VirtualBox fails to run on macOS High Sierra - kernel driver not loaded

[AALLeeXX]

Something is not standard on your system. Either you've been messing with it, installing software that is interfering with the installer (think antivirus, system locks), or something that I haven't figured out.

The thing is that in a clean system, there has never been a problem. I've been installing and uninstalling VirtualBox like crazy for years on real systems and on OSX VMs (for testing). Not even once did I have a problem. So, please try to think what separates your system with a clean system. Start with the output of:

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kextstat | grep -v com.apple
ls -al /
ls -al /private/tmp/
ls -al /Library/Extensions/

Well, my system is clean I think, just freshly reinstalled since previous betas of HighSierras forced me to do so. I simply recovered my previous account for which I had no problem at all.
An relevant error message at installation when this happens would be smart and much more usefull tham that meaningless message. Anyway...
I don't know what we see and search here, but here he output requested:

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Alexandres-iMac:~ alex$ kextstat | grep -v com.apple
Index Refs Address            Size       Wired      Name (Version) UUID <Linked Against>

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Alexandres-iMac:~ alex$ ls -al /
total 78
drwxr-xr-x  31 root  wheel  1122 Oct  1 00:22 .
drwxr-xr-x  31 root  wheel  1122 Oct  1 00:22 ..
-rw-rw-r--   1 root  admin  8196 Oct  1 22:12 .DS_Store
d--x--x--x   9 root  wheel   306 Oct  1 22:33 .DocumentRevisions-V100
-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel   591 Oct  1 00:22 .OSInstallerMessages
drwxr-xr-x@  2 root  wheel    68 Oct  1 00:34 .PKInstallSandboxManager-SystemSoftware
drwx------   5 root  wheel   170 Sep 23 13:39 .Spotlight-V100
----------   1 root  admin     0 Jul 26 10:37 .file
drwx------  69 root  wheel  2346 Oct  2 09:44 .fseventsd
drwxr-xr-x@  2 root  wheel    68 Sep 30 14:02 .vol
drwxrwxr-x+ 69 root  admin  2346 Oct  2 09:42 Applications
drwxr-xr-x@  3 alex  staff   102 Jan 14  2017 Developer
drwxr-xr-x+ 66 root  wheel  2244 Sep 30 14:04 Library
drwxr-xr-x@  2 root  wheel    68 Sep 30 14:02 Network
drwxr-xr-x@  4 root  wheel   136 Sep 21 13:31 System
drwxr-xr-x   8 root  admin   272 Sep 30 22:54 Users
drwxr-xr-x@  9 root  wheel   306 Oct  2 13:51 Volumes
drwxr-xr-x@ 38 root  wheel  1292 Oct  1 00:21 bin
drwxrwxr-t@  2 root  admin    68 Sep 30 14:02 cores
dr-xr-xr-x   3 root  wheel  4691 Oct  1 22:32 dev
lrwxr-xr-x@  1 root  wheel    11 Sep 30 14:02 etc -> private/etc
dr-xr-xr-x   2 root  wheel     1 Oct  2 00:30 home
-rw-r--r--@  1 root  wheel   313 Aug 10 13:05 installer.failurerequests
dr-xr-xr-x   2 root  wheel     1 Oct  2 00:30 net
drwxr-xr-x@  6 root  wheel   204 Sep 30 14:02 private
drwxr-xr-x@ 63 root  wheel  2142 Oct  1 00:21 sbin
lrwxr-xr-x@  1 root  wheel    11 Sep 30 14:02 tmp -> private/tmp
drwxr-xr-x@  9 root  wheel   306 Sep 21 13:26 usr
lrwxr-xr-x@  1 root  wheel    11 Sep 30 14:02 var -> private/var

