virtualbox.org

I am running OpenSUSE 11.1 as my host OS and I have the last version of Vbox before 2.2 (I'm pretty sure, I can't check it). Everything was working fine until I updated the system recently. I don't know if the kernel was updated or not, but I'm pretty sure it was. When I click on the Vbox icon it sits there loading for about a minute then just disappears. This is the same for all users and KDE and Gnome. I tried running Vbox from the command line and it came up with the same error it did when I first installed it; something like I needed to run something to recompile something (I can't remember exactly and it won't do it anymore). Well I did that and it completed everything successfully but still doesn't work.

If I do an ls on the /usr/lib/virtualbox directory it looks as though a few files/programs, including "VirtualBox", have locks on them. I'm not positive of that, they could also be broken links, and I have little experience with either of those (I also don't see a .parentlock file either). Maybe updating to the new version would help, but I don't want to risk messing things up even more. Any ideas?

I have the same problem. It looks like something (symbol versions) is missing in the kernel sources. I have the following versions:
Open SuSE 11.1 ; Kernel: 2.6.27.21-0.1-pae
VirtualBox-2.2.0_45846_openSUSE111-1.i586.rpm
I reinstalled the kernel and the kernel sources; also reinstalled VB ; after recompiling the vboxdrv driver with /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup the driver-module is created and moved to /lib/modules/2.6.27.21-0.1-pae/updates/vboxdrv.ko ; however when trying to modprobe vboxdrv I get the error message: Invalid module format.
dmesg displays the following error message: vboxdrv: no symbol version for struct_module

To me it looks like something is screwed up in the OpenSuse kernel sources ? Any idea what I can do, to get a running vboxdrv ???

For some reason the kernel-syms pkg isn't installed when installing the kernel-development pkg, search for kernel-syms in yast and install it.

I downloaded the kernel-syms package and ran the vboxdrv setup again and still no luck.

O.K.... I uninstalled and reinstalled Vbox and it worked once, but i closed it and tried to restart it later and now it won't open again. This is getting kind of frustrating...

"Doesnt work" doesnt help.

Start VirtualBox in a Console, post Output. Look in the log files. Post output from "rpm -qa | grep kernel".

Running vbox in terminal as a user gives the error: /usr/bin/VirtualBox: line 72: /usr/lib/virtualbox/VirtualBox: Permission denied
/usr/bin/VirtualBox: line 72: exec: /usr/lib/virtualbox/VirtualBox: cannot execute: Success
Run as root it acts like it wants to start, even changes the terminal title, but does the same thing starting it from the desktop does, i.e. hangs for a while then disappears.

rpm -qa | grep kernel outputs:

kernel-source-2.6.27.21-0.1.1
linux-kernel-headers-2.6.27-2.28
kernel-default-2.6.27.21-0.1.2
kernel-default-base-2.6.27.21-0.1.2
kernel-syms-2.6.27.21-0.1.1
kernel-default-extra-2.6.27.21-0.1.2

This will probably sound like a dumb question, but where can I find the log files for vbox? I found the vbox-install log, but I don't think that's what you want.

Sometimes ago there was a thread about this. Try search function with "chmod". After changing rights for files it should work again.

I did chmod -R 777 on the /usr/lib/virtualbox directory and now it comes up with an error that the effective UID isn't root.

hitokiri wrote:I did chmod -R 777 on the /usr/lib/virtualbox directory and now it comes up with an error that the effective UID isn't root.

Why did you think that would be a good thing to do?

Several files in that director ate supposed to be SUID root so I can understand if nothing works after chmod -R 777. I guess the easiest fix is to uninstall/reinstall VirtualBox. The log file for a virtual guest is normally in:

~/.VirtualBox/Machines/GUESTMACHINNAME/Logs/VBox.log

hitokiri wrote:I did chmod -R 777 on the /usr/lib/virtualbox directory and now it comes up with an error that the effective UID isn't root.

SUID Root is done by using chmod 4755. It's best to never use 777 on files that are only for execution, 'cause it will let normal users edit and possibly remove the files. With 755, Root has read/write, while others can only read the file. And execute of course. Read the man page of chmod for more info.

Tried reinstalling. Again, it worked a couple times but won't open at all again. I did chmod 755 on the virtualbox directory and it still came up with the same message. I don't get it. It would help if it gave any clue as to why it won't open.

hitokiri wrote:I did chmod 755 on the virtualbox directory and it still came up with the same message. I don't get it.

And I don't get why you keep changing the permission of the installed software. I'm pretty sure that the VirtualBox developers know better than you what the correct permission should be.

Well, since someone mentioned it I figured I would try. I have no clue as to why it is not working, that is why I'm on here. If the virtual box designers can tell my why their software quits working for whatever reason, that would be great. I have always liked vitualbox, and have never had any problems with it, but I have always used it on Windows. I don't understand why it works once or twice when it is first installed and with absolutely no changes to anything, will not load 5 minutes later.

Hitokiri, you might want to try your distro forums, maybe other users have the same issue there and might have a fix for it. Not everyone comes here, some prefer to stick to their own forum where it's also discussable.