Virtualbox Kernel driver not installed

Question

I tried to use my Virtual Box and this is the error I received - (I just updated to the new Ubuntu also) and I am VERY new at this Linux OS.

Kernel driver not installed (rc=-1908)

The VirtualBox Linux kernel driver (vboxdrv) is either not loaded or there is a permission problem with /dev/vboxdrv. Please reinstall the kernel module by executing

'/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup'

as root. Users of Ubuntu, Fedora or Mandriva should install the DKMS package first. This package keeps track of Linux kernel changes and recompiles the vboxdrv kernel module if necessary.

I had a similar problem where VirtualBox suddenly stopped working. The solution ended up being disabling Secure Boot in the BIOS which had been re-enabled after I updated my BIOS. This answer also mentions Secure Boot. — kjpc-tech, Dec 31 '18 at 19:28
For arch users: Solve it by running modprobe -a vboxdrv as root — Yogesh Aggarwal, Jul 10 '20 at 09:16
sudo apt-get remove virtualbox-dkms then sudo apt-get install virtualbox-dkms — auxiliaire, Aug 12 '21 at 13:46
Also an arch user: only had to restart after the pacman install.. didn't run anything extra. — ooXei1sh, Jan 03 '23 at 00:13

score 95 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 14 '18 at 10:31

95

Re-install virtualbox-dkms package first

sudo apt-get autoremove virtualbox-dkms
sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r` dkms virtualbox-dkms

After that You can enable it manually

sudo modprobe vboxdrv
sudo modprobe vboxnetflt

edited Feb 14 '18 at 10:31

Community

1

answered Dec 17 '12 at 12:47

iegik

1,843

17

sudo modprobe vboxnetflt results in FATAL: Module vboxnetflt not found. same for vboxdrv – weberc2 Jan 10 '13 at 23:38
4

Also, when installing virtualbox-dkms, I get non-error output like this: Module build for the currently running kernel was skipped since the kernel source for this kernel does not seem to be installed. – weberc2 Jan 10 '13 at 23:39
1

Thanks just doing this solved it for me: sudo apt-get remove virtualbox-dkms / sudo apt-get install virtualbox-dkms – David Sep 18 '13 at 20:15
1

On 13.10, with virtualbox-qt package installed this was the best solution for me, but with sudo apt-get install dkms virtualbox-dkms. Those packages installed the modules automatically, no other command was necessary. – Nathan Kidd Mar 08 '14 at 15:55
3

On 14.04 this also worked for me. It's important to make sure you install the headers for your kernel (see @Husni's answer) before reinstalling virtualbox-dkms, or the modules will not be built. – adelphus Mar 19 '15 at 16:17
Try 'sudo apt-get autoremove' (no quotest) if you have problems with this solution. – Mike Jr Jun 28 '15 at 20:20
This removes virtualbox-5.0 if installed, installing an outdated version of VirtualBox instead. – Nicolas Raoul Nov 17 '15 at 05:07
For 16.10 installing virutalbox (virtualbox-qt) did not install virtualbox-dkms (or dkms), leading to this problem. Would have expected this to be fixed by now, especially for a live iso 3 years later – Xen2050 Apr 19 '17 at 23:20
1

Upgrading from Zesty to Artful I needed to follow https://askubuntu.com/a/969596/49860 and sudo apt install linux-headers-lowlatency to fix these modules: they were built for the generic kernel but not the lowlatency variant. – Jesse Glick Oct 31 '17 at 19:43
modprobe: FATAL: Module vboxdrv not found in directory /lib/modules/4.4.0-109-generic – Aaron Franke Jan 22 '18 at 02:13
1

worked for elementary OS 6.1 Jólnir Built on Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS Linux 5.11.0-44-generic – Leo Fisher Jan 12 '22 at 05:45
with sudo modprobe vboxdrv I got error "'vboxdrv': Operation not permitted" and fixed with the help of https://crazytechgo.com/modprobe-error-could-not-insert-vboxdrv-operation-not-permitted/ – e11438 Apr 22 '22 at 10:02
I wonder, that this is still working :) – iegik Nov 29 '23 at 07:11

score 48 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 19 '18 at 11:04

48

Most probably all you have to do is run

sudo apt-get install dkms

(or install dkms from the software center)

and then run

sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

and write your password.

if you have any error with this commands use this one

sudo modprobe vboxdrv

edited Jul 19 '18 at 11:04

Manouchehr Rasouli

103

answered May 08 '11 at 01:26

Chriskin

3,242

52

vboxdrv doesn't exist. – weberc2 Jan 10 '13 at 23:01
1

@weberc2 VirtualBox OSE from Ubuntu repo doesn't have it, the virtualbox.org version does have it. $ dpkg -S /etc/init.d/vboxdrv virtualbox-4.2: /etc/init.d/vboxdrv – gertvdijk Jan 10 '13 at 23:19
1

@gertvdijk gotcha. I'm going to try some of the other answers in this question first, but failing that I'll use the one from virtualbox.org. Why are so many of the apps in the Ubuntu repo are crippled when the generic versions are not? /rant – weberc2 Jan 10 '13 at 23:44
2

Too bad I have to run after every reboot :-/ Is there a more permanent solution? Or is this actually supposed to be permanent, and I have another problem? – Nicolas Raoul Aug 07 '15 at 02:41
8

sudo: /etc/init.d/vboxdrv: command not found – Aaron Franke Apr 15 '18 at 22:16
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'vboxdrv': Required key not available – Archisman Panigrahi Oct 20 '18 at 08:47
Worked after installing the .deb file from Virtualbox Dowload page. (Mint 17.2 that is Ubuntu Tasty) – Fabiano Tarlao May 08 '19 at 18:14

score 16 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 06 '13 at 23:31

here is solution which works for me on 12.10:

