virtualbox NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)

Question

Yesterday my Virtualbox guests were still running. Today I get the following error for all guests (windows or Linux).

Failed to open a session for the virtual machine win10.

The VM session was closed before any attempt to power it on.

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

I already tried to run sudo /sbin/vboxconfig, reinstalling from Software Manager, reinstalling following Cannot run virtual machines after upgrading virtualbox from 5.0 to 5.1 and upgrading to 5.2.12 r122591 and 5.2.14 r123301. The result was always the same.

My current kernel version is 4.15.0-24-generic #26-Ubuntu SMP.

$ VBoxManage list extpacks
Extension Packs: 1
Pack no. 0:   Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack
Version:      5.2.14
Revision:     123301
Edition:      
Description:  USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 Host Controller, Host Webcam, VirtualBox RDP, PXE ROM, Disk Encryption, NVMe.
VRDE Module:  VBoxVRDP
Usable:       true

Looks like you need to (re-)install Guest Additions correctly. — David Foerster, Jul 08 '18 at 19:57
@DavidFoerster To install the guest additions I would need a running guest system which I don't have. — muclux, Jul 08 '18 at 20:09
Sorry, I meant the Virtualbox Extension Pack. That's what the answers to the linked question say anyway. ;-] — David Foerster, Jul 08 '18 at 20:13
ok, I got the extension pack 5.2.14 from https://virtualbox.org and opened it (as suggested) with VirtualBox. How can I verify now that it is really installed - because the guest still don't start? — muclux, Jul 08 '18 at 20:17
The VirtualBox management interface should show you. How or from where did you install VirtualBox btw? And what's the output of dkms status? — David Foerster, Jul 08 '18 at 20:21
After failing to start with the VBox version from the 18.04 repository, I downloaded from virtualbox.org and installed through the SW Manager. I'll edit my question to include the (new) status of VBoxManage list extpacks. dkms status said that dkms was not installed. After installing dkms dkms status now returns to the prompt without any output. — muclux, Jul 08 '18 at 20:27
Is this question of muclux duplicate of here ? : https://askubuntu.com/questions/217972/virtualbox-does-not-run-ns-error-failure — dschinn1001, Jul 10 '18 at 20:17
@dschinn1001 The question was similar, but the solution was not. I had seen the question and tried the solutions given there like vboxdrv setup but they didn't help. — muclux, Jul 11 '18 at 05:59
I agree with (re)installing ext pack, which solved it at my machine - sudo apt install virtualbox-ext-pack as mentioned at https://askubuntu.com/a/747265/110370 — MiroJanosik, Sep 16 '20 at 06:03

score 16 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 05 '21 at 20:30

16

Changing USB from 3.0 to 1.1 immediately fixed my inability to boot my Win10 guest under Ubuntu. Simple, easy solution.

answered Feb 05 '21 at 20:30

scolley

435
1
5
8

1

I was able to recover my VMs using this. I then removed the VirtualBox Extension Pack extension & installed the version that matches my version of VirtualBox & was able to turn USB 3.0 back on. – Pockets Sep 19 '23 at 17:37
Tried the other recommendation (reinstalling virtualbox-dkms first) but can't say that helped - at least it didn't work without switching to USB 1.1, albeit from 2.0. Thanks! – brezniczky Feb 23 '24 at 15:11

score 14 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 02 '19 at 14:40

14

I had similar issue on xubuntu 18.04 where my Virtualbox guests was to run windows 7. Although I had Virtualbox 5.2 installed previously that worked.

