VBox help for a total n00b (root problems?)

[osxuser1919]

Hi everyone, I know almost nothing about VirtualBox, but for more than a year I had been running a Linux Ubuntu virtual machine on Mac OS X 10.5.8. Suddenly today when I tried to start up my virtual machine I got the following error message:

Failed to open a session for the virtual machine CS50 in a Box 1.4
Failed to load VMMR0.r0 (VERR_SUPLIB_OWNER_NOT_ROOT)

Result Code:
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component:
Console
Interface:
IConsole {1968b7d3-e3bf-4ceb-99e0-cb7c913317bb}
The log said:
VirtualBox 4.1.8 r75467 darwin.x86 (Dec 19 2011 13:50:43) release log
00:00:01.809 Log opened 2012-01-19T06:22:20.254953000Z
00:00:01.809 OS Product: Darwin
00:00:01.809 OS Release: 9.8.0
00:00:01.809 OS Version: Darwin Kernel Version 9.8.0: Wed Jul 15 16:55:01 PDT 2009; root:xnu-1228.15.4~1/RELEASE_I386
00:00:01.811 DMI Product Name: MacBookPro4,1
00:00:01.813 DMI Product Version: 1.0
00:00:01.814 Host RAM: 2048MB RAM, available: 124MB
00:00:01.814 Executable: /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/../Resources/VirtualBoxVM.app/Contents/MacOS/VirtualBoxVM
00:00:01.814 Process ID: 11190
00:00:01.814 Package type: DARWIN_32BITS_GENERIC
00:00:01.815 Installed Extension Packs:
00:00:01.815 None installed!
00:00:01.841 pdmR3LoadR0U: pszName="VMMR0.r0" rc=VERR_SUPLIB_OWNER_NOT_ROOT szErr="The owner is not root: '/Applications'"
00:00:01.841 VMSetError: /Users/vbox/tinderbox/4.1-mac-rel/src/VBox/VMM/VMMR3/VM.cpp(591) int vmR3CreateU(UVM*, uint32_t, int (*)(VM*, void*), void*); rc=VERR_SUPLIB_OWNER_NOT_ROOT
00:00:01.841 VMSetError: Failed to load VMMR0.r0
00:00:01.841 ERROR [COM]: aRC=NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005) aIID={1968b7d3-e3bf-4ceb-99e0-cb7c913317bb} aComponent={Console} aText={Failed to load VMMR0.r0 (VERR_SUPLIB_OWNER_NOT_ROOT)}, preserve=false
00:00:01.915 Power up failed (vrc=VERR_SUPLIB_OWNER_NOT_ROOT, rc=NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0X80004005))

I have no idea what is going on, I googled and looked around this forum, but none of the solutions I found worked for me. I would appreciate any help I can get, keep in mind I really know almost nothing, but this virtual machine has some very important files on it and I really need a Linux machine. Thanks a lot!

Jay

[rpmurray]

It would be a good idea to tell us what solutions you've already tried so that we know what didn't work. Unless you prefer everyone to work in the dark and waste their time giving you solutions that you've already tried. For example, the problem you're seeing seems to be a permissions error, and the solution most people give is to do a Repair Disk Permissions in the Disk Utility to see if that clears it up. But since you've already searched these forums you've undoubtably tried this and it didn't work.

[osxuser1919]

Actually all I had tried were the various chmod commands, e.g. chmod g-w /opt, chmod o-w /usr, etc. and none of that worked, in addition to going into Disk utility, which told me that "The volume VirtualBox appears to be OK". Any other solutions would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Jay

[rpmurray]

in addition to going into Disk utility, which told me that "The volume VirtualBox appears to be OK".

Sounds like you ran Repair Disk rather than Repair DIsk Permissions.

[osxuser1919]

Actually all I could run was verify disk, the repair disk and repair disk permissions options were grayed out and couldn't be pressed.

[rpmurray]

You can only run Repair Disk Permissions on the startup drive because the permissions it's fixing are in the system files and the Applications folder (both of which should be on the startup drive). If the startup drive is partitioned then only the partition which contains the system files will be the one you can repair permissions on, the Applications folder would also be on that partition and the VirtualBox application will run only when in the Applications folder (your VM files can be on other volumes if you set it up that way when creating them).

So what you need to do it select the proper drive (or partition) and the Repair DIsk Permissions will no longer be grayed out.

You weren't kidding when you said you were a total n00b.

[osxuser1919]

Ok, I repaired disk permissions on the startup drive, still nothing. Any suggestions?

[rpmurray]

You could try uninstalling VirtualBox and then re-installing it. There is a tool that was included with the download of the VirtualBox installer called the VirtualBox_Uninstall.tool. When you run it it removes the VirtualBox application and the drivers (kext files) but will leave your settings files and the virtual environments you've created intact. Then you just run the installer again. Basically it's the same process as if you upgraded to a newer version of VirtualBox.