Starting VirtualBox Error Messages

[PJB]

Good Morning!
I've got a new problem with starting VirtualBox which I've never had in the past. The computer is MacBook Pro 2.2ghz Core2Duo 2gb RAM OS X 10.6.8 VirtualBox 4.1.10 r76795

When I start the computer, I get an error message telling me that an "insecure Startup Item" has been disabled & it tells me VirtualBox is disabled.
If I click on VirtualBox to open the program, it will open. But, when I click to run Windows XP (Or any other guest OS- I have W98SE 7 MS-DOS 6.22) I get the next error- "Failed to open VM ... Exit Code 1". When I click OK, I get a third error- Kernel Driver Not Installed rc= -1908.

I've attached screenshots of each error messages. I tried the usual Disk Utility Repair Permissions. I saw lots of items go past with VirtualBox & Java. Sadly, I wasn't smart enough to capture the details. Before I go messing around & making things worse, i thought I'd be better off asking you all.

Do any of you have experience with this problem & what my next step to repair it could be?
I sure appreciate your advice
Paul

[rpmurray]

VirtualBox stores it's drivers in the Extensions folder on the path:

[hard drive]/Library/Extensions

and the startup files in:

[hard drive]/Library/StartupItems/VirtualBox

Occasionally updates to the system will change the permissions of these folders or the files within them so that the VirtualBox drivers cannot start up on boot. The VirtualBox application will start up but without the drivers the VMs won't. Did you do a Software Update before this started happening?

If the Repair Permissions in Disk Utility does not fix things then the simplest solution may be to uninstall VirtualBox and then re-install it. This will not remove any of the guest VMs you've created, it just removes the VirtualBox application and it's drivers. Use the VirtualBox_Uninstall.tool that comes in the dmg you downloaded to install VirtualBox. Once uninstalled you can then re-install VirtualBox and hopefully things will be back to normal.

It would be a good idea to do a backup of your system BEFORE doing this, just in case. Or at least back up the VMs and their settings files.

[PJB]

Thank You Rpmurray
Life's good now!
I checked the directories you mentioned against a backup I had & everyone was present & accounted for. I gave Disk Utility another chance to repair permissions (more were found with problems). I tried VirtualBox again, receiving the error messages.

Uninstalling & reinstalling the app & the Guest Additions worked perfectly. Less than thirty minutes after I read your reply I was back in action! I verified everything worked well in each VM, took new snapshots & was back in action!

All I can think of which may have messed things up was that I updated my program I use for backups yesterday. Maybe the updater got out of its cage & bit VirtualBox in the ankle. That program often causes me grief. It's time to nuke it.

Thank you again for your help & great advice!
Paul

[Chrisfr]

Hi,
I think there are a few similarities between your question and mine (USB problem?). Same system (Mac OS X 10.6., and the error messages come at the same moment.
I hope you'll find a solution.
Chris (Chrisfr)