[SOLVED]VBoxCli:The virtualbox kernel service is not running

[yek33]

Hello.
I have used virtualbox since august. I installed Ubuntu 14.04 on virtual machine. Virtual machine and Ubuntu works OK although virtual machine showed me this message when Ubuntu was initialized:
"VBoxClient: The virtualbox kernel service is not running. Exiting"
I kept on using it without pay attention at this warning because all functions worked correctly. But this morning when I tried to open Ubuntu on Virtual Box, I can´t do it.
First of all, Ubuntu asked me for my password when it have been configured for autostart. When I wrote my password screen turned black and appeared this warning like other times but this time, Ubuntu didn´t continue with initiation and went back to the point that it asked for my password. Obviosly, I can´t use the terminal because I can´t acces to Ubuntu.
Does someone know how I can fix this problem?
Thank you so much

[Perryg]

Sounds like you have tried to install the guest additions and it failed.
You have two choices.

• 1) when the password screen shows enter a tty windows and repair from there.
  2) use recovery mode at boot.

Then fix the additions install or install them again. I would caution you to watch closely this time because the original error that tells you what went wrong is very important.

[yek33]

And if it wouldn't be nuisance, could you say me how I can do that?
Because I have heard about recovery mode, but I have never used it and I don't know what is tty.
Thank you so much

[Perryg]

Sure I can tell you what to do but if you don't know what a tty window is or how to use a recovery boot, you might be better off re-installing the OS.

• To enter a tty window use the host key ( emulates ctrl+alt ) and F2 key at the same time. This will give you a terminal window is which you can run your repairs.
  To enter a recovery window with Ubuntu you hold the shift key down as you boot the guest and then follow the instructions.

[yek33]

At last, it works!!
I used that you said, ctrl+alt+shift+f2 when virtual machine was startingo to run, then 4 options appeared and I selected "advanced options" > recovery mode > fix broken packages (I have translate that from spanish so I am not sure that it appears exactly to you). Then, it run the console and began to apear some lines of code. When it finished, Ubuntu began to run and I could use all his functions, but the message about the kernel appeared again. Then I reinstalled the guest additions because I read that after Kernel's update I could be fail. After that, the message about kernel dessapeared and I can use the Ubuntu on my virtual machine perfectly.
Thank you so much by your aid and sorry for my english

[Tonydoyle]

Had this very error and tried numerous approaches to resolve including upgrading and downgrading the kernel installing devel kernels etc. etc. but the below worked for me straight away -
sudo vi /etc/X11/Xsession.d/98vboxadd-xclient
Then you need to find the line with notify-send "VBoxClient: the VirtualBox kernel service is not running. Exiting."
For me I changed notify-send to echo so it looks like this
echo "VBoxClient: the VirtualBox kernel service is not running. Exiting."

Restarted and no error message - Thank God! this was so annoying