I made sure that virtualbox-dkms was installed by running this command:
```
dpkg -l | grep virtualbox-dkms
```

Then I purged it and and reinstalled only dkms:

apt-get purge virtualbox-dkms && sudo apt-get install dkms

Then I ran the suggested command to rebuild the kernel:
```
sudo /sbin/vboxconfig 
```

This is what worked for me.

edited Oct 02 '19 at 14:40

BeastOfCaerbannog

14,585

answered Apr 06 '19 at 17:03

Ismail Yushaw

469

Step 1 solved this error message for me on ubu 18.04 – DMrFrost Aug 15 '19 at 09:17
2

@DMrFrost: that's impossible because dpkg -l doesn't install or uninstall anything. Anyway, I ran all three steps successfully, but I keep getting the same error. – Dan Dascalescu Oct 15 '19 at 08:13
This worked for me on U19.10. Thanks – Junaid Qadir Shekhanzai Jan 31 '20 at 14:55
simply running 'sudo /sbin/vboxconfig' prior to launching the virtualbox worked for me – cloudcell Apr 27 '20 at 01:36
This helped also for Xubuntu-20-focal with VirtualBox 16.1.16 – rundekugel Dec 13 '20 at 16:57

score 8 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 28 '19 at 12:41

8

Just had the same issue and figured out the problem and an easier solution... The problem was the usb settings... if you switched your usb settings back to 1.1 it would boot again... incase anyone else like me finds this post having the same problem... that solved it for me... but thanks for this post it led me to that solution...

answered Jul 28 '19 at 12:41

Wizzdome

99
1
1

USB was already set to 1.1 and I keep getting that useless error. Also, you may want to review your excessive usage of ellipses. – Dan Dascalescu Oct 15 '19 at 08:17

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 25 '21 at 11:55

The Answers given here, by the other AskUbuntu users, are already very good.
As an additional measure it might help if you download a suitable VirtualBox Extension Pack from the Downlads Page of the Virtualbox Web site.
Do this only if you know that you had the Extension Pack installed previously. (I think it enables a better USB access to VirtualBox guests).
The minor version number (for v6.1.18, thats the 6.1) of the Extension Pack should match the Minor version of your virtualbox installation.
I had an older Windows guest that refused to start because I had built a new host kernel, a new SSD to store, pending Windows upgrades, and tried to start a snapshot (I don't remember).
However a more decriptive error message ("Extension Pack too old"), better thanNS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005) came up only after doing a start of a "cleaner", different Windows guest.

Maybe this is purely cosmetic, but worth a try.

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 12 '18 at 06:10

After a long, friendly and fruitful chat with @DavidFoerster, it turned out that Microsoft and its weird update policy was the culprit!

David patiently guided me through the reinstallation of the VirtualBox packages from the Ubuntu repositories and check out the configuration (dkms, extension packages, etc.). At last, he asked me to try a new installation with a live ISO. It was then that I noticed that my "Default Machine Folder" defined in VirtualBox - File - Preferences - General was not usable. I knew that it was on a mounted NTFS used by the dualboot Win10 system. A closer look showed that at present it was mounted read-only, which prevented the virtual machines from starting (with a not very helpful error message).

As I recalled then, shortly after I had last successfully booted the VirtualBox guests, I had not only got Ubuntu updates, but I had also booted for the first time since long my native Win10 system. Apparently, Microsoft had then installed updates AND had reactivated the 'fast startup' option (which certainly had been deactivated before!) - so that later, back in Ubuntu, the NTFS file system was mounted in read-only mode, as Windows had not properly shut down.

Now that I have again deactivated the 'fast startup' option in Windows10, my guest systems are running again.

Thank you, David, for asking the right question which set me on the right track!

I get the same cryptic error on an Ubuntu host (no dual boot or anything), and the VM directory is a regular read-write one. — Dan Dascalescu, Oct 15 '19 at 08:15

score 2 · Answer 6 · edited Oct 02 '19 at 14:39

2

I have encountered the mentioned issue and I tried all the suggested solutions, but they didn't solve my problem.

