vbox won't start

mala · Post by **mala** » 12. Jul 2008, 00:03

Maybe someone can help me with this issue?
I used vbox for a while without any problems, until I installed a kernel upgrade for my hardy heron. (Yes, that old problem).
Meanwhile, I managed some improvement, since the command
sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv status
produces now
"VirtualBox kernel module is loaded" (took me a while to get there)

Still, I cannot start vbox via the link on my desktop or the entry in the "applications" list.
Now what? Any suggestions. please?

Post by **Sasquatch** » 12. Jul 2008, 01:00

What is the output when you start VB from a terminal?

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$ VirtualBox

It should be nothing though, but there might be some other problem. Else you can try a reinstall, there might be a file missing or something.

mala · Post by **mala** » 12. Jul 2008, 01:28

output is
could not find virtualbox. please reinstall.

I'm still quite new to ubuntu - I think there's no advice concerning deinstallation in the manual. Do you happen to know a good link? (I never had to deinstall anything before, actually)
I assume there's no way to rescue the XP installation inside?

Thank you very much for your help,

mala

Post by **Sasquatch** » 12. Jul 2008, 02:01

The VM is not affected by all this (unless you removed the vdi file in your home folder). Did you use the right command, that is, with uppercase V and B? Linux is case sensitive. If you reinstall the package, all you have to do, is open the package you downloaded and you have the option to reinstall it. For the rest, take a look at Synaptic Packet Manager that can be found in the System menu.

mala · Post by **mala** » 13. Jul 2008, 19:37

Sasquatch, you give me hope ... It would take me quite long to re-install all the programs in my vbox that aren't linux-compatible ... I sure didn't delete any vdi-files.

I tried the command line again, without success
I downloaded the package via sun, but can't install it. The message is "Couldn't install the package ...etc"
I'm afraid I messed up with that Synaptic Packet Manager. When I boot the system now, Ihave more options available now in addition to the generic version I had before and which comes with a funny stripy design all over the desktop now. One of the new ones has no sound, the third one seems to work. All of them can connect to the net, though ... I don't get it.

Any advice for me? Please?

Post by **Sasquatch** » 13. Jul 2008, 20:31

Start the kernel that does work, this should be the -generic kernel. Then in Synaptic search for linux-kernel and remove all packages that are not part of your current kernel (so you would remove linux-kernel-image-2.6.24-19-rt, or 686, or server, or whatever you find there). Do not remove the module package of your current kernel, as your network/audio could be in there. Once you got that, reboot to see if it all works properly for your Host. Once that is done, browse to the folder where you downloaded the .deb file to, open a terminal there and run:

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sudo dpkg -i virtualbox_1.6.2-*.deb

Use the TAB key to auto complete the filename. Enter your password and it should be installed again. If that does not work, you could to run your filebrowser as root and open the .deb directly (that way, the package manager is run as root too). You should have an Reinstall option.

Good luck.

mala · Post by **mala** » 13. Jul 2008, 21:31

umm ... I can't find anything called "linux-kernel-image-2.6.24-19-whatever, only
linux-image2.6.24-19-generic etc.

I know that I'm clueless. Sorry. But I have enough braincells left to suspect that I shouldn't tick off the wrong ones, here.

Thanks for your help!

Post by **Sasquatch** » 13. Jul 2008, 22:50

I don't have my Linux running all the time, so I had to guess the name. The one you have is your kernel name. You can see what you booted by using 'uname -r' in a terminal. The Linux-image-2.6.24-19-generic is the kernel you probably want, so keep all those packages related to that kernel name (linux-ubuntu-modules-generic, linux-headers-generic and perhaps other -generic packages). All the others can be removed (like -rt, -686 etc.).

mala · Post by **mala** » 13. Jul 2008, 23:13

Thanks for clearing that up for me! I was worried it might matter, and I wouldn't be seeing the right list or something like that.

I'll try it tomorrow,
good night for now,

mala

mala · Post by **mala** » 14. Jul 2008, 22:28

I managed to get rid of the additional versions without difficulties - I almost can't believe it ...

Thank you so much, at least that much is solved now.

As for vbox: I get an error message informing me that there would be conflicting packages between vbox and vbox - ??

If I deinstalled everything called vbox listed in synaptic, do you think that the xp-installation would be lost?

Thanks again

mala

Post by **Sasquatch** » 14. Jul 2008, 23:08

Removing VB will not remove your VMs. This has been said in numerous topics

. I thought it was in the manual too, but I could be mistaken.

mala · Post by **mala** » 17. Jul 2008, 00:16

(sorry, no time yesterday to try out anything)

In short: It worked. And it was really easy. Once one has the right plan in mind, that is. Now I wonder how I managed NOT to manage for such a long time - but I did learn a lot about Ubuntu this way, no doubt about that.

Thank you very much for your advice, Sasquatch! I wouldn't have managed on my own.

mala