Ubuntu 18.04 Failed to create the VirtualBoxClient COM object

[bhweb]

I upgraded to Ubuntu 18.04 and updated the source repos. Whenever I try and launch VB 5.2, I'm getting the error:

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Failed to create the VirtualBoxClient COM object.
The application will now terminate.

Callee RC: NS_ERROR_FACTORY_NOT_REGISTERED (0x80040154)

I've tried doing a complete removal (purge) via Synaptic and re-installing. Launching from the command line gives no information at all before the dialog with the above message.

What do I need to do or try?

[socratis]

Completely remove/uninstall/delete/purge what you might have installed and install the official version from the Linux Downloads section of VirtualBox (https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads).

Mind you there should be no need to do anything as 'root', except installing VirtualBox. If there's an error or a warning during the installation, post the installer output.

[bhweb]

I did an apt-get remove --purge virtualbox-5.2

I then checked for any other virtualbox* packages installed, and there was nothing related.

I downloaded the package from the website, virtualbox-5.2_5.2.20-125813_Ubuntu_bionic_amd64.deb. I then ran apt from the command line to install the .deb package. Because I have the official Oracle repo in my sources, it still downloaded the package, but as you can see in the output, it was the same package as what I downloaded from the website. There were no errors during the installation, but I still have the same issue when trying to bring it up.

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BRUCE-CUSA Downloads # apt install ./virtualbox-5.2_5.2.20-125813_Ubuntu_bionic_amd64.deb 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Note, selecting 'virtualbox-5.2' instead of './virtualbox-5.2_5.2.20-125813_Ubuntu_bionic_amd64.deb'
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
  perlmagick
Use 'apt autoremove' to remove it.
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  virtualbox-5.2
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 61 not upgraded.
Need to get 68.2 MB of archives.
After this operation, 167 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian bionic/contrib amd64 virtualbox-5.2 amd64 5.2.20-125813~Ubuntu~bionic [68.2 MB]
Fetched 68.2 MB in 9s (7,362 kB/s)                                                                                               
Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously unselected package virtualbox-5.2.
(Reading database ... 453331 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../virtualbox-5.2_5.2.20-125813~Ubuntu~bionic_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking virtualbox-5.2 (5.2.20-125813~Ubuntu~bionic) ...
Setting up virtualbox-5.2 (5.2.20-125813~Ubuntu~bionic) ...
addgroup: The group `vboxusers' already exists as a system group. Exiting.
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.60ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-20) ...
ureadahead will be reprofiled on next reboot
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.23-1ubuntu3.18.04.1) ...
Processing triggers for bamfdaemon (0.5.3+18.04.20180207.2-0ubuntu1) ...
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf-2.index...
Processing triggers for systemd (237-3ubuntu10.3) ...
Processing triggers for shared-mime-info (1.9-2) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.13.3-11ubuntu1.1) ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.17-2) ...

[zdravko]

Hello bhweb,

I can't give the answer you looking for, but will make some notes to prevent possible other errors (just while I'm waiting my question answer).
'apt-get' is hi level tool. You can not give some package to install. 'apt-get' receive package names and manage everything - from download (according to source list) up to install. You can check that automatically downloaded package is the same (I'm almost sure, it is) as see it in '/var/cache/apt/archives' (the cache place). If You want to force install already downloaded package, lower level tool should be used. You can use 'dpkg' for example: dpkg -i <package file>
Really, You don't have to use 'dpkg'. I'm saying this for completeness.

Have a luck,
zdravko.

[socratis]

If You want to force install already downloaded package, lower level tool should be used. You can use 'dpkg' for example: dpkg -i <package file>

+1 !!!

[bhweb]

Yes, I know how to use dpkg to install .deb files. That would have been my next step, except that it was pretty clear that apt downloaded the same exact file and installed it, so I didn't see a need to remove it again and install using dpkg.

[bhweb]

Bumping this. Can anyone give me any more info on how I can troubleshoot this issue? I wish the program had some way of getting some sort of verbose output so I could see what's going on. I really need to get vbox back up and running.

[socratis]

• I assume that this happens no matter what VM you're trying to launch, right?
• Is there a "VBox.log" created in the VM's Logs folder? If yes, ZIP it and attach it.
• Quit and restart VirtualBox. ZIP and attach the file "~/.config/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml".