In my case, I figured out that the VirtualBox.xml file (which is located under ~/.config/VirtualBox) seems to be empty and there was a file named as VirtualBox.xml-prev. So I moved second file, renamed as VirtualBox.xml in the same directory and my problem is solved.

edited Oct 02 '19 at 14:39

BeastOfCaerbannog

14,585

answered Sep 30 '19 at 08:23

serkan kucukbay

121
2

worked like a charm - do you know why this is the case though.. what created the back up "prev" file? – 9_Dave_9 Jun 11 '20 at 22:55

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 26 '21 at 16:40

2

For me the issue was that I tried starting it with simply vboxmanage startvm ExampleVM but I didn't have X forwarding working, so it would presumably try to create a display and fail. Adding --type headless fixed the issue:

vboxmanage startvm ExampleVM --type headless

Of course, this only applies if headless is what you want to do.

_{I cross-posted this answer from a very similar question (same error code) at https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/641243/30731}

answered Mar 26 '21 at 16:40

Luc

993

I just had a similar? issue, I use VB on a different machine using X11 forwarding. I had accidentally logged out from the shell on the remote machine leaving only the graphical programs connected. – Oskar Skog Aug 29 '22 at 10:36

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 13 '21 at 21:19

After a freeze of Linux I had to do a "hard" restart of my Laptop. After reboot none of my VirtualBoxes was able to be started. I got the same error message with every Box: ns_error_failure 0x80004005.

Solution: Another regular restart of Linux
Sounds too simple, but it worked.

Renato Pierri · Answer 9 · 2022-08-29T03:38:46.640

I had same issue. The Answers given here, by the other AskUbuntu users, are very important and I have followed most of them. In my case I also had the following issue: I was using an incorrect version of VirtualBox Extension Pack. For instance, If you are using a VirtualBox version 6.1.36, you also should use a VirtualBox Extension Pack of 6.1.36 version. In other words, pay attention if you are using compatible versions of VirtualBox and VirtualBox extensions. Hope it helps.

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Aug 11 '20 at 02:15

0

Below commands Fixed for me (Ubuntu 18.04)

Reinstall the virtualbox-dkms

sudo apt install virtualbox-dkms

Restart the virualbox

answered Aug 11 '20 at 02:15

Ashish Tiwari

111

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Jun 15 '22 at 03:16

I had the same issue today and the cause was that the network adapter the VM was using until yesterday doesn't exist anymore on my host (Mint 20) for some reason.

My error message was

"Nonexistent host networking interface, name 'enp4s0' (VERR_INTERNAL_ERROR)."

I went into the VM's network properties, changed the network adapter from Bridged to something else and then back to Bridged. For whatever reason, the network interface is now enp6s0.

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Oct 19 '22 at 11:24

Had a similar issue with Ubuntu 20.04.5 and Virtualbox 6.1.31 for Windows 10. The solution suggested by @scolley worked:

Changing USB from 3.0 to 1.1 immediately fixed my inability to boot my Win10 guest under Ubuntu. Simple, easy solution.

However, if one wants to use USB 3.0 again the following further steps helped for me:

Download latest version for Virtualbox 6.1: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Download_Old_Builds_6_1
Upgrade/Install downloaded package using:
```
 sudo dpkg -i virtualbox-6.1.[...].deb
```
Start virtualbox
Install virtualbox guest extensions to the respective newer version (this should get auto prompted when guest extensions were used before)
Set USB settings to USB 1.1
Start Windows 10
Mount (updated) guest extensions and install
Shut down Windows 10
Set USB settings back to USB 3.0
Restart Windows 10 again which should now work

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Apr 27 '23 at 17:10

I had a similar issue. In my case, the problem was due to the bad ownership of the /usr folder. It was not owned by root. I changed it back to root:root using the following command:

sudo chown root:root /usr

After that, I reinstalled VirtualBox, and now the VM starts without any issues. I'm not sure if reinstallation is necessary, as I did not test that.

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Jan 22 '24 at 13:13

I had this error on two different occasions

When I assigned too much RAM memory to VM, which was solved by reducing it somewhat
When I tested Serial port (USB to Serial convertor), then next time I tried to start VM with this convertor missing/unplugged it presented this error. Solution was to ether put back the convertor, or to disable this Serial port.

virtualbox NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)

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