Virtualbox 5.2.x and 6.x fail to start on kernels > 4.18

[JoegoenDoe]

Hi,

I'm running Debian 9-6 with default kernel 4.9.0.8.

Under 4.9.0.8 I can run all VM's without any issues.

I upgraded my to a 4.18.14 and 4.19.12 custom kernel.

Virtualbox 5.2.22 r126460 (Qt5.7.1) as well as 6.0.0 r127566 (Qt5.7.1) fail to run any VM.
They fail with the same error

The virtual machine 'BSD 9' has terminated unexpectedly during startup with exit code 1 (0x1).

Result Code: NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component: MachineWrap
Interface: IMachine {5047460a-265d-4538-b23e-ddba5fb84976}

Running /sbin/vboxsetup gives the following

Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/vboxdrv.service → /lib/systemd/system/vboxdrv.service.
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/vboxballoonctrl-service.service → /lib/systemd/system/vboxballoonctrl-service.service.
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/vboxautostart-service.service → /lib/systemd/system/vboxautostart-service.service.
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/vboxweb-service.service → /lib/systemd/system/vboxweb-service.service.
vboxdrv.sh: Stopping VirtualBox services.
vboxdrv.sh: Starting VirtualBox services.
vboxdrv.sh: Building VirtualBox kernel modules.
vboxdrv.sh: failed: Look at /var/log/vbox-setup.log to find out what went wrong.

There were problems setting up VirtualBox.  To re-start the set-up process, run
  /sbin/vboxconfig
as root.

Vbox-setup.log starts with

Building the main VirtualBox module.
Error building the module:
make V=1 CONFIG_MODULE_SIG= -C /lib/modules/4.19.12/build SUBDIRS=/tmp/vbox.0 SRCROOT=/tmp/vbox.0 -j4 modules
make[1]: warning: -jN forced in submake: disabling jobserver mode.
mkdir -p /tmp/vbox.0/.tmp_versions ; rm -f /tmp/vbox.0/.tmp_versions/*

  WARNING: Symbol version dump ./Module.symvers
           is missing; modules will have no dependencies and modversions.

make -f ./scripts/Makefile.build obj=/tmp/vbox.0

ends with

make -f ./scripts/Makefile.modpost
  find /tmp/vbox.0/.tmp_versions -name '*.mod' | xargs -r grep -h '\.ko$' | sort -u | sed 's/\.ko$/.o/' | scripts/mod/modpost -m  -i ./Module.symvers -I /tmp/vbox.0/Module.symvers  -o /tmp/vbox.0/Module.symvers -S  -w  -s -T -
/bin/sh: 1: scripts/mod/modpost: not found
scripts/Makefile.modpost:92: recipe for target '__modpost' failed
make[2]: *** [__modpost] Error 127
Makefile recipe for target 'modules' failed
make[1]: *** [modules] Error 2
/tmp/vbox.0/Makefile.include.footer:106: recipe for target 'vboxdrv' failed

Anyone got an idea what is going on here?
How can this be fixed?

[markd89]

I'm running Debian 9.6 also and a Kernel from backports (Kernel 4.18.0-0.bpo.1-amd64) with Virtualbox Version 5.2.22 r126460 (Qt5.9.2).

I haven't seen your errors before but the recipe that has worked for me is:

0. remove VirtualBox
1. Install new Kernel.
2. Install linux-headers for the new kernel
3. Install Virtualbox. I think I did it by downloading the .deb file and then from the folder containing the downloaded .deb file apt-get install ./nameofdebfile.deb

On a freshly installed Debian, I'll see complaints about missing perl, gcc, etc. which I install and then repeat the process. I have done this a few times with success.

I hope that helps..

Mark

[mfelker]

Virtualbox 6.0 installs and runs fine on Fedora Rawhide kernel 4.21.0-0.rc0.git1.1.fc30.x86_64. However it failed to compile starting with the git6 version of 4.21 which of course is now 5.0