/sbin/vboxconfig fails on Linux 5.4.8 and Mint 19.3

[fbatschu]

This is not our bug. Please refer to:

https://www.mail-archive.com/ubuntu-bug ... 71020.html

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... ug/1849348

[realwuffi]

Tanks a lot for that information!
Looks like I will stay on 5.3 then until Ubuntu upgrades to a new kernel.

[themistabhi]

Right now the problem seems to be with ukuu. Grab the kernel source from kernel(dot)org, build yourself and install it (probably a lot simpler than you think ). This works great.. I am currently running on 5.4.14 and everything seems to be working perfectly.

[myname1st]

Folks,
For those of us in Ubuntu, please go to https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... ug/1849348 and upvote the issue. Right now, only 2 of us appear as affected...which if i were a dev, I would definitely not prioritize.
So let's help them by letting them know that it also affects others.
Thx.
PS: I tried the new kernel 5.5...and same result.

[dacorsa]

Problem solved for me with Ubuntu and 5.5.0 uuku kernel

Cheyenne Wills (ccwills) wrote on 2019-11-01: #4

I think I might have found the
"source" of the problem.

https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commi ... 9dd64134ee

Replacing the gcc-7 version with gcc-8 seems to "fix" the problem

root@ubuntu_base:~/builderr# uname -a
Linux ubuntu_base 5.4.0-050400rc5-generic #201910271430 SMP Sun Oct 27 18:33:09 UTC 2019 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
root@ubuntu_base:~/builderr# gcc --version
gcc (Ubuntu 8.3.0-6ubuntu1~18.04.1) 8.3.0
Copyright (C) 2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

root@ubuntu_base:~/builderr# make -C /lib/modules/5.4.0-050400rc5-generic/build/ M=$PWD
make: Entering directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-5.4.0-050400rc5-generic'
AR /root/builderr/built-in.a
CC [M] /root/builderr/conftest.o
Building modules, stage 2.
MODPOST 1 modules
CC [M] /root/builderr/conftest.mod.o
LD [M] /root/builderr/conftest.ko
make: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-5.4.0-050400rc5-generic'

[myname1st]

@dacorsa,
THANK YOU SO MUCH for posting this.

I sorta follow what you mentioned, but i ovbiously needed a couple more things (like gcc-8, lol). I tried some things and here are the results:

Here is what to do:
First, install gcc-8

Code: Select all

sudo apt install gcc-8 g++-8
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-8 80 --slave /usr/bin/g++ g++ /usr/bin/g++-8 --slave /usr/bin/gcov gcov /usr/bin/gcov-8

if you now run

Code: Select all

gcc --version

you will see that you have v8

Next, issue the vboxconfig command:

Code: Select all

sudo /sbin/vboxconfig

and voila. No need to recompile the kernel or anything. vbox started right after that. I am on kernel 5.5.0
I will post this as a workaround on the ubuntu bug entry.

Again @dacorsa: THANK YOU!

[realwuffi]

Yeah, works. That's a good solution for me. Installed Kernel 5.5 and works!

[kinghat]

@dacorsa,
THANK YOU SO MUCH for posting this.

I sorta follow what you mentioned, but i ovbiously needed a couple more things (like gcc-8, lol). I tried some things and here are the results:

Here is what to do:
First, install gcc-8

Code: Select all

sudo apt install gcc-8 g++-8
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-8 80 --slave /usr/bin/g++ g++ /usr/bin/g++-8 --slave /usr/bin/gcov gcov /usr/bin/gcov-8

if you now run

Code: Select all

gcc --version

you will see that you have v8

Next, issue the vboxconfig command:

Code: Select all

sudo /sbin/vboxconfig

and voila. No need to recompile the kernel or anything. vbox started right after that. I am on kernel 5.5.0
I will post this as a workaround on the ubuntu bug entry.

Again @dacorsa: THANK YOU!

worked for me as well! tyvm!

[hwertz]

Worked for me too, on all but one machine.

On one machine, I kept having vboxdrv and /sbin/vboxconfig fail oddly, finally I took a look for vbox* stuff in /etc/ compared to a working sysytem -- I had obsolete vboxadd* files from 2016 on there!!! Don't know if these were from a Ubuntu 16.04-era package install or ".run" file.

I'd just run something like

Code: Select all

sudo find /etc/ -name "vboxadd*"

and delete any vboxadd files you find (DON'T DELETE vboxdrv files, those are current). I had 4 files in there. Two vboxadd.sh files in /etc/kernel/preinst.d and postinst.d, and 2 other vboxadd* files, one for systemd and one for udev . I also had a vboxadd.service in /lib/systemd/system/.

No surprise that these 4 year old scripts didn't run properly, but they also were doing something to the kernel headers that kept vboxdrv or /sbin/vboxconfig from building functional modules, it'd build for "5.6.11" instead of "5.6.11-050611-generic" so they'd go in the wrong folder in /lib/modules and wouldn't load anyway because kernel vermagic doesn't match.