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Alexandres-iMac:~ alex$ ls -al /private/tmp/
total 272
drwxrwxrwt  10 root           wheel     340 Oct  2 12:00 .
drwxr-xr-x@  6 root           wheel     204 Sep 30 14:02 ..
-rw-r--r--   1 alex           wheel      34 Oct  1 22:33 .avstats.lock
-rw-r--r--   1 _windowserver  wheel  124264 Oct  1 22:57 WindowServer.external.winfo.plist
srwxr-xr-x   1 alex           wheel       0 Oct  1 22:33 avstats.sock
drwx------   3 alex           wheel     102 Oct  1 22:33 com.apple.launchd.3Vu1JfMkmr
drwx------   3 alex           wheel     102 Oct  1 22:33 com.apple.launchd.DOh6ldvEwT
srwxr-xr-x   1 alex           wheel       0 Oct  2 12:00 ondemand-frontend-JSCga8
-r--------   1 alex           wheel     568 Oct  2 12:00 scan_options.conf.SLrF2x
-r--------   1 alex           wheel     568 Oct  2 12:00 scan_options.conf.oEyjmY

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Alexandres-iMac:~ alex$ ls -al /Library/Extensions/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  16 root  wheel   544 Oct  1 22:24 .
drwxr-xr-x+ 66 root  wheel  2244 Sep 30 14:04 ..
drwxr-xr-x   3 root  wheel   102 Jun 13  2014 ACS6x.kext
drwxr-xr-x   3 root  wheel   102 Jun 28  2016 ATTOCelerityFC8.kext
drwxr-xr-x   3 root  wheel   102 Jun 28  2016 ATTOExpressSASHBA2.kext
drwxr-xr-x   3 root  wheel   102 Jun 28  2016 ATTOExpressSASRAID2.kext
drwxr-xr-x   3 root  wheel   102 Aug 21  2013 ArcMSR.kext
drwxr-xr-x   3 root  wheel   102 Sep  1  2013 CalDigitHDProDrv.kext
drwxr-xr-x@  3 root  wheel   102 Nov  9  2015 D2xxHelper.kext
drwxr-xr-x   3 root  wheel   102 Sep 17 10:02 DuetDisplay.kext
drwxr-xr-x@  3 root  wheel   102 Jan 21  2016 FileAccessControl.kext
drwxr-xr-x   3 root  wheel   102 Aug 15  2014 HighPointIOP.kext
drwxr-xr-x   3 root  wheel   102 Aug 15  2014 HighPointRR.kext
drwxr-xr-x@  3 root  wheel   102 Feb  1  2016 ProlificUsbSerial.kext
drwxr-xr-x   3 root  wheel   102 Mar 31  2017 PromiseSTEX.kext
drwxr-xr-x   3 root  wheel   102 Aug 22 13:17 SoftRAID.kext

Does it show something wrong ? At least we can see VirtualBox has not saved anything in Extensions folder ..

Thanks

[cannfoddr]

It would seem to me that the Virtualbox install script needs to gracefully handle the Kext load error that occurs the first time the Kext is loaded on HS - present a message to the user to go to security and privacy and approve then try the extension load again. This seems to be the way that many app installers are now handling this with HS

[socratis]

@cannfoddr
The last VirtualBox came out on 2017-09-13 and OSX 10.13 came out 12 days later. With the new security issues that Apple has, you should give the developers some time to sort things out. I mean even Apple has already started the 10.13.1 beta 2 days ago, pretty much 5 days after they released 10.13. I expect that they will have a lot of bugs to resolve, including the fact why they don't inform the users that they have to go to the System Preferences. In several cases, that dialog never appeared. I blame more Apple than anyone else for this. They're known to have huge issues at the .0 releases. And yes, I'm an OSX user, since the 10.0 beta in 2000. A Mac user way before that.

[socratis]

@gregopad39
You are trying to run 5.1.22. That's quite old for OSX 10.13, that's why you get a crash. You should uninstall that and install 5.1.28. Yours is a completely different problem altogether. Just remember that if the installer fails, go within 30 minutes to the System Preferences » Security & Privacy to allow Oracle to install the software. Actually please read this article from Apple so you'll know what to expect.

Actually, since your 10.13 is an update it would be interesting to know if Oracle is allowed without that security clearance, so please let me know if it asks for that or not.

[AALLeeXX]

About my case, I returned to High Sierra 10.13 (reverted the public beta 0) and tried again install, but this still fails the same, without any information about the error (please add details here, that's really missing). I also tried installing on a separate account, virgin, but again same behaviour, same error at install. So, no way !

