[Resolved] Can't get VirtualBox to start on Mac High Sierra

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Mac OS X hosts.
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douglasharris
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[Resolved] Can't get VirtualBox to start on Mac High Sierra

Post by douglasharris »

I was installing homebrew and Ruby and some gems. Some didn't install so I started in safe mode and disabled System Integrity Protection so I could make usr and usr/lib read-write. After all that, I went to use the VirtualBox I had installed and it wouldn't start. No error message. I tried some of the fixes I found on the internet related to permissions and ownership, but sudo was not working . (Not userid 0 error). I finally got that working but I am still not able to start VirtualBox. I have reinstalled several times. Most recently, I got pop-up when starting
Effective UID is not root (euid=502 egid=20 uid=502 gid=20) (rc=-10)

Please try reinstalling VirtualBox.

where: SUPR3HardenedMain what: 2 VERR_PERMISSION_DENIED (-10) - Permission denied.

Then this crash report

Can't post with this included. Interpreted as a web address. Will attach.

I reinstalled, and now I get nothing when trying to start. Now in terminal, I get
Error -610 in supR3HardenedMainInitRuntime!
dlopen("...VBoxRT.dylib",) failed NULL
Tip! It may help to reinstall VirtualBox.

Attachment

Thanks. Socratis, you seem to be the expert.
Attachments
After changing Applications to root-whel recursively.txt
(49.12 KiB) Downloaded 123 times
Last edited by socratis on 9. Jul 2018, 20:24, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Marked as [Resolved].
socratis
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Re: Can't get VirtualBox to start on Mac High Sierra

Post by socratis »

douglasharris wrote:Some didn't install so I started in safe mode and disabled System Integrity Protection so I could make usr and usr/lib read-write.
You just killed your OSX installation! Let me predict... I can see it, in your near future: starting your computer with Cmd+R pressed and re-installing OSX.

And you don't need to butcher your installation because a program won't install, there's something fundamentally wrong with a program that doesn't respect the security of the system that's being installed on.
douglasharris wrote:but sudo was not working
¡Ay caramba! :shock:

There's not much that you can do. You have two options:
  1. Fix what you've broken (the permissions I mean). That's going to be tough, time consuming and error prone.
  2. Re-install OSX. I'd go for this one...
PS. Could you ZIP your text attachments next time? It helps save a (virtual) tree or two... ;)
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douglasharris
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Re: Can't get VirtualBox to start on Mac High Sierra

Post by douglasharris »

Thank for that quick reply. LOL at Ay caramba. Since everything seems to be working ok except for VirtualBox, can you help me figure out which permissions are wrong causing VirtualBox to not start? I'm afraid about reinstalling the OS because I've got a lot set up on my laptop and I don't want to lose it all.

Thanks.
socratis
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Re: Can't get VirtualBox to start on Mac High Sierra

Post by socratis »

All I can do at this point, is to give you an "ls -alR /" of a brand new 10.13 VM. That would include the correct permissions for a 10.13 system, and you'd have to work your way through each and every file so that they match. You'd want that?
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
douglasharris
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Re: Can't get VirtualBox to start on Mac High Sierra

Post by douglasharris »

Absolutely. Sounds like a great idea. I think most of it is OK anyway. Could you tell me what areas I should look at that might affect VirtualBox, or could it be anything? I was hoping the error messages could point us in the right direction. Is ownership and group important as well as permissions? (I assume so.) . Are the StickyBit settings important (s vs x). I don't know much about that and will have to learn if it's important. One other question, if I give a folder too much permission, could that be a problem? (It would be easy to give everything 777 and root:wheel.
douglasharris
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Re: Can't get VirtualBox to start on Mac High Sierra

Post by douglasharris »

By the way, in case it matters, my version is 10.13.5
douglasharris
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Re: Can't get VirtualBox to start on Mac High Sierra

Post by douglasharris »

By the way, Thanks for your help with this. I really appreciate your being available on a Sunday. You are a real life saver.
socratis
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Re: Can't get VirtualBox to start on Mac High Sierra

Post by socratis »

douglasharris wrote:Sounds like a great idea.
Not really. That's a lot of data to go through...
douglasharris wrote:I think most of it is OK anyway.
The "I think most" part is the one that has to become "I'm sure all".
douglasharris wrote:Could you tell me what areas I should look at that might affect VirtualBox, or could it be anything?
Mostly system directories and the /Applications one.
douglasharris wrote:I was hoping the error messages could point us in the right direction.
It's quite a lot of places that VirtualBox is looking for, and I haven't had the time or the need to wade through the source code to discover all of it.
douglasharris wrote:Is ownership and group important as well as permissions?
Absolutely!
douglasharris wrote:Are the StickyBit settings important (s vs x).
100% important. Miss one and you're done!!!
douglasharris wrote:I don't know much about that and will have to learn if it's important.
Hear my advice and do a fresh (re)install. It's going to be way less painful. Oh, and more accurate.
douglasharris wrote:if I give a folder too much permission, could that be a problem? (It would be easy to give everything 777 and root:wheel.
Too many permissions is what you're having right now, that's your problem. Mainly. If you don't know about filesystem permissions, if you don't know what a sticky bit is, you'd better start from scratch and give yourself a simple user account. And think twice before entering your admin password.
douglasharris wrote:my version is 10.13.5
I didn't have a 10.13.5 readily available, you'll have to wait until tomorrow, it's too late for me to set it up now. Here's the link for the 10.13 permissions, available for 30 days from now: https://ufile.io/tzxai
douglasharris wrote:I really appreciate your being available on a Sunday.
It's Monday 03:30 where I am (time to go), but you're welcome... ;)

