Virtual Box won't load

Question

I am unable to get Virtual Box to load since upgrading to Ubuntu 12.10. It tells me to rebuild the kernel modules by running /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup. When I do in terminal the system cannot find the linux-headers-3.2.0-32-generic. I checked /usr/src and the only headers there are for versions 3.5.0-17 and 3.5.0-18.

Can anyone please tell me how to recreate the headers that the system is looking for?

How did you install virtualbox? Did you download it from the website or did you install it using apt-get ? — jippie, Nov 18 '12 at 20:02
See here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/49059/unable-to-install-virtualbox-due-to-missing-kernel-module — Takkat, Nov 18 '12 at 20:03
I downloaded un update and installed using the package installer — Lawrence Robinson, Nov 18 '12 at 21:32

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

Well, due to kernel version I guess you have Ubuntu 12.10 (12.11 is not a version of Ubuntu, please edit your question and correct it).

Then you said that virtualbox not work due to missing headers of 3.2.0-32 kernel. This kernel is from 12.04 Ubuntu version . Ubuntu 12.10 uses 3.5.0-17 (3.5 series). So the only thing I can guess is that you've upgraded from 12.04 to 12.10 and the old kernel remained to your system.

The easy solution here is to remove the old kernel 3.2.0-32.

See here on how to remove the old kernel

Then run again sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup and should be fine.

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 21 '12 at 13:30

2

You have to install linux headers, remove virtualbox-dkms and install virtualbox-dkms. The step by step instructions are given in the following link, http://xchamitha.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/fixing-virtualbox-on-ubuntu-1210.html

answered Nov 21 '12 at 13:30

xchamitha

36

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 19 '12 at 19:08

I followed the advice of @NikTh but that made my system unable to boot. It appears that the Grub boot loader did not completely upgrade when I upgraded Ubuntu to Version 12.10. The package was extracted but not installed. I was able to determine this fact after making a command line boot to kernel 3.5.0-18. I then rebooted from my original installation CD of version 9.04 and from the menu chose "Recover a broken system". Then at the rescue-mode chooser I selected "Reinstall GRUB boot loader". This solved my problem by correcting the errors in the boot loader and therefore providing pointers to the current kernel for vbox to function again.

Virtual Box won't load

3 Answers3