I opened a ticket at Apple, now waiting some days for their feedback. They took logs of failing installation... On hold for now.

[socratis]

About your case AALLeeXX... It cost me my whole day!!!!!

Actually it's not you, it's OSX. I mostly do things in a VM. I take a snapshot of a clean one. So, I can compare for example what are the default permissions and ownership of directories and files. Then I can test things, do what I want and revert back.

But 10.13 is a @#%**&%!, even for VMs. There's no simple way to create a 10.13 VM. It took me all day to create one, and I'm still not sure if my method is going to work. I will know the results in about an hour. Then I'll look back at your case. I'll let you know...

[AALLeeXX]

About your case AALLeeXX... It cost me my whole day!!!!!

Thank you so much for your support, highly appreciated...
I'll keep you posted here too when I'll have Apple feedback. FYI, I'm also highly bother by HS 10.13, same as you (@'&%$#"#$%&@ !!) it also took me several hours chat with them and still struggling...
At least, good you finally bump onto similar circumstances too...

One more info, just in case: I deactivated Avira antivirus and retried installation, but unfortunately, same behavior...

[Jason A]

Fresh install of 10.13 here and I hit the installation failure.

Rerunning the installer and going to System Prefs to allow several times eventually got me through it.

I have to say it was a little frustrating seeing the responses to the effect of "well, you must have done something to your environment or it would just work." Let's maybe have a more open mind in the future? =)

[socratis]

Well I managed to create my 10.13 VM. You have to take an existing one (10.12 for example), clone it, attach a 2nd HD, install 10.13 on the 2nd HD, remove the 1st HD, get into the VirtualBox EFI, manually select the boot.efi to boot from and do the installation. And guess what? When I was cleaning the HDs, instead of deleting the 1st HD, I deleted the 2nd, my 10.13 one

It's OK, now that I found out the appropriate steps, I'll recreate one. By midnight

[socratis]

AALLeeXX, I finally got my 10.13 VM up and running (hooray!) and I was able to do a comparison between a clean as possible VM and your setup. The good news is that your permissions are all correct.

However, I found some extra extensions:

drwxr-xr-x@  3 root  wheel   102 Nov  9  2015 D2xxHelper.kext
drwxr-xr-x   3 root  wheel   102 Sep 17 10:02 DuetDisplay.kext
drwxr-xr-x@  3 root  wheel   102 Jan 21  2016 FileAccessControl.kext
drwxr-xr-x@  3 root  wheel   102 Feb  1  2016 ProlificUsbSerial.kext

From these ones, I didn't particularly like the "FileAccessControl.kext". I couldn't find any meaningful references after a quick search which doesn't inspire too much confidence. Of course on the other hand the kext wasn't loaded, but that doesn't mean that it can be loaded at run-time, say when the installer gets executed.

Your problem seems sporadic with no concrete clues. On the other hand I don't have a lot of confidence with 10.13, it seems finicky. I'll tell you one thing, that if just after 5 days of the release of 10.13, Apple released the first beta for 10.13.1, it does not feel right, not right at all. I'm sorry I can't help you more, even the developers are perplexed by the behavior of 10.13.

[AALLeeXX]

Hello Socratis,
Thank you for your FB and trying until here.
What happens now here is: in Security and confidentiality, the blocked application seems to be Virtualbox since it shpws "Loading the system SW from Oracle America has failed".... But as it happened before for another application (Avira), the "Allow" button is without effect and the message remains... So I still cannot progress here. I'm not as lucky as Jason A was :/

Not sure whether this is relevant but I also found Virtualbox kext were located in /Library/Application Support , not in /Library/Extensions as many here reported... might be because installation did not complete ?

About your finding below, I dont think there is any trouble with FileAccessControl.kext, it belongs to Avira antivirus and seems has been granted authorisation (I can run it successfully).
You mention it was not loaded... but how do you see that ?
I have high doubts about that but I wonder if it would be possible to find those extensions (or apps ?) which have been user-granted loading authorisation or not. I remember at one of the HS betas first startup I had plenty of dialogs asking about authorisations but I neglected them at that time because I had no time to continue. So, is it possible that I refused an authorisation in the past and that it could not be reverted anymore ? [Not sure how relevant it is since I reinstalled several times HS since, but I wonder if some of such settings would not be persistent somewhere]. Just a speculation....