BTW, in a normal installation, there are more permissions involved than the ones showing up in the output of "ls". There are additional ACLs, which have to be declared and listed separately. So, for your own good, do a re-installation of OSX...
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
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douglasharris
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Re: Can't get VirtualBox to start on Mac High Sierra

Post by douglasharris »

Good morning (where I am.)

You're talking me into a reinstall of the ODS. The list you sent is very long and it will be a lot of work to compare it to mine. My concern about an OS reinstall is that I will lose my files and installed programs. Is there a way to preserve that? Can you point me to some good instructions? Also, does System Integrity Protection need to be enabled for VirtualBox to work? I could try turning that back on and hope to be lucky.

Thanks, again, for your help with this.
socratis
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Re: Can't get VirtualBox to start on Mac High Sierra

Post by socratis »

douglasharris wrote:The list you sent is very long and it will be a lot of work to compare it to mine
Imagine applying it! :D
Actually, time-permitting that would be a good project; to take a "virgin" installation's permissions and apply them at will in a script! Hmm... something to think about.
douglasharris wrote:My concern about an OS reinstall is that I will lose my files and installed programs.
I wouldn't worry about your programs, they're easy to re-install (and preferable if you ask me). I would worry about your files. For that purpose, I'd stick an external USB 3 hard drive, and use TimeMachine to backup my personal files only, shouldn't be that long. But you already have one, don't you? ;)

Then when you install your OSX, it will ask you if you want to "transfer" your data from somewhere else, including a TimeMachine backup. Point it to the ext. HD and you're done.

Actually, you could backup your whole setup as is and "transfer" your data afterwards selectively, including selected apps, and selected users. But it's going to be a longer process. I've done it three times so far due to catastrophic, unfortunate, tragic, disastrous, painful calamities. But, my HD's contents are the same (in a sense) since 2003... ;)


Speaking of, I need to update my backup. :shock:
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
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douglasharris
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Re: Can't get VirtualBox to start on Mac High Sierra

Post by douglasharris »

OK. So the "backup your whole setup as is and "transfer" your data afterwards selectively, including selected apps, and selected users." plan sounds good to me because it restores all my apps. Could you, by any chance, point me to some detailed instructions on how to do that? Specifically, I don't know how to "backup your whole setup as is". Thanks. Then I'll leave you alone so you can help some other people. Thanks, tremendously. By the way, does System Integrity Protection have to be enabled for VirtualBox to start? I have it still disabled. Maybe that would be a quick fix, if I got lucky.
socratis
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Re: Can't get VirtualBox to start on Mac High Sierra

Post by socratis »

First of all (and just because I forgot to answer it last time), no, "SIP enabling/disabling" does not affect the VirtualBox's hardening checking. In fact you have to disable it if you're building VirtualBox from source, unsigned kexts and everything.

Second, about the TimeMachine backup? It's in your System Preferences. Just plug an ext. HD and let it go. Done. There's nothing to configure, except what you want to exclude.

But, if you've modified your system permissions, I'd urge you to reinstall your apps, so that they get the proper permissions upon installation, and not the modified ones. Not every app specifically changes their permissions to what they're supposed to be like VirtualBox does. Most of them rely on the fact that the permissions have not been messed up with, especially those that don't come with an installer (the majority).
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
douglasharris
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Re: Can't get VirtualBox to start on Mac High Sierra

Post by douglasharris »

It's working!!!

We have a support person here that immediately reinstalled the OS. He said, like you did, that it does not affect apps or data. After that, there was one app that makes vpn connections that needed to be deleted and reinstalled. For that app, I also needed to manually fix the permissions on the ssh public-key and private key in Users/<username>/.ssh/ .
I copied the permissions from another user that has a similar set-up working. Public key should be rw-r--r-- . Private key should be rw------- . We had to remove the group on the private key since we couldn't change it to "No access" with the GetInfo window.

I hope the detail above helps others with similar problems. The OS reinstall was rather painless and just took a few hours in total. It did not even prompt me with any questions that I saw, although I may have missed that since the support person was very fast.
socratis
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Re: Can't get VirtualBox to start on Mac High Sierra

Post by socratis »

Glad you finally got it going. Marking as [Resolved].

And a friendly advice; create a simple user account, use that instead of the admin. Oh, and of course do not change permissions at will. ;)
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
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