Installation fails on 10.13.x, 10.14.x (rc=-1908)

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Mac OS X hosts.
sudokillall
Posts: 36
Joined: 13. Feb 2021, 07:01

Re: Installation fails on 10.13.x, 10.14.x (rc=-1908)

Post by sudokillall »

I just found this thread and I wish I could understand the page above! What is "rescue mode"? I have been using Macs for a good 15 years, not much CLI but some. Never heard of rescue mode (unless you mean safe mode, shift boot?)
I have tried installing Virtualbox and got the same error, installation failed...
I did the master-disable command, shows that software can be installed from "anywhere" in SysPrefs. No joy. I get no alerts or prompts, it just fails. I have tried 4 versions of VB but none will install. Could someone please explain in beginner-speak, what the users has to do to apply the above fix? Can i just run those commands from terminal?
Thanks

PS What I find really amusing is that, when I run VB uninstall tool, then my mac gives me the usual prompts about software not allowed but lets me override and run it! WIsh it would do that for the damn INSTALL tool! :D
TheQL
Posts: 17
Joined: 4. Nov 2020, 22:27

Re: Installation fails on 10.13.x, 10.14.x (rc=-1908)

Post by TheQL »

@sudokillall, you need to run those commands from terminal, yes, but it will only work when you start the terminal from within rescue mode.

This is an easy enough guide: https://osxdaily.com/2017/05/18/access- ... -mode-mac/

Please note that you need to have to unlock your disk from Disk Utility and then open terminal!

Reminder of the commands to run (assuming your disk is indeed "Macintosh HD"):

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# chflags restricted /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/private/var/db/KernelExtensionManagement
# chflags restricted /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/private/var/db/KernelExtensionManagement/Staging
As you did not provide much more info regarding your problem, this might as well not be the fix you need...
sudokillall
Posts: 36
Joined: 13. Feb 2021, 07:01

Re: Installation fails on 10.13.x, 10.14.x (rc=-1908)

Post by sudokillall »

Hi QL, and thanks very much for that.
So running those two commands from terminal in recovery mode will fix the VB installation problem? If so, that's great and I will give it a go!

PS The only thing I am not sure about before i proceed is "Please note that you need to have to unlock your disk from Disk Utility" - What does this mean, unlock disk? I have encryption on my disk so it unlocks with my password after each boot, but obviously I won't be booting into user account. What do I have to do to 'unlock disk", or maybe it will just prompt for that when I go into CMD R? If you can help with this I'd be grateful, looking forward to trying it! thanks again
TheQL
Posts: 17
Joined: 4. Nov 2020, 22:27

Re: Installation fails on 10.13.x, 10.14.x (rc=-1908)

Post by TheQL »

Hi, well, the thing with Virtual Box is, you need to allow the kernel extension to run. This is a common issue! Just open the System Preferences and allow it. See screenshot here: https://superuser.com/questions/1436347 ... nder-macos

What we are talking about is an issue that occurs when the permissions of the kext directories are broken, thus the allow button never even appears. This would usually be fixed by this small guide.

And yes, as you are not booting into your user account, you need to open Disk Utility and select your disk and hit unlock, then enter your credentials. Afterwards your volume will be mounted as "/Volumes/Macintosh HD", but the commands I posted already point there.
sudokillall
Posts: 36
Joined: 13. Feb 2021, 07:01

Re: Installation fails on 10.13.x, 10.14.x (rc=-1908)

Post by sudokillall »

Thank you. I formatted my internal drive and named is "Mac SSD", so am I right in thinking my commands should read as below?

# chflags restricted /Volumes/Mac\ SSD/private/var/db/KernelExtensionManagement
# chflags restricted /Volumes/Mac\ SSD/private/var/db/KernelExtensionManagement/Staging

Thanks again

Edit: - I just read that other thread where someone posted "Good news is that "spctl kext-consent add VB5E2TV963" in recovery mode saves the day."
Do i not need to run that too, or are the two lines above the only thing I need to fix this and make the "Allow" button appear during installation? thanks
Last edited by sudokillall on 14. Feb 2021, 19:36, edited 1 time in total.
TheQL
Posts: 17
Joined: 4. Nov 2020, 22:27

Re: Installation fails on 10.13.x, 10.14.x (rc=-1908)

Post by TheQL »

Correct! Good luck!
sudokillall
Posts: 36
Joined: 13. Feb 2021, 07:01

Re: Installation fails on 10.13.x, 10.14.x (rc=-1908)

Post by sudokillall »

Thank you! - Please note the edit above i just added to previous post
TheQL
Posts: 17
Joined: 4. Nov 2020, 22:27

Re: Installation fails on 10.13.x, 10.14.x (rc=-1908)

Post by TheQL »

The manual consent did nothing for me. I think that is from earlier times... You can try it, but after the chflags-fix the "allow" button should just normally appear in System Preferences.
sudokillall
Posts: 36
Joined: 13. Feb 2021, 07:01

