virtualbox.org

I just installed VirtualBox 5.1.28 provided by Manjaro Linux 17.0.5, and I've manually downloaded the 5.1.28 extension pack and installed it.

I then imported a CentOS 5.11 appliance that was exported from VirtualBox 4.3.12 (and I've verified it was using the matching 4.3.12 extension pack). No warnings or errors generated. But when trying to run it, the VM failed to initialize with the cryptic error:

The VM session was aborted.

Result Code:
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component:
SessionMachine
Interface:
ISession {7844aa05-b02e-4cdd-a04f-ade4a762e6b7}

So after some googling, I basically disabled all of the guest's interfaces to the host (audio, network, serial, and USB), reduced the guest to 1 CPU and 512MB RAM. But still the guest wouldn't boot -- same error as above.

So I simply uninstalled the extension pack through the VirtualBox UI -- same way I installed it -- and then the guest boots without a problem.

Once the guest was up and running, I upgraded the guest additions by using the [ Devices > Insert Guest Additions CD image... ], running the installation shell script, and verified they installed without error. The guest additions are now at version 5.1.28.

Then I powered off the guest, re-installed the 5.1.28 extension pack (which matches the VirtualBox host software and the guest additions version I just installed), and tried to boot up the guest. But I'm still receiving the same error.

So I'm running VirtualBox 5.1.28, extension pack 5.1.28, and guest additions 5.1.28 -- all versions match. So why does the guest not boot with the extension pack installed? Every time I uninstall them, it boots fine.

Edit: I initially had trouble installing the virtualbox package provided by the Manjaro pacman mirrors using the Manjaro LTS kernel 4.9.53-1 (the vboxdrv and associated modules would not build (or maybe just not install, hard for me to tell)) and instead installed 4.13.5-1. Running this kernel, the modules installed immediately, no issues, and I was then able to run VirtualBox.