vboxguest error Installing Module - non X11 box [SOLVED]

[CoreyW]

Networking causing this? Wow, that's a kicker...

There doesn't appear to be any problems with networking, post install. I can access the network from inside the guest and the host's network can access the guest with no problems. lo0 and eth0 have always started with zero delay all through this process.

I'll try again using bridged networking in the VM settings, automatic starting of eth0 (dhcp), and default localhost.localdomain and see if that makes a difference and I'll report back.

You mention you have your own dkms, should I be yum installing it, as you mention in your docs? i.e. run:

# yum install binutils gcc make patch libgomp glibc-headers glibc-devel kernel-headers kernel-devel

Instead of:

# yum install dkms binutils gcc make patch libgomp glibc-headers glibc-devel kernel-headers kernel-devel

Corey

P.S. thanks for your patience, man.

[Perryg]

The only purpose of dkms is to keep kernel modules aligned when a kernel update happens. If you already have one installed I would just leave it.
I have a slightly edit version from DEll. much like make and a few other packages I use, but not necessary for the installation of VirtualBox or the guest additions. The repo ones work fine.

It would not be the first time that once booted everything works great. It could be a missing nameserver in resolv.conf, but hanging where you show is always a network configuration issue. I see this on Solaris a lot. I need to manually setup a local (fake) net configuration to get the boot process down to a reasonable time.

[CoreyW]

Next installment.

Summary: okay, I really don't understand now.

I used the default install options for everything. eth0 using dhpc. localhost.localdomain. Bridged networking. System boots to prompt in just under 15 seconds. All in/out networking is working. Ok, cool...

Mount GA iso. Built GA. --nox11. System nows boots in about 100 seconds. Hangs at the same point - just before NIC's report started. 'Failed' error and both NIC's start immedaitely after.

What gets inserted by GA that causes the new behavior before NIC startup messages? Network time out? What is it trying to resolve? It's a out-of-the-box install. bleh.

Corey.

[Perryg]

I honestly don't know. I installed it just to test and it takes under 30 seconds to boot with or without the guest additions.

[CoreyW]

If you don't mind me asking a few questions on your test, i'm really motivated to figure this out.

You mention you do something different with DKMS versus what am doing from the doc. You don't bring in another repo, i have to to get DKMS to resolve. you use your own DKMS. That has to be significant. Is there any chance i could do the same as what you are doing as a test?

I put in an echo at the start of the networking script. I see the echo appear on a clean boot. After i installed GA, the hang is still BEFORE that message. Post GA install, i get the new DKMS message immediately before networking - heck of a coincidence...

[Perryg]

Like I said I did not use dkms it is only needed to keep the kernel modules in sync when a kernel upgrade is done. Remove dkms and see if that helps.
It should not show up on the boot screen anyway. No reason for it to show. Perhaps using that is your nemesis since it is from rpm.

If a kernel upgrade happens you simply need to run the /etc/init.d/vboxadd setup again

[CoreyW]

Okay, finally got around to looking at this again.

Yes, the key was to REMOVE dkms from the prereq's install (at least for CentOS). Once I removed it, the install/compile of the client additions went fine and I can share folders, etc.

Perhaps the GA doc for linux guests could be edited to remove 'dkms' for Fedora/RH/CentOS prereq install.

Thanks for all the help as we worked our way through this.

Corey.