Re: Installation fails on 10.13.x, 10.14.x (rc=-1908)

Post by sudokillall »

great, let's go find out! thank you very very much
sudokillall
Posts: 36
Joined: 13. Feb 2021, 07:01

Re: Installation fails on 10.13.x, 10.14.x (rc=-1908)

Post by sudokillall »

Hi QL - I have a real problem here.
I am on a different machine now as my main machine is in recovery mode.
I have no idea how to unlock the disk. I got to recovery mode and have terminal opened there. I also opened disk utility. I see NO options anywhere to "unlock" the disk. If I select it and then click File menu, there is an option which says "Turn off Encryption" but it is greyed out. I can see no way whatsoever to unlock this disk from recovery mode. Can you help?
Thanks

PS final thing I tried, an idea, was to go into "Startup Disk", it loads NO disks in there at all!
sudokillall
Posts: 36
Joined: 13. Feb 2021, 07:01

Re: Installation fails on 10.13.x, 10.14.x (rc=-1908)

Post by sudokillall »

Sorry, I got there in the end. No idea what caused it, wondereed if it might be firmware password (which I use) so I turned that off and rebooted, it maybe was just the reboot that cured it but second time round I managed to try mounting the drive in DickUtility (didn't give me option last time) and then it finally prompted for disk unlock password. I entered the two chflags commands and rebooting now so hoping VB will finally be installed after all! thanks again
sudokillall
Posts: 36
Joined: 13. Feb 2021, 07:01

Re: Installation fails on 10.13.x, 10.14.x (rc=-1908)

Post by sudokillall »

Well that's interesting. It failed just like before. I found a command on a thread somewhere (sudo kextcache --clear-staging) and was a bit fed up so I just ran it in terminal and rebooted, it installed straight away and this time showed the "allow extension" in sysprefs, I haven't tried to run it yet but it definitely finished the installation so I think I am sorted! Thank you very much for kindly helping.

PS My only question now is whether I need to 'do' anything to 'undo' the chflags commands or that one i just used (sudo kextcache --clear-staging)??
Sorry, knowledge dispels fear, and the converse is true too!
TheQL
Posts: 17
Joined: 4. Nov 2020, 22:27

Re: Installation fails on 10.13.x, 10.14.x (rc=-1908)

Post by TheQL »

Nothing to undo. That's just the way it's supposed to be, so worst case you didn't actually change anything. Glad to hear you're set.
I read about the command you ran as well, but not sure if it would have helped me, probably not, as my permissions and those of several others here were indeed wrong.
sudokillall
Posts: 36
Joined: 13. Feb 2021, 07:01

Re: Installation fails on 10.13.x, 10.14.x (rc=-1908)

Post by sudokillall »

I see, thanks for that. Yes it sounds like different Mac systems respond differently, which makes sense really. I am also on Mojave, which makes me probably in a minority.
tcw
Posts: 2
Joined: 17. Apr 2021, 08:04

Re: Installation fails on 10.13.x, 10.14.x (rc=-1908)

Post by tcw »

Hey folks,

I'm struggling to get VirtualBox installed on my MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014) running Mojave 10.14.6

I have gone through a few hours of various troubleshooting steps reading various posts on various forums, but still no luck, hence posting the sorry story here to see if anyone has any further ideas.

Virtualbox used to work, however I recently upgraded to Mojave from IIRC Yosemite, so I figured I'd uninstall and reinstall.

I get the standard install failure message when clicking the DMG. When I then try to run virtualbox it works ok, but starting a VM gets this:

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[quote]Kernel driver not installed (rc=-1908)

Make sure the kernel module has been loaded successfully.

where: suplibOsInit what: 3 VERR_VM_DRIVER_NOT_INSTALLED (-1908) - The support driver is not installed. On linux, open returned ENOENT. 
[/quote]
So it looks on the face of it like the well documented kernel extensions installation issue.

- I don't get any message in system prefs/security along the lines of "software from Oracle America" was blocked.
- I have changed my security preferences to allow apps downloaded from anywhere using sudo spctl --master-disable
- I have rebooted into recovery mode, opened a terminal, and run

Code: Select all

spctl kext-consent add vb5e2tv963
. This seems to work as I run

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spctl kext-consent list
and I get:

Code: Select all

Allowed Team Identifiers:
VB5E2TV963
VB5E2TV963
VB5E2TV963
VB5E2TV963
so I guess I did this 4 times without any luck. Hopefully that's not the issue
- I have tried uninstalling fully, and reinstalling older versions of VirtualBox, including 6.04 and 6.06.
- I have removed and re imported the virtual machine image, also deleting my prior data.

With all the above I get the same problem.

At this point I can't find anything obvious to try. Any ideas would be most welcome. Perhaps there is something in the prior 17 odd pages of thread that I have missed if anyone can point me there...


Thanks!
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