Usually, there is additional information, e.g., when the kernel modules are not loaded, but not in this case. This failure occurs before VirtualBox opens the log file, i.e., the Logs directory contains only old log files from before Monday. How does one go about diagnosing this when there is not even a log file? Nothing is logged to the messages system log file either.VBoxManage: error: The virtual machine 'XXX Virtual Server' has terminated unexpectedly during startup with exit code 1 (0x1)
VBoxManage: error: Details: code NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005), component MachineWrap, interface IMachine
The significance of Monday is that the system had been powered down on Friday for a planned power outage over the weekend, and RHEL 8 was upgraded to the latest version of all packages. It now runs this kernel:
The Virtual Box version is 6.1.26 r145957 (Qt5.12.5)Linux xxx 4.18.0-305.19.1.el8_4.x86_64 #1 SMP Tue Sep 7 07:07:31 EDT 2021 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
When VirtualBox was last working, the system ran this kernel:
I can still boot into that version, but the same error happens.4.18.0-305.12.1.el8_4.x86_64
During the upgrade and reboot I saw that selinux relabeling occurred. Just in case, I changed selinux from enforcing to permissive, but this did not help. The system uses the latest nvidia video driver, and that was changed to use their prebuilt, presigned kernel modules. I tried starting a VM in headless mode, but got the same error.
This system is a secure boot system, which means I had to generate and sign the VirtualBox kernel modules after the kernel upgrade. This was done, the modules load, but the VMs do not start. I created a new VM, and this does not start either. Reinstalling VirtualBox-6.1 did not help.
Any suggestions what to look at next?