trekfan1]

On kernel update it necessary to reinstall virtualbox

[onero]

I uninstalled VirtualBox and then reinstalled, but duribng the installation process I got the same error about the kernel directory not being set Would you know where / how I can set this?

[onero]

Someone solved the issue for me in the Ubuntu Forums, but just in case anyone has the same problem, here is the solution:

You must install the kernel headers matching the new kernel :

Code:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Then just run

Code:

sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

and you should be fine. No need to reinstall anything.

[trekfan1]

thx for the info

[ettienne]

Thank you for the post, you saved my life.

[dstark]

Hi, all.

I'm very new to Linux (like today ), and I'm trying to setup virtualbox under Ubuntu 8.04. The installation went fine, and the following is the text from the Konsole window where I tried to perform the steps outlined in this thread.

Code: Select all   Expand viewCollapse view

dstark@dstark-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
linux-headers-2.6.24-16-generic is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
dstark@dstark-laptop:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
* Usage: /etc/init.d/vboxdrv {start|stop|restart|status}
dstark@dstark-laptop:~$


Virtualbox, however, still doesn't work. So, obviously I'm missing something. Could anyone tell me what I should be doing? (Preferably in small words and explicit steps ).

Thanks so much!

[Sasquatch]

Hi, all.

I'm very new to Linux (like today ), and I'm trying to setup virtualbox under Ubuntu 8.04. The installation went fine, and the following is the text from the Konsole window where I tried to perform the steps outlined in this thread.

Code: Select all   Expand viewCollapse view

dstark@dstark-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
linux-headers-2.6.24-16-generic is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
dstark@dstark-laptop:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
* Usage: /etc/init.d/vboxdrv {start|stop|restart|status}
dstark@dstark-laptop:~$


Virtualbox, however, still doesn't work. So, obviously I'm missing something. Could anyone tell me what I should be doing? (Preferably in small words and explicit steps ).

Thanks so much!

You don't say what the problem exactly is, but I suggest to uninstall Virtualbox if you installed it from the packages on the site (so not the OSE version from the repo) and pick the Hardy version. You can find the hardy package on this page: http://www.virtualbox.org/download
If you installed VB from the repositories, then make sure that you installed all the needed packages. Use Synaptic Packet Manager and install the correct packages needed for your kernel version. This is most likely the Generic build.