Latest Version of VirtualBox Kernel Errors on CentOS 5, i386

Doctorzongo · 05-31-2008, 12:55 AM

Hello everyone. I installed VirtualBox on my CentOS system as an alternative to Xen.

However, when I tried to run it from the .run file it got an error. I got the .rpm file, thinking maybe there was an error with the .run file on my system. The RPM installed fine. I made a 10 GB Virtual Hard Drive and targeted my image: ~/iso/dfly-1.8.1.iso

When I tried to run the machine, however, I got a message that the VirtualBox Kernel had not been setup.

I ran:

Code:

/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

It failed, saying that kernel files were not found.

Code:

Stopping VirtualBox kernel module                          [  OK  ]
Recompiling VirtualBox kernel module                       [FAILED]
  (Look at /var/log/vbox-install.log to find out what went wrong)

The logfile printed out the following:

Code:

which: no dkms in (/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin)
Makefile:127: *** Error: unable to find the sources of your current Linux kernel. Specify KERN_DIR=<directory> and run Make again.  Stop.

I am not sure how to fix this.

unSpawn · 06-01-2008, 07:33 AM

Install the kernel-devel package for your currently running kernel?

syg00 · 06-01-2008, 08:34 AM

Maybe read the user manual that came with the package ???.
Particularly chapter 2, Installation - covers what unSpawn mentioned, plus more.

archtoad6 · 06-04-2008, 12:42 PM

In the Debian/Ubuntu/MEPIS repos, there is a pkg. called "linux-headers-<kernel_name>".
Don't know if RH/FC/CentOS pkgs. are named the same way.

kdingo · 06-14-2008, 02:53 PM

Hi. You're in luck because I'm doing the same exact thing (except my server is x86_64.)

You will need the kernel sources. Downloading kernel-devel or kernel-headers does not work. CentOS kernel sources aren't available through yum, so I used these steps from the CentOS wiki. http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/I_need_the_Kernel_Source

Getting CentOS kernel sources to build VirtualBox kernel module
of course, you may not run some of these commands if you already have the packages installed.

as root:

Code:

# yum groupinstall "Development Tools"
# yum groupinstall "Development Libraries"
# yum install unifdef rpm-build

as non-root:

Code:

# su local
$ cd
$ mkdir -p rpmbuild/{BUILD,RPMS,SOURCES,SPECS,SRPMS}
$ echo "%_topdir %(echo $HOME)/rpmbuild" > .rpmmacros
$ rpm -i http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5/os/SRPMS/kernel-2.6.18-53.el5.src.rpm
$ cd ~/rpmbuild/SPECS
$ rpmbuild -bp --target=`uname -m` kernel-2.6.spec

Now to make old config and modules because vboxdrv complains about it

Code:

$ cd ~/rpmbuild/BUILD/kernel-2.6.18/linux-2.6.18.x86_64
$ make oldconfig
$ make prepare
$ make

vboxdrv failed during module compilation, so I decided to build the entire kernel just to make sure. Do not run 'make install' since we don't need it.

as root:

Code:

# export KERN_DIR=/home/local/rpmbuild/BUILD/kernel-2.6.18/linux-2.6.18.x86_64/
# /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
Stopping VirtualBox kernel module                          [  OK  ]
Recompiling VirtualBox kernel module                       [  OK  ]
Starting VirtualBox kernel module                          [  OK  ]

You should now be able to start VirtualBox. Hopefully I didn't forget anything; it took me the whole morning to sort this out.

YouNix · 06-11-2009, 05:46 AM

Hi,
A few notes that may save someone somewhere a little bit of time.
I could not get VirtualBox to run on a Xen kernel which I had installed on a clean Poweredge 1900, 4Gb RAM, 2xQuad core Xeon. The final straw was my inability to get the actual Xen headers. Any builds I did complete complained about structs.
There were several people on different forums having lots of difficulty trying to get that configuration to work. Then I researched and found that there were issues over the future of Xen anyway so I made an executive decision to abandon it. (yes I got lazy and fustrated) So after hours of fustration I installed a PAE kernel.

YouNix · 06-11-2009, 05:50 AM

So here is how I installed VirtualBox on a PAE kernel

uname-a
Linux xxxxxx 2.6.18-128.el5PAE #1 SMP Wed Jan 21 11:19:46 EST 2009 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

On initial install of Virtual Box I had the following error:

VirtualBox-2.2.4_47978_rhel5-1.i386

Creating group 'vboxusers'. VM users must be member of that group!

