Hi folks.

Just grabbed Slackware64-current and installed on my laptop. Also put Alien Bob's multilib on .. need it for my Absoft fortran compiler.

The problem I'm having is that VirtualBox-3.1.6 doesn't install. I've looked at other problems on the list related to this and I don't think that any of the ones that I've seen applies to my situation. My feeling is that there is an incompatibility problem with gcc. The stock kernel was compiled with gcc-4.4.3 which comes with Slackware64-current. However, Bob's multilib backdates this to gcc-4.3.3. So, when the Virtualbox installation procedure runs it sees a kernel compiled with a version of gcc that is different from the one that is currently installed and chokes.

I guess the solution is to recompile the kernel with the current gcc. Haven't done a kernel compile in a long time though and I'd like to get it right. So, my question is "Is the stock .config file in the linux source folder the one used to configure the default kernel?". I like the stock kernel and would like to recompile with all the bells 'n whistles in the stock kernel.

Cheers

Bob keeps the multilib packages current with -current.

will take your current kernel config file and copy it to /usr/src/linux/. From Bob's kernel how-to.

If you are running Slackware64-current why did you not use the multilib packages for -current? They are in http://slackware.com/~alien/multilib/13.1/ including the 4.4.3 version of the compiler.

Eric

Hi,

Could you post the content of /var/log/vbox-install.log. It might be helpful to detect the problem.

Thanks all for replying.

Damgar: As I said, its been a long time since I compiled a kernel .. probably as far back as the 2.4.x generation. I don't think that /proc/config.gz was available then (of course I may be wrong .. seems to happen more often than not). Thanks for the info.

Alien Bob: I have lots of computer-related stuff going on in my life now .. translating f77=>f95/debugging a *large* fortran program, trying to figure out why my laptop wifi doesn't work, getting my wife's webcam working, upgrading my home server etc. Just didn't think to look for a new multilib version. I'll get multilib 13.1 and give it a try. Thanks very much for your help.

thirteen

Ok. I've taken Bob's advice and installed multilib for slackware 13.1. Got the correct version of gcc for slackware-current now but still having problems with Virtualbox.

I'm installing using the generic binary download. The install appears to run ok but then when trying to start a virtual machine I get a "kernel driver not installed" message and am directed to try "vboxdrv setup". When I do this I get the message "modprobe vboxdrv failed. Please use 'dmesg' to find out why". Dmesg shows nothing at all related to virtualbox. Looking at /lib/modules/2.6.33.1/misc/ shows nothing at all installed there so presumably the drivers are not compiling properly for some reason. Colour me stumped.

thirteen

P.S. wifi problem solved and webcam working. just need to find all the bugs in the fortran program and upgrade the server

I installed the package provided by the italian Slackware repo: http://www.slacky.eu/ - and it's very straightforward. After installing, you have to run /etc/rc.d/rc.vboxdrv setup to compile the vbox-kernel modules into the system and load'em up.

There was an issue with 2.6.33 and 3.1.4, but I expected that to be resolved in 3.1.6.

I just upgraded to 3.1.6 running -current with multilib with kernel 2.6.34-rc1. There was no issue.

I'm assuming that you are using the installer for 64 or you would have gotten an error.

Are you using the installer labelled "all distributions" ?

Yes, I'm using the amd64 installer for all distributions. I've installed several versions of virtualbox under slackware64 13.0 with no problems. Slackware64-current however, doesn't seem to like it. Here's the output of vbox-install.log:

install: cannot stat `vboxdrv.ko': No such file or directory
install: cannot stat `vboxnetflt.ko': No such file or directory
install: cannot stat `vboxnetadp.ko': No such file or directory

It looks like the modules are not being compiled properly but the information here is pretty terse. No real clue as to what's happening .. to me at least.

thirteen

It's not a current issue I wouldn't think. Have you tried running on your kernel source? I remember when the 2.6.33 kernels came into current there were a ton of problems with 3rd party drivers/modules. I was under the impression that that had been resolved with subsequent updates.

Perhaps a new recompiled kernel wuld be worth the effort. It's nothing more than time consuming and depending on the machine, possible not even really that.

Also have you searched for say vboxdrv.ko on the off chance it got misplaced? Vbox has always been good at telling me I screwed something up.

Sure. I'll give it a go. Haven't done a kernel compile for quite a while .. should be fun.

thirteen

No luck. Compiled a new kernel (first time in several years!) successfully but 'vboxdrv setup' still fails. Now you can really colour me confused.

thirteen

A handful of kernel headers were moved from include/linux/ to include/generated/ in the kernel source tree as of 2.6.33.

Adam

But if I remember correctly 3.1.6 Vbox corrected the issue. The test would be to symlink to the relocated headers. That was how I got Vbox 3.1.4 to run on 2.6.33-rcX prior to the newer release of Vbox. I updated to 3.1.6 on 2.6.34-rc1 the other day as a test for this thread on 2.6.34-rc1 and as best as I can tell I didn't ever create the symlinks for this kernel.

I finally got it going although I'm not entirely sure how. Installed Slackware current last week and made the symlink in include/linux to autoconf.h in include/generated. Tried reinstalling vbox but it didn't work so then I manually deleted the vbox folder and tried the install program again. It worked! Don't know why though.

Anyway, I'm back to using vbox. Thanks all for your help

thirteen