Kernel 5.7: omnishambles

[WhatHaveYou]

I put Linux kernel 5.7 on my computer. The current VirtualBox cannot cope with that. That is just about understandable - though I note that Linux kernel maintainers have denigrated the virtual box kernel module in strong terms. There is more to my experience, though. It is - first of all - the following. I was offered an update to VirtualBox via the VirtualBox PPA. I accepted the update. The resulting procedure said that my 'additions' - those joys of our hearts - needed upgrading. I said OK. VirtualBox downloaded the additions and then said that they would in fact be a downgrade on my system. I said go ahead. (For, what do do?) The resulting configuration would not boot my VM. I looked for a way of changing my mind - of keeping the old and apparently newer Additions. In so doing somehow VirtualBox gave me a message saying that 'something something version () [sic]' i.e. it produced a message that was meant to tell me a version number between parentheses but the parentheses were empty. And of course my VM still did not boot.

If anyone wants to try to persuade me to file a bug report (I've done it before) then go ahead.

[scottgus1]

VirtualBox downloaded the additions

Official Virtualbox from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads does not download Guest Additions. GAs come with official Virtualbox as a bundled ISO.

The distros fork Virtualbox, then separate the GAs into a separate download.

From this I deduce you are using a fork, which we don't support on these forums. You could ask the distro support channels, or zip and post a guest log so we can see what you're running.

[WhatHaveYou]

Thanks, but am I really using a fork of VirtualBox? I'm using the version of VirtualBox from this repository:

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deb [arch=amd64] http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian bionic contrib

I used to use .debs from the VirtualBox website but I found that so doing gave me problems. I might try them again, though, for, having reverted to a 5.6 kernel, and reinstalled VirtualBox (from, I trust, the aforementioned repository), things are just as bad. I see this bizaare error in the make log:

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In file included from ././include/linux/compiler_types.h:59,
                 from <command-line>:
/var/lib/dkms/virtualbox/5.2.34/build/vboxdrv/SUPDrvGip.c: In function ‘supdrvTscDeltaThread’:
./include/linux/compiler_attributes.h:200:41: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘__attribute__’

EDIT: I have got everything to work. I did so by reverting to a backup of `/`, by reinstalling VirtualBox 6.1 and by discovering, in doing the latter, that my `/usr` was not owned by root. That ownership seems to have been the basis of my problems, although, clearly enough, VirtualBox needs better error-handing and better error reporting.

[scottgus1]

am I really using a fork of VirtualBox?

I'm not skilled enough in Linux to know. Maybe the wording of "VirtualBox downloaded the additions" led me astray. Was it really a download?

The first line of the guest's vbox.log says whether it's a fork:

Official VirtualBox
00:00:01.392519 VirtualBox VM 6.1.0_BETA2 r134346 linux.amd64 (Oct 30 2019 15:20:04) release log
00:00:02.844667 VirtualBox VM 6.0.12 r133076 linux.amd64 (Sep 3 2019 12:51:52) release log

Forked VirtualBox
00:00:00.920941 VirtualBox VM 6.0.14_Ubuntu r132055 linux.amd64 (Oct 17 2019 07:24:16) release log

If there's an underscore-Linux-Distro-name after the Z.Y.X Virtualbox version number, then it's a fork.

Please post the first line of a .vbox log from one of your guests.

[WhatHaveYou]

Dear scottgus1

Was it really a download? Well, VirtualBox opened a little window and the text in that window said that the program was downloading the 'additions', and there was a progress bar.

Please tell me where, within the VirtualMachine 'guest', I can find the log you mention. Then I will post the snipped at issue. Thank you.

[scottgus1]

Right-click the guest in the main Virtualbox window's guest list, choose Show Log. Save the far left tab's log, zip it, and post the zip file, using the forum's Upload Attachment tab.

[WhatHaveYou]

Thanks. The relevant bit of that log is:

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00:00:00.979265 VirtualBox VM 6.1.10 r138449 linux.amd64 (Jun  4 2020 17:42:10) release log

Please note that I will not be on this forum for at least a while and if and when I return it will not be with this username. For, I need to change the email address I use for this forum and seemingly one of the forum's faults is that it does not allow that. EDIT: oh, and the forum does not allow one to delete accounts either. That is a bad and, one might even guess, illegal.

[mpack]

That is a bad and, one might even guess, illegal.

"One" might guess lots of things. "One" might be more impressed if you quoted a specific law and the applicable jurisdiction, and defined what "account" means.

In the meantime, all you have here is a handle which is attached to posts which became public property when you posted them. We don't destroy public property.