VBoxadd-service.service fails on startup

Discussions about using Linux guests in VirtualBox.
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VRdave
Posts: 1
Joined: 5. Mar 2019, 22:12

VBoxadd-service.service fails on startup

Post by VRdave »

Hello,

I'm using Virtualbox Version 5.2.22 r126460
Host is Windows 7 professional 64 bit 16GB ram
Guest is Ubuntu 18.04 64 bit 8GB ram

I must preface this post by mentioning that I'm new to VirtualBox and Linux so please forgive me if there's something obvious I have missed.

There have been previous posts about this problem (or at least similar symptoms) but I think I've been though all of them and still haven't been able to solve the issue.
After installing the VirtualBox guest additions in Ubuntu I now get an error message when booting Ubuntu that the VBoxadd-service.service failed. I Followed instructions I found for guest additions install on Ubuntu 18.04 and ran this prior to doing the additions installation:
sudo apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential dkms
I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the guest additions without any luck.

What I find strange is when I check the status of vboxadd-service right after installing it reports that everything is running fine...
●vboxadd-service.service
   Loaded: loaded (/opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-5.2.22/init/vboxadd-service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Tue 2019-03-05 12:28:29 EST; 3min 25s ago
  Process: 11895 ExecStart=/opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-5.2.22/init/vboxadd-service start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    Tasks: 8 (limit: 4915)
   CGroup: /system.slice/vboxadd-service.service
           └─11909 /usr/sbin/VBoxService --pidfile /var/run/vboxadd-service.sh
Mar 05 12:28:29 munro-VirtualBox systemd[1]: Starting vboxadd-service.service...
Mar 05 12:28:29 munro-VirtualBox vboxadd-service[11895]: vboxadd-service.sh: Starting VirtualBox Guest Addition service.
Mar 05 12:28:29 munro-VirtualBox vboxadd-service.sh[11910]: VirtualBox Guest Addition service started.
Mar 05 12:28:29 munro-VirtualBox systemd[1]: Started vboxadd-service.service.
On reboot, vboxadd-service.service fails and when I check the status using systemctl I get this...
● vboxadd-service.service
   Loaded: loaded (/opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-5.2.22/init/vboxadd-service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Tue 2019-03-05 14:11:57 EST; 50s ago
  Process: 917 ExecStart=/opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-5.2.22/init/vboxadd-service start (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Mar 05 14:11:56 munro-VirtualBox systemd[1]: Starting vboxadd-service.service...
Mar 05 14:11:57 munro-VirtualBox vboxadd-service[917]: vboxadd-service.sh: Starting VirtualBox Guest Addition service.
Mar 05 14:11:57 munro-VirtualBox systemd[1]: vboxadd-service.service: Control process exited, code=exited status=1
Mar 05 14:11:57 munro-VirtualBox systemd[1]: vboxadd-service.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Mar 05 14:11:57 munro-VirtualBox systemd[1]: Failed to start vboxadd-service.service.
Thanks in advance for any input or advice anyone can give!
Attachments
Ubuntu 18.04-2019-03-05-15-49-46.zip
(34.24 KiB) Downloaded 36 times
Last edited by socratis on 6. Mar 2019, 01:54, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Enclosed the information in [quote][pre] tags for better readability
dfjbinks
Posts: 1
Joined: 19. Mar 2019, 14:25

Re: VBoxadd-service.service fails on startup

Post by dfjbinks »

I've seen this problem with Ubuntu 16.04.6 guest on a Win10 professional host.

The problem seems to be related to the virtualbox extension kernel module not being compatible with more recent kernel versions. In my case

Code: Select all

Linux hades16 4.4.0-143-generic #169-Ubuntu SMP Thu Feb 7 07:56:38 UTC 2019 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
This is the stock kernel for 16.04 updaed a few days ago. The kernel module fails to build

