/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup not working

[ilantal]

I am using Virtual box on other Linux machines but my laptop refuses to go.

I am using Ubuntu 15.04 and I downloaded from Oracle VirtualBox 4.3.28 for Linux. I want it to run Windows XP. The Ubuntu software installed installed the VBox for me and all looked OK while it was loading XP. I installed Guest additions which was included in the download package.

The Internet explorer couldn't make any outside connections using the default NAT setup. Then I saw that ipconfig /all saw no IP addresses. I restarted virtual box and got

Kernel driver not installed (rc=-1908)

The VirtualBox Linux kernel driver (vboxdrv) is either not loaded or there is a permission problem with /dev/vboxdrv. Please reinstall the kernel module by executing

'/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup'

as root. If it is available in your distribution, you should install the DKMS package first. This package keeps track of Linux kernel changes and recompiles the vboxdrv kernel module if necessary.

This seemed to go OK as follows:
ilan@ilan-Len-G585:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
[sudo] password for ilan:
Stopping VirtualBox kernel modules ...done.
Uninstalling old VirtualBox DKMS kernel modules ...done.
Removing old VirtualBox pci kernel module ...done.
Removing old VirtualBox netadp kernel module ...done.
Removing old VirtualBox netflt kernel module ...done.
Removing old VirtualBox kernel module ...done.
Trying to register the VirtualBox kernel modules using DKMS ...done.
Starting VirtualBox kernel modules ...done.
ilan@ilan-Len-G585:~$

Just to be sure I rebooted, went back into vbox and got the same error again.
Could it be some permissions problem, or what is going wrong?
I have tried everything I can think of and I can't find something on the board which apparently passes OK but still doesn't work.

Thanks,
Ilan

[ilantal]

I found the answer to that problem. For convenience I had pinned the launcher to the launcher bar. Apparently the icon was pointing to the old position of the software so I kept coming back to the wrong place.
I unpinned the shortcut and fired up vitualbox from the terminal. It gave me the same error and I recompiled again with no errors. Now I started from the terminal again and this time xp came up.

Now I am back to the network adapter problem again. ipconfig /all gives me an empty list of IPs. I tried bridged with both eth0 and wlan0 and nothing gives me a non empty list in ipconfig /all.

I am using NAT on all other machines, all with no problems. On this laptop I can't get out from xp to the parent Ubuntu so the Internet doesn't work inside xp.

Are there any suggestions on this problem?

Thanks,
Ilan

[ilantal]

I was too quick with the launcher. After reboot all bets are off.

I removed the launcher and fired up vbox from the terminal, showing again the same problem. Again I recompiled the software and fired it up so that up came the xp with no problems. Now I do reboot and fire up virtualbox from the terminal. Again I get

WARNING: The vboxdrv kernel module is not loaded. Either there is no module
available for the current kernel (3.19.0-18-generic) or it failed to
load. Please recompile the kernel module and install it by

sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

You will not be able to start VMs until this problem is fixed.

In other words I need to recompile on each and every reboot - which is totally ridiculous. Apparently the compilation is not really finishing the job which may well relate to my NAT problem and the Internet.

I am really stuck and need some suggestions.

Thanks,
Ilan

[ilantal]

I had a look in vboxusers to see if maybe there was a problem there. I saw my user name listed but not checked, so I put a check in the box.

I could log out and log back in and virtualbox in the terminal would still work OK. Once I did a reboot I go back to the /etc/init.d/vboxdrv problem, i.e. the check didn't help.

Equally important I still have no connection to the Internet. ipconfig /all still gives an empty list of IPs. I looked in the log and found no errors. I am staying with NAT, but bridged also gave nothing. I'll attach the latest log file if anyone can see something which I can't see.

Thanks,
Ilan

[ilantal]

I compared the log file on a working machine. I get
00:00:29.978728 NAT: DHCP offered IP address 10.0.2.15

and on the laptop
00:00:02.189233 NAT: DNS server 127.0.1.1 registration detected, switching to the DNS proxy
00:00:02.189332 NAT: DNS#0: 127.0.1.1

I remember the 10.0.2.* as the connection to Ubuntu. On the laptop it is only seeing the loop back 127.0.1.1 which is the reason it isn't reaching the Internet.

Can anyone tell me how I get it past the loop back IP?
I am still puzzled why the reboot is screwing it up each time.

[noteirak]

Try configuring the VM with

Code: Select all

VBoxManage modifyvm "VM name" --natdnshostresolver1 on

replace "1" by whatever NIC index you're using.

[ilantal]

The ipconfig /all being empty was a Windows Network driver problem.
The /etc/init.d/vboxdrv is still a mystery.
I finally solved the problem by removing the latest Oracle version and reverting to the Ubuntu repository version.
The only thing which might make sense might be connected to extensions. Oracle had its own version whereas the repository version has "VNC" built in. Perhaps this was somehow making troubles for the Oracle version?
In any case with the Ubuntu repository version all is now working.