Fedora25 - Guest additions failure

[hellmaster]

Hello guys,

I'm running a Fedora 25 as a guest on Win 7. I have installed the VBoxGuestAdditions (VBGA) to have a full screen capability and everything was running smoothly until today. I've updated my Fedora to kernel version 4.9.11. As usual, the screen resolution has been switched to default (1024x768, after an update I had to reboot the OS to have the VBGA functionality available), so I rebooted my guest OS, but nothing happened.

I've been searching for a solution, but so far no success. I wanted to install the VBGA once again, however it fails, although I've all the prerequisites (gcc, make, kernel-headers, kernel-devel...). The log says:

vboxadd.sh: failed: modprobe vboxguest failed

I was not able to find a solution, as from my point of view I have everything installed and everything was running smoothly on previous kernel version (4.9.10).

VirtualBox v5.1.14
Linux kernel v4.9.11

Any hints how to fix this?
Thank you very much for help,
hellmaster

edit: included the VirtualBox version and Linux kernel version

[socratis]

I've updated my Fedora to kernel version 4.9.11.

And that's the price you pay if you want to live on the edge... A ticket was opened about this 4 days ago, with no resolution so far (no kidding): https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/16506

[hellmaster]

Oh, that's a bit unpleasant. Actually I've updated my Fedora mistakenly... Now I see I need to downgrade my Fedora somehow. Actually running just the older release (4.9.10) makes no difference, I'm still unable to install the VBGA, so I assume I need to remove the new kernel version somehow... :-/

Thx for the post,
hellmaster

[motoridersd]

Linux usually keeps the previous kernel when it installs a new one, so just boot into the older one. You can select it at the boot menu.

I have a Fedora 25 host running Windows 7, and after the 4.9.11 kernel upgrade, vboxdrv does not install. I'm getting SELinux warnings about vbox-install.log and vboxdrv.ko. I haven't tried adding exceptions for these issues to get around the problem.

[hellmaster]

Booting a previous kernel makes no difference in my case. It's strange, but that's how it is... I've also removed the current release (4.9.11), but still not able to install the VBGA. Under /var/log/VBoxGuestAdditions.log I see a modprobe failure...

[socratis]

Me and Fedora do not have an intimate relationship, but shouldn't you delete/purge all signs of vbox*, virtualbox* before attempting to install the GAs? I don't even know how that's done off the top of my head, I'd have to look it up...

[Backrow]

For what it is worth I have not noticed any change when you add the SELINUX context changes. As someone else pointed out this also doesn't change when you boot another kernel. If it would help I can pastebin the build errors, but I am sure someone has done that.
Lee

[Backrow]

When I do modprobe vboxvideo manually the display shreds and I have to hard kill the machine.

[Backrow]

Poked around further. I found that if I set SELINUX to permissive (I usually run in enforcing) and reboot, that indeed the VBGA installs and I get full screen. Switching back to enforcing breaks this. There are no SELINUX warnings that I can see, and a filesystem relabel did not fix it.
My $0.02

[Backrow]

Differences between running in permissive and enforcing

Because I am new it will not let me post a link so here it is:

PERMISSIVE:

[root@milano log]# lsmod|grep vb
vboxsf 45056 0
vboxvideo 40960 2
ttm 86016 1 vboxvideo
drm_kms_helper 135168 1 vboxvideo
drm 286720 5 vboxvideo,ttm,drm_kms_helper
syscopyarea 16384 2 vboxvideo,drm_kms_helper
vboxguest 237568 6 vboxsf,vboxvideo
sysfillrect 16384 2 vboxvideo,drm_kms_helper
sysimgblt 16384 2 vboxvideo,drm_kms_helper

ENFORCING:

[root@milano ~]# lsmod|grep vb
vboxsf 45056 0
vboxguest 237568 5 vboxsf

[jrc55]

I have much the same problem that started today when I let Fedora upgrade selinux from 3.13.1-225.6.fc25 to 3.13.1-225.10.fc25. When I went back to the old version all was well.

[hellmaster]

I can confirm setting SELinux to permissive under /etc/selinux/config allows to install the VBGA. Rebooting looks promising, but after login, I get into an infinite login loop. I've searched the web and found there is a need to relabel like: sudo touch /.autorelabel. However this did not work for me and I'm still in infinite loop. So either I can run in full-screen etc. but get stuck in VBGA or no VBGA...

[socratis]

after login, I get into an infinite login loop.

Try to disable 3D acceleration. Try to choose "Gnome classic" (I assume here that you have Gnome).

[hellmaster]

Hi socratis, I've changed to "Gnome Classic" and I was able to login.

To sum-up my steps:
1) upgraded to latest kernel (4.9.12)
2) switched to SELinux permissive under /etc/selinux/config by rewriting SELINUX=enforced to SELINUX=permissive
3) Rebooted
4) Installed VBGA without issue
5) Get into infinite login loop
6) Logged in using "Gnome Classic"

and it worked.

However as a novice Linux user I don't know, what consequences it has to run Linux with SELinux permissive configuration. Whether there is some security risk or so... Also what are the pros/cons of Gnome Classic?

Anyway, thx for the hints, after the issue is fixed, I'll turn the Security to enforce again... hope this will be soon. I've found with the new kernel 4.10 and VBGA v5.1.15 this should be fixed...

Thx for the help,
Hellmaster

[socratis]

Also what are the pros/cons of Gnome Classic?

That, I don't have the slightest idea, and it's not really a VirtualBox question either. The only thing I know is that I have been bitten by this as well. I didn't see what your VirtualBox version is (you should have posted it), but the test builds have fixed that problem. See: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Testbuilds