No precompiled module for this kernel found -- trying to build one. Messages
emitted during module compilation will be logged to /var/log/vbox-install.log.

Compilation of the kernel module FAILED! VirtualBox will not start until this
problem is fixed. Please consult /var/log/vbox-install.log to find out why the
kernel module does not compile. Most probably the kernel sources are not found.
Install them and execute

/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

as root.

After hours messing with Xen kernel I was expecting as much!
So as recommended I carried out the setup

/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
Stopping VirtualBox kernel module [ OK ]
Recompiling VirtualBox kernel module [FAILED]
(Look at /var/log/vbox-install.log to find out what went wrong)

Darn, here we go again..
So I updated headers for PAE kernel.

yum install kernel-PAE-devel
export KERN_DIR=/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-128.1.10.el5-PAE-i686/

Tried the setup again but forgot that I had a clean install of centos so had to install gcc!

yum install gcc

and redid the setup

I still had errors as the compilers could not find the headers.

** Compiling vboxdrv
Makefile:145: *** Error: unable to find the sources of your current Linux kernel. Specify KERN_DIR=<directory> and run Make again. Stop.

The following declaration stating where the correct headers were did the trick.
(Note that this directory depends on the kernel version!)

export KERN_DIR=/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-128.1.10.el5-PAE-i686/
/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
Stopping VirtualBox kernel module [ OK ]
Recompiling VirtualBox kernel module [ OK ]
Starting VirtualBox kernel module [ OK ]

Yay.#
Tony

ThinkFree · 06-27-2009, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by YouNix

So here is how I installed VirtualBox on a PAE kernel

uname-a
Linux xxxxxx 2.6.18-128.el5PAE #1 SMP Wed Jan 21 11:19:46 EST 2009 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

On initial install of Virtual Box I had the following error:

VirtualBox-2.2.4_47978_rhel5-1.i386

Creating group 'vboxusers'. VM users must be member of that group!

No precompiled module for this kernel found -- trying to build one. Messages
emitted during module compilation will be logged to /var/log/vbox-install.log.

Compilation of the kernel module FAILED! VirtualBox will not start until this
problem is fixed. Please consult /var/log/vbox-install.log to find out why the
kernel module does not compile. Most probably the kernel sources are not found.
Install them and execute

/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

as root.

After hours messing with Xen kernel I was expecting as much!
So as recommended I carried out the setup

/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
Stopping VirtualBox kernel module [ OK ]
Recompiling VirtualBox kernel module [FAILED]
(Look at /var/log/vbox-install.log to find out what went wrong)

Darn, here we go again..
So I updated headers for PAE kernel.

yum install kernel-PAE-devel
export KERN_DIR=/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-128.1.10.el5-PAE-i686/

Tried the setup again but forgot that I had a clean install of centos so had to install gcc!

yum install gcc

and redid the setup

I still had errors as the compilers could not find the headers.

** Compiling vboxdrv
Makefile:145: *** Error: unable to find the sources of your current Linux kernel. Specify KERN_DIR=<directory> and run Make again. Stop.

The following declaration stating where the correct headers were did the trick.
(Note that this directory depends on the kernel version!)

export KERN_DIR=/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-128.1.10.el5-PAE-i686/
/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
Stopping VirtualBox kernel module [ OK ]
Recompiling VirtualBox kernel module [ OK ]
Starting VirtualBox kernel module [ OK ]

Yay.#
Tony

After doing this I see the following message

Quote:

/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
Stopping VirtualBox kernel module [ OK ]
Removing old VirtualBox netflt kernel module [ OK ]
Removing old VirtualBox kernel module [ OK ]
Recompiling VirtualBox kernel module [ OK ]
Starting VirtualBox kernel module [FAILED]
(modprobe vboxdrv failed. Please use 'dmesg' to find out why)

Quote:

vboxdrv: version magic '2.6.29.5-191.fc11.i686.PAE SMP mod_unload 686 ' should be '2.6.29.4-167.fc11.i586 SMP mod_unload 586 '

your_shadow03 · 10-20-2009, 03:04 AM

I am facing same issue?

ThinkFree · 10-21-2009, 07:25 AM

^Give details about your system(OS, VBox version etc)

YouNix · 10-22-2009, 05:23 AM

Hi,
I freshly installed and updated my centos 5 2.6.18-164.elPAE (uname -r) with yum upgrade.
As a precaution I installed the kernel development headers in advance of previous issues but it was not needed.
I installed VirtualBox 3.0.8 r53138 and there has been no installation, configuration or running issues so far. (Why cant everything be like this?)
Happy days,
T