Last chance now is Apple support then :/
Thanks

[socratis]

I'm not sure if you've read the whole thread, but people have been forced to give 2, 3, 4 or more times the OK in the Security for the VirtualBox installation to succeed. This should NOT happen. That's why I believe that 10.13 has issues, serious ones. I mean that's their new shiny feature, damn if it doesn't work. So, please try 2, 3, or more times to install VirtualBox. Until it works. Sometime you'll be lucky. Oh, and disable Avira, you kinda forgot to mention that part. Tsk, tsk, tsk...

Maybe the same thing happened with Avira and it has a botched installation, and that's why its extension is not loaded. How do I know that? Because of the output of the command you executed:

• kextstat | grep -v com.apple

This shows all the loaded kernel extenstions (the "kextstat" part) and then it filters anything not from Apple (the "grep -v com.apple" part). Your output was empty. For example my output is:

Index Refs Address            Size       Wired      Name (Version) UUID <Linked Against>
  148    0 0xffffff7f83f07000 0x19000    0x19000    com.github.osxfuse.filesystems.osxfuse (3.7.0) 6AF20CC6-C6E2-37C3-B24F-D520304E6C04 <7 5 4 3 1>
  156    3 0xffffff7f83e92000 0x62000    0x62000    org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv (5.2.0) 9B03A290-2B0E-3C16-B284-0DCFCFB8458A <7 5 4 3 1>
  157    0 0xffffff7f83ef4000 0x8000     0x8000     org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB (5.2.0) 2B4E18B3-AC0E-312F-A585-BDC4C045A71B <156 144 39 7 5 4 3 1>
  158    0 0xffffff7f83efc000 0x5000     0x5000     org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt (5.2.0) 9803B270-DB13-3BA2-A29D-1CDAFCCF9B74 <156 7 5 4 3 1>
  159    0 0xffffff7f83f2c000 0x6000     0x6000     org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp (5.2.0) 544CE873-4F84-32C1-A481-D93D1437DEDE <156 5 4 1>

Your system seems new. I'll give you a friendly advice. Do a re-install. Of OSX 10.12...

[AALLeeXX]

Mmm, I did not mention, but of course I read that full threads (and several others) and tried clicking that @#¥#¥**# button more than once (I stopped counting after hundreds!) and also tried install more than ten times now! But it’s getting a nonsense after a while, no ?
Also I already mentioned I tried with Avira deactivated (it’s maybe you who did not read the full thread ) without any success...
I have no doubt pb is on os side, but you cannot deny that VB should also verbose a bit more useful message than just “there is an error”, which would help investigations for us and Apple. Both sides are to be improved here

[socratis]

tried clicking that @#¥#¥**# button more than once (I stopped counting after hundreds!) and also tried install more than ten times now!

So, you allowed Oracle as a trusted developer more than once, right? And it didn't stick, right? Well according to Apple, it only needs to be trusted once, not for VirtualBox, but for each and every Oracle product. Honestly, that's what they say. I'd call that an Apple bug, wouldn't you? Something going on with the kextSecuritySystem or whatever they call it. And that's the one that's responsible for the installations. Hmm...

Also I already mentioned I tried with Avira deactivated (it’s maybe you who did not read the full thread ) without any success

No, no, no you didn't. I re-read the whole thread. The first mention that you even had Avira installed was after I told you about FileAccessControl.kext, and even then you didn't mention that you tried with Avira disabled.

(and don't try to retroactively edit your older messages, I'll know )

[socratis]

AALLeeXX you're going to love this!!!
I went to look if Apple had any knowledge base articles about this. Google for "Apple kb articles" returned https://kbase.info.apple.com/ and guess what I get:

Your connection is not secure

The owner of kbase.info.apple.com has configured their website improperly. To protect your information from being stolen, Firefox has not connected to this website. Learn more…

I was curious so I decided to "Learn more…" and guess what:

kbase.info.apple.com uses an invalid security certificate.