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Kernel driver not installed (rc=-1908)

Posted: 29. May 2018, 17:42
by Niouk57
Hi everyone,

Yesterday I installed Virtualbox on my Mac. Everything worked very well, I installed Kali and since today morning I get this issue when I try to start my machine:
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.
And this:
The virtual machine 'Ethique' has terminated unexpectedly during startup with exit code 1 (0x1).

Error Code : NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Composant : MachineWrap
Interface : IMachine {85cd948e-a71f-4289-281e-0ca7ad48cd89}
I saw a lot of tutorials to fix this issue but I it didn't solved mine... Most of them are for Linux users.
Could you please help me?

Thanks a lot,

Niouk57.

Re: Kernel driver not installed (rc=-1908)

Posted: 29. May 2018, 17:50
by socratis
Let's start with the basics. Run the following in the Terminal and post the output:
  • kextstat | grep -v com.apple
Then try to re-install VirtualBox:
  1. Once you start the installer package, press "Cmd+L" to show the installer log window.
  2. Choose to "Show All Logs" from the detail level drop-down list.
  3. Before you finalize the installation, due to error or not, click "Save" on the installer log window.
  4. ZIP it and attach it to your reply.

Re: Kernel driver not installed (rc=-1908)

Posted: 29. May 2018, 17:55
by Niouk57
Thanks for the quick response!

What is the output? I pasted
kextstat | grep -v com.apple
on my terminal and it said that
Index Refs Address            Size       Wired      Name (Version) UUID <Linked Against>
Another question, if I reinstall VB will I loose everything that I've done?

Re: Kernel driver not installed (rc=-1908)

Posted: 29. May 2018, 17:58
by Niouk57
I reinstalled VB, here is the attachment :

I also have to say that now it is working!

Re: Kernel driver not installed (rc=-1908)

Posted: 29. May 2018, 18:01
by socratis
Wait a minute... you got nothing from the "kextstat" command? What about after the 2nd installation? Because your installation worked just fine:
May 29 16:57:30 MacBookeVictor2 Installer[663]: Displaying 'Install Succeeded' UI.
And no, you don't lose anything if you re-install VirtualBox.

Re: Kernel driver not installed (rc=-1908)

Posted: 29. May 2018, 18:02
by Niouk57
No, I only got this:

Re: Kernel driver not installed (rc=-1908)

Posted: 29. May 2018, 18:22
by socratis
  1. Reboot.
  2. Start VirtualBox. If it crashes, open "Console.app" and look at "~/Library/Logs". Is there a VirtualBox related log with the current date/time? ZIP and attach that file.
  3. Post the output of the following commands:
    • 
      ls -alR /Library/Application\ Support/VirtualBox/
      sudo dmesg | grep -i Virtual
      sudo dmesg | grep -i VBox
PS. Next time, if you have to include an image, please downsize it by 50% (at least), or simply change its DPI to 72. Not everyone is blessed with a HiDPI display ;)

Re: Kernel driver not installed (rc=-1908)

Posted: 7. Sep 2018, 03:52
by zane.a.karl
I encountered the same error after restoring my new computer (OSX 10.13.2) from a backup that contained my VirtualBox (5.2.18) vm.

After following along this forum post exchange:

[1] I get no output from kextstat | grep -v com.apple exactly as the OP

[2] I attached the installer logs after trying to re-install VBox

[3] I rebooted, looked at the console app logs under ~/Library/Logs, and saw no VBox entries.

[4] I ran the three commands mentioned after and have attached their outputs in a ZIPPED txt file

If anyone was able to solve this problem, any and all advice is very much appreciated!

Re: Kernel driver not installed (rc=-1908)

Posted: 7. Sep 2018, 21:38
by dsp_sd
Your VirtualBox kernel extensions have been disabled by the new Mac security policy.

Try the solution posted at viewtopic.php?f=39&t=84778&start=15#p412500 :
ilg wrote:If the GUI solution does not work, reboot in Recovery mode and enter:

Code: Select all

spctl kext-consent add VB5E2TV963
Reboot in normal mode and install should be ok.

This command does not disable the Apple security mechanism, it simply adds Oracle to the list of approved developers.
When he says 'install should be ok' he means 'just redo the install and let VirtualBox finish it'.

Re: Kernel driver not installed (rc=-1908)

Posted: 8. Sep 2018, 02:48
by zane.a.karl
This worked like a charm!

Note: for future people that find this feed the previous answer worked for me porting my vm over from another mac and had nothing to do with RE-INSTALLING VBox, though I assume that the previous answer would work for that as well.

Re: Kernel driver not installed (rc=-1908)

Posted: 23. Oct 2018, 23:29
by homersheineken
I had this same error after upgrading to Mojave (10.14) from 10.12.xx.

I reinstalled VM to 5.2.20 from 5.2.6 (I think it was .6) and it works correctly now.

Hope this helps someone.

Re: Kernel driver not installed (rc=-1908)

Posted: 6. Nov 2018, 16:42
by socratis
Please continue any "Kernel driver not installed (rc=-1908)" issue in "Installation fails on 10.13.x, 10.14.x (rc=-1908)", this thread is locked.