[Solved] Centos 7.4 headless VB 5.2.4 vboxweb-service fails

[rpyne]

I am trying to do a new install with Centos7.4 headless and VirtualBox 5.2.4. I did the install from yum and added the extension pack without any error messages. but vboxweb-service fails on startup. The only error message I get is:

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# /usr/lib/virtualbox/vboxweb-service.sh start
vboxweb-service.sh: Starting VirtualBox web service.
vboxweb-service.sh: failed: VirtualBox web service failed to start.

Checking /var/log/messages gives only the same messages.

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var/log/vbox-install.log starts with this and then continues to compile modules:

make V=1 CONFIG_MODULE_SIG= -C /lib/modules/3.10.0-693.11.1.el7.x86_64/build SUBDIRS=/tmp/vbox.0 SRCROOT=/tmp/vbox.0 -j8 modules
make[1]: warning: -jN forced in submake: disabling jobserver mode.
test -e include/generated/autoconf.h -a -e include/config/auto.conf || (                \
echo >&2;                                                       \
echo >&2 "  ERROR: Kernel configuration is invalid.";           \
echo >&2 "         include/generated/autoconf.h or include/config/auto.conf are missing.";\
echo >&2 "         Run 'make oldconfig && make prepare' on kernel src to fix it.";      \
echo >&2 ;                                                      \
/bin/false)
mkdir -p /tmp/vbox.0/.tmp_versions ; rm -f /tmp/vbox.0/.tmp_versions/*
make -f scripts/Makefile.build obj=/tmp/vbox.0

I see a similar stanza six more times and then the log ends with:

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test -e include/generated/autoconf.h -a -e include/config/auto.conf || (                \
echo >&2;                                                       \
echo >&2 "  ERROR: Kernel configuration is invalid.";           \
echo >&2 "         include/generated/autoconf.h or include/config/auto.conf are missing.";\
echo >&2 "         Run 'make oldconfig && make prepare' on kernel src to fix it.";      \
echo >&2 ;                                                      \
/bin/false)
mkdir -p /lib/modules/3.10.0-693.11.1.el7.x86_64/misc
make -f ./scripts/Makefile.modinst
  mkdir -p /lib/modules/3.10.0-693.11.1.el7.x86_64/misc; cp /tmp/vbox.0/vboxpci.ko /lib/modules/3.10.0-693.11.1.el7.x86_64/misc ; true /lib/modules/3.10
.0-693.11.1.el7.x86_64/misc/vboxpci.ko ; perl ./scripts/sign-file "sha256" ./signing_key.priv ./signing_key.x509 /lib/modules/3.10.0-693.11.1.el7.x86_64
/misc/vboxpci.ko || true
Can't read private key
  /bin/sh ./scripts/depmod.sh /sbin/depmod 3.10.0-693.11.1.el7.x86_64 ""

My install process from a clean Centos7 minimal install was:

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yum -y update  
yum -y install epel-release
yum -y install wget net-tools joe atop mlocate tree man man-pages screen unzip
yum -y install ntp
systemctl enable ntpdate.service
systemctl enable ntpd.service
/bin/systemctl start  ntpdate.service
/bin/systemctl start  ntpd.service
reboot
yum -y install httpd mod_ssl
systemctl enable httpd.service
systemctl start httpd.service
wget http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/rpm/rhel/virtualbox.repo -P /etc/yum.repos.d/
yum update -y
yum -y groupinstall 'Development Tools' SDL kernel-devel kernel-headers dkms
yum -y install VirtualBox-5.2
/usr/lib/virtualbox/vboxdrv.sh setup
useradd -c"Virtual Box" -m vbox
usermod -a -G vboxusers vbox
passwd vbox
wget http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/5.2.4/Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-5.2.4-119785.vbox-extpack
VBoxManage extpack install Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-5.2.4-119785.vbox-extpack

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[socratis]

The third part seems to be the relevant one, the other first is the end result message, and the second are "echo" statements. The third part talks about "signing". Are you using secure boot? If so, you got to sign the modules yourself, VirtualBox doesn't sign them.

[rpyne]

As far as I know, I'm not using secure boot. It looks like the modules are loading, but the vboxweb-service won't start.

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# lsmod | grep vbox
vboxpci                23149  0
vboxnetadp             25813  0
vboxnetflt             27959  0
vboxdrv               480897  3 vboxnetadp,vboxnetflt,vboxpci

[rpyne]

After many hours of digging, experimenting, and banging my head on the desk, I found what works.

You MUST create the vbox user and create the /etc/defaults/virtualbox file BEFORE installing VirtualBox. Creating them after installing VirtualBox won't work, even if you restart the vbox services or even remove and re-install VirtualBox after creating them.

[socratis]

That sounds like something that should have been done by the installer, no? I'll take a look later today...

[soltaran]

I've had a similar problem with VirtualBox 6.0 - on a Clearos 7 box (underlying OS is Centos 7) - but I've found the issue .. at least in my case.
This is also a case where VirtualBox was installed first so I was not willing to rebuild everything(!)

I've been using WinSCP to attach to the machine to create the various files (/etc/default/virtualbox, autostart.cfg) with an external editor (TextPad).
The problem I found was that I could only have a single line in ../../virtualbox - anything more and the service failed to start. I've now discovered that the problem is down to the newline; by default, creating a new file (at least with the external editor/new file function of WinSCP), created a file in DOS format, not UNIX - and it was this that was causing the problem .. the difference in format of newline.

This would work ...

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VBOXWEB_USER=vbox

This wouldn't ...

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VBOXWEB_USER=vbox

My virtualbox file now reads ..

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VBOXWEB_USER=vbox
VBOXWEBAUTOSTART_DB=/etc/vbox
VBOXAUTOSTART_CONFIG=autostart.cfg

I changed the format of the file(s) to UNIX, and the service now starts/restarts correctly, although I've yet to check if the autostart now works (the VM I want to autostart is a mail server); at the moment I've been starting it manually.