virtualbox.org

Have you checked and fixed the permissions of the kext staging folders as suggested in the last few posts in this very thread?

I thought I had, but digging through further it seems not - one of the folders didn't have the restricted tag.

After a bunch of confusion I eventually realised I had to go into disk utility and mount Macintosh HD before doing the relevant chflags commands in recovery mode.

Once that was done, the issue was fixed! Thanks very much!

Glad it worked! The solution is pretty much explained in detail somewhere, but is somewhat getting lost in the conversation around it

Hi,

i have a similar problem, after upgrade to MacOS Big Sur Virtual Box can no longer start existing VMs.

Error-Message: 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.

macOS: 11.2.3
VirtualBox: 6.1.20 r143896

The "Allow" Button on System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> General never shows up.
The installation succeeds without any errors, no errors in the installation log too.

Tried to fix the permissions with

# chflags restricted /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/private/var/db/KernelExtensionManagement
# chflags restricted /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/private/var/db/KernelExtensionManagement/Staging

and

# kextcache --clear-staging

in recovery mode - no success. Any help or suggestions are highly appreciated.

2Bornot2B wrote:i have a similar problem, after upgrade to MacOS Big Sur Virtual Box can no longer start existing VMs.

Same here. I will just follow the topic to see if anyone has tips.

Hi,

My Mac OS version --> Bis Sur 11.4

I had installed Oracle VirtualBox Version 6.1.22 r144080 (Qt5.6.3) but still unable to create/run any VM...

when I'm trying to run any VM I'm got this error

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.

any help pls

I hope this can help someone.
MacOS 11.4, after upgrading from 6.1.18 to 6.1.22, i received the "rc-1908" error. I could launch VirtualBox, but could not launch my virtual machine (Windows 10).
I tried to restore 6.1.18, and its Virtual Machines using Time Machine. No luck
I restored the computer using Time Machine. This installed 6.1.18, but unfortunately, what used to work now had the rc=1908 message.

The next thing I did solved the issue, I wish I had known, done that before wasting half a day.
I went to Systems Preferences/Security and Privacy/General:
In the section "Allow apps downloaded from:" (I have it set to App Store and identified developers) there was a message to the effect that Oracle extensions had to be updated, and the change required a restart. I agreed to that and after the restart, my virtual machine launched again.
I might try ro re-install 6.1.22, but that will be in a few days.

TheQL wrote: In the end I could fix it by running the following from the rescue environment after unlocking "Macintosh HD"

Code: Select all

# chflags restricted /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/private/var/db/KernelExtensionManagement
# chflags restricted /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/private/var/db/KernelExtensionManagement/Staging

This worked for me, too! Thank you very much! You saved me another OS reinstall!

Another things I tried successfully was to manually trash the full "/Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/private/var/db/KernelExtensionManagement" folder. The system immediately recreated it, this time with the right "restricted" flag.

To empty the Recycle bin I had then to reboot in Recovery mode (Cmd-R), go to the Terminal, type "csrutil disable" and "reboot". When the Finder reappeared, I emptied the bin. Then restarted again in Recovery mode, go to the Terminal, type "csrutil enable" and "reboot".

All done!

Paolo

Same problem as being discussed above with VB no longer working because of the RC=-1908 error.
Using OSX Mojave 10.14.6 and have been trying to follow the "chflags" instructions in Recovery Mode.
But when in Disk Utility in Recovery I see no choice offered to unlock the volume? What am I doing wrong?

Try this: https://derflounder.wordpress.com/2019/ ... os-mojave/

Thank you, will try that.

For info in case it helps anyone else (OSX Mojave 14.6), this has worked for me - - -

As per ptram's comment and suggestion 2 June - I trashed the full "/Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/private/var/db/KernelExtensionManagement" folder, and the system immediately recreated it, this time with the right "restricted" flag.

Thanks!

Right, but then you still need to jump through hoops to empty the trash

This is what worked for me on Big Sur 11.6. Sharing in case this helps anyone else:

1. Opened the `VirtualBox-6.1.26-145957-OSX.dmg` and ran the uninstall script from there
2. Cleared the kernel extensions staging from the terminal with `sudo kmutil clear-staging` ***
3. Installed VirtualBox again
4. NOW the System Preferences -> Security & Privacy had the "Allow" button for me to click and requested a reboot

Modules then loaded:
VirtualBox worked again. No rescue mode surgery needed!

*** Per the man page "The kextcache utility has been deprecated. It should no longer be necessary to use. See kmutil(8)". Clearing staging with kextcache doesn't seem to do anything useful.

Thanks, kmutil looks handy, but apparently isn't available on Mojave... Might need to ditch Mojave anyway soon

EDIT: I actually did that and updated to Big Sur, VirtualBox worked fine, asked for permission and all.
But after I updated from 11.4 to 11.6 VirtualBox was broken. I did the above, ran the uninstall, cleared the staging (not sure if necessary), installed. No luck. The same with a reboot after the uninstall did the trick though. Oddly enough, I just noticed, the Intel Power Gadget was broken after the 11.6 update as well and now came back together with the VirtualBox kexts.

# kmutil showloaded --list-only | grep -v com.apple
No variant specified, falling back to release
153 0 0xffffff7f9cd5b000 0x2000 0x2000 com.intel.driver.EnergyDriver (3.7.0) 35E739F9-BF6C-3024-A67C-750711B3FB64 <8 6 5 3>
165 0 0xffffff7f9cd52000 0x7000 0x7000 com.AmbrosiaSW.AudioSupport (4.2) A2902F89-46AD-324C-B033-A965FFD16BEE <126 6 5 3 1>
188 3 0xffffff7f9cc6d000 0xb2000 0xb2000 org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv (6.1.26) 37337E1D-D61B-38BA-BD5B-0A8D9BBB7C30 <8 6 5 3 1>
190 0 0xffffff7f9cd4a000 0x5000 0x5000 org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB (6.1.26) 0784DD75-85BE-3C02-9386-FF959F30604D <189 188 64 8 6 5 3 1>
191 0 0xffffff7f9cd45000 0x4000 0x4000 org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt (6.1.26) F204C69C-BD5D-3A22-907F-9E45CB2F4241 <188 8 6 5 3 1>
192 0 0xffffff7f9cd3f000 0x2000 0x2000 org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp (6.1.26) FB699412-C6ED-3390-85AF-D959FBBC9C79 <188 6 5 1>

This list was previously empty.

EDIT2:

Besides the kexts being loaded, I am unable to get a VM running. This worked on 11.4.

EDIT3:

And there we have it. As soon as

153 0 0xffffff7f9cd5b000 0x2000 0x2000 com.intel.driver.EnergyDriver (3.7.0) 35E739F9-BF6C-3024-A67C-750711B3FB64 <8 6 5 3>

is loaded, VirtualBox behaves oddly and basically nothing works. I had to remove it and then everything was fine. This is new, I did not have this issue on Mojave. I found the hint here & here.