Code: Select all

/tmp/vbox.0/r0drv/linux/memobj-r0drv-linux.c: In function ‘rtR0MemObjNativeLockUser’:
/tmp/vbox.0/r0drv/linux/memobj-r0drv-linux.c:1123:33: warning: passing argument 6 of ‘get_user_pages’ makes pointer from integer without a cast [-Wint-conversion]
                                 fWrite,                 /* force write access. */
                                 ^
In file included from /tmp/vbox.0/r0drv/linux/the-linux-kernel.h:101:0,
                 from /tmp/vbox.0/r0drv/linux/memobj-r0drv-linux.c:31:
include/linux/mm.h:1222:6: note: expected ‘struct page **’ but argument is of type ‘int’
 long get_user_pages(struct task_struct *tsk, struct mm_struct *mm,
      ^
/tmp/vbox.0/r0drv/linux/memobj-r0drv-linux.c:1125:33: warning: passing argument 7 of ‘get_user_pages’ from incompatible pointer type [-Wincompatible-pointer-types]
                                 &pMemLnx->apPages[0],   /* Page array. */
                                 ^
In file included from /tmp/vbox.0/r0drv/linux/the-linux-kernel.h:101:0,
                 from /tmp/vbox.0/r0drv/linux/memobj-r0drv-linux.c:31:
include/linux/mm.h:1222:6: note: expected ‘struct vm_area_struct **’ but argument is of type ‘struct page **’
 long get_user_pages(struct task_struct *tsk, struct mm_struct *mm,
      ^
/tmp/vbox.0/r0drv/linux/memobj-r0drv-linux.c:1113:18: error: too many arguments to function ‘get_user_pages’
             rc = get_user_pages(pTask,                  /* Task for fault accounting. */
                  ^
In file included from /tmp/vbox.0/r0drv/linux/the-linux-kernel.h:101:0,
                 from /tmp/vbox.0/r0drv/linux/memobj-r0drv-linux.c:31:
include/linux/mm.h:1222:6: note: declared here
 long get_user_pages(struct task_struct *tsk, struct mm_struct *mm,
      ^
I'm assuming a forthcoming extensions update ought to fix this...
andyp73
Volunteer
Posts: 1631
Joined: 25. May 2010, 23:48
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Assorted Linux, Windows Server 2012, DOS, Windows 10, BIOS/UEFI emulation

Re: VBoxadd-service.service fails on startup

Post by andyp73 »

The build issues with the VirtualBox guest additions under some variants of the Linux v4.4 kernel including the get_user_pages() issue have been known about for a while. One such is described in ticket [Fixed] vboxdrv build failure, VBox 5.2.26 32-bit, kernel 4.4.168 (#18315).

These have been fixed and are in recent Test Builds - anything identified as r128999 and later, for both 5.2.27 and 6.0.5. These will presumably be rolled into the 5.2.28 and 6.0.6 releases whenever the devs choose to release them.

-Andy.
My crystal ball is currently broken. If you want assistance you are going to have to give me all of the necessary information.
Please don't ask me to do your homework for you, I have more than enough of my own things to do.
Wheaties
Posts: 7
Joined: 8. Jan 2020, 19:18

Re: VBoxadd-service.service fails on startup

Post by Wheaties »

Wow, responding to a post that's 11 years old.

I'm getting the same result on kali linux:

Code: Select all

└─# systemctl status vboxadd-service.service
× vboxadd-service.service
     Loaded: loaded (/opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-6.1.28/init/vboxadd-service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Fri 2021-11-05 22:01:07 EDT; 32min ago
    Process: 768 ExecStart=/opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-6.1.28/init/vboxadd-service start (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
        CPU: 9ms

Nov 05 22:01:07 kali systemd[1]: Starting vboxadd-service.service...
Nov 05 22:01:07 kali vboxadd-service[768]: vboxadd-service.sh: Starting VirtualBox Guest Addition service.
Nov 05 22:01:07 kali vboxadd-service.sh[775]: VirtualBox Guest Addition service started.
Nov 05 22:01:07 kali systemd[1]: vboxadd-service.service: Control process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Nov 05 22:01:07 kali systemd[1]: vboxadd-service.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Nov 05 22:01:07 kali systemd[1]: Failed to start vboxadd-service.service.

Code: Select all

└─# uname -a                                                                                                                                 3 ⨯
Linux kali 5.14.0-kali2-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 5.14.9-2kali1 (2021-10-04) x86_64 GNU/Linux
The appropriate build packages were installed:
apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential dkms
The system is fully updated

And for kali, the guest additions file is copied to /root and run:
./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

What have I missed?

Thanks, Matt
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