FWIW, I can definitely install VirtualBox 5.2.20 on a Ubuntu 18.04, and so do others, a lot of "others". So there's got to be something special about your host that is causing this...

[bhweb]

I wasn't trying to launch any VM, just the gui itself. I also get the error if I try to run VBoxManage from the command line. This is the output:

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BRUCE-CUSA ~ # /usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxManage list vms
VBoxManage: error: Failed to create the VirtualBox object!
VBoxManage: error: Code NS_ERROR_FACTORY_NOT_REGISTERED (0x80040154) - Class not registered (extended info not available)
VBoxManage: error: Most likely, the VirtualBox COM server is not running or failed to start.

I don't have a ~/.config/VirtualBox folder, but I do have ~/.VirtualBox folder that has a VirtualBox.xml file that lists all the VMs with their info. Is that the file you want? It was last modified on Aug 25. I've tried renaming that file and starting virtualbox but it gives the same error.

Looking through the bug reports, I saw how to launch the com server manually and it seems to startup fine:

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BRUCE-CUSA ~ # /usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxSVC
************************************************
Oracle VM VirtualBox XPCOM Server Version 5.2.20
(C) 2004-2018 Oracle Corporation
All rights reserved.

Starting event loop....
[press Ctrl-C to quit]

but I still get the same error when trying to launch virtual box or VBoxManage.

[socratis]

I honestly don't have a clue what's going on...
And I don't use Linux as my primary OS, so maybe someone else has a better idea...

[bhweb]

Here is info extracted from syslog during a normal boot in case there's something there that might help, but it looks to me like everything is succeeding:

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Nov 14 09:35:19 BRUCE-CUSA vboxdrv.sh[1505]: vboxdrv.sh: Starting VirtualBox services.
Nov 14 09:35:19 BRUCE-CUSA vboxdrv.sh: Starting VirtualBox services.
Nov 14 09:35:20 BRUCE-CUSA vboxdrv.sh[1505]: vboxdrv.sh: Building VirtualBox kernel modules.
Nov 14 09:35:20 BRUCE-CUSA vboxdrv.sh: Building VirtualBox kernel modules.
Nov 14 09:36:21 BRUCE-CUSA vboxdrv.sh: VirtualBox kernel modules built.
Nov 14 09:36:21 BRUCE-CUSA kernel: [  101.809073] vboxdrv: Found 4 processor cores
Nov 14 09:36:21 BRUCE-CUSA kernel: [  101.829475] vboxdrv: TSC mode is Invariant, tentative frequency 3198652467 Hz
Nov 14 09:36:21 BRUCE-CUSA kernel: [  101.829479] vboxdrv: Successfully loaded version 5.2.22 (interface 0x00290001)
Nov 14 09:36:21 BRUCE-CUSA kernel: [  102.040038] VBoxNetFlt: Successfully started.
Nov 14 09:36:21 BRUCE-CUSA kernel: [  102.042466] VBoxNetAdp: Successfully started.
Nov 14 09:36:21 BRUCE-CUSA kernel: [  102.047122] VBoxPciLinuxInit
Nov 14 09:36:21 BRUCE-CUSA kernel: [  102.050213] vboxpci: IOMMU found
Nov 14 09:36:21 BRUCE-CUSA vboxdrv.sh: VirtualBox services started.
Nov 14 09:36:21 BRUCE-CUSA systemd[1]: Started VirtualBox Linux kernel module.
Nov 14 09:36:21 BRUCE-CUSA systemd[1]: Starting vboxballoonctrl-service.service...
Nov 14 09:36:21 BRUCE-CUSA systemd[1]: Starting vboxweb-service.service...
Nov 14 09:36:21 BRUCE-CUSA systemd[1]: Starting vboxautostart-service.service...
Nov 14 09:36:21 BRUCE-CUSA systemd[1]: Started vboxballoonctrl-service.service.
Nov 14 09:36:21 BRUCE-CUSA systemd[1]: Started vboxautostart-service.service.
Nov 14 09:36:21 BRUCE-CUSA systemd[1]: Started vboxweb-service.service.