Install the latest version of virtualbox according your architecture and distribution version from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads
run sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`
run sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

Last two steps quoted from one of the comments to the bug on the same theme - https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/virtualbox/+bug/1016165

It says command not found – Archisman Panigrahi Jun 10 '18 at 17:45 — Archisman Panigrahi, Jun 10 '18 at 17:45

score 14 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 04 '15 at 02:38

14

In Ubuntu 14.04, 64 bit, what worked for me is

sudo dpkg-reconfigure virtualbox-dkms

answered Feb 04 '15 at 02:38

Vishnu Namboothiri K

311
2
4

2

This yeilds (for me): No suitable module for running kernel found. See Bug 1457776. – Lonnie Best Sep 22 '15 at 19:11
1

On 2015.04: dpkg-query: package 'virtualbox-dkms' is not installed and no information is available – Nicolas Raoul Nov 17 '15 at 05:08
Thanks much. Saved my lot of time. This worked for me. – Rahul Sep 09 '21 at 15:04

score 12 · Answer 5 · edited Jan 12 '20 at 19:32

12

On 12.10, these solutions all failed for me. However the following worked:

Run command:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vbox.list

and paste in this line, then save:

deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian quantal contrib

(replace quantal with your release's codename)

Run:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y upgrade

to update your machine to the latest

Run:
```
sudo apt-get remove virtualbox
```
Then install Oracle's version:
```
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.3
```
(replacing 4.3 with the version you are targeting)

Should work now. Don't forget to download the extension pack from http://www.virtualbox.org as well.

edited Jan 12 '20 at 19:32

Seth

58,122

answered Jan 21 '13 at 20:42

windfix

131

I'm running 12.10 64bit and this worked for me. – greg Apr 01 '13 at 06:59
13.04 and works! – notablytipsy Jul 15 '13 at 18:09
1

14.04 - works fine. – 0x8BADF00D Oct 24 '14 at 01:31
1

14.10 - Worked for me, I just had to write deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian trusty contrib instead. – Mahdi Jan 18 '15 at 14:46

Alexander Revo · Answer 6 · 2017-02-06T13:36:34.820

Another reason why this can happen is that you have an older GCC version (like I had GCC 4.8 installed on Ubuntu 16.04) set as default (by, for example, using update-alternatives) when you try to update or reinstall VirtualBox.

Just go back to default GCC version that came with your distro for VirtualBox installation, and it'll work fine.

You can then switch back to an older GCC version after VirtualBox is installed.

score 5 · Answer 7 · answered Nov 17 '12 at 17:27

5

I have the same issue and solved by these two steps:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`

then

/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

answered Nov 17 '12 at 17:27

Husni

561

10

On 2015.04: /etc/init.d/vboxdrv: No such file or directory – Nicolas Raoul Nov 17 '15 at 05:08

score 5 · Answer 8 · answered Nov 17 '15 at 07:17

I have deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian precise contrib in my /etc/apt/sources.list, to be able to use Virtualbox 5.x.

Faced with the same error, I tried all of the methods here and none work but this (bandwith-wasting) one:

sudo apt-get purge virtualbox virtualbox-4* virtualbox-5*
Reboot
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-5.0
Install the latest extension pack from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

score 4 · Answer 9 · answered Jan 27 '17 at 08:18

4

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic build-essential dkms
sudo apt-get remove --purge virtualbox-dkms
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-dkms

Just use three command for ubuntu users.

answered Jan 27 '17 at 08:18

jsingh

887

1

Why these command may help? – Pilot6 Jan 27 '17 at 09:07
Because I had almost same error and worked for me. – jsingh Jan 27 '17 at 10:05
1

jsyroyal, what @Pilot6 is asking you is, what do those commands do? why do they work? You should probably edit your question to include information on what those command do. Cheers . – Tshilidzi Mudau Jan 27 '17 at 10:12

score 3 · Answer 10 · edited Apr 24 '15 at 07:17

Took me a long time to solve this issue. Had this problem with vBox across 2 distros (Ubuntu and Arch).

I had dkms and all the modules already installed and compiled into my kernel, yet I still got a module related error message when I tried to run a vBox virtual machine.

If your vBox GUI starts without a hitch but get an error telling to install the VBoxDrv kernel module when you try to run a virtual machine, your problems are not related to installing the modules into your kernel but ACTIVATING THEM in modprobe which the module installation script fails to do.

To load a module manually (such as vboxdrv in your case), open a terminal prompt and put in :

sudo modprobe vboxdrv

If you Virtual Machine runs after that without giving you an error message, then you can activate the vboxdrv module permanently by going to /etc/modules-load.d/ and making a .conf file (such as vbox.conf). In the .conf file the names of the vbox kernel modules you want to add, such as: vboxdrv.

Save and reboot

You can also ad these optional modules: vboxnetadp, vboxnetflt and vboxpci

From Vbox's wiki:

vboxnetadp and vboxnetflt are both needed when you intend to use the "Host-only networking" feature. More precisely, vboxnetadp is needed to create the host interface in the VirtualBox global preferences, and vboxnetflt is needed to launch a virtual machine using that network interface.

vboxpci is needed when your virtual machine needs to pass through a PCI device on your host.

Note: If the VirtualBox kernel modules were loaded in the kernel while you updated the modules, you need to reload them manually to use the new updated version. To do it, run vboxreload as root.

On 2015.04: modprobe: FATAL: Module vboxdrv not found – Nicolas Raoul Nov 17 '15 at 05:09 — Nicolas Raoul, Nov 17 '15 at 05:09

score 2 · Answer 11 · edited Dec 17 '12 at 12:51

2

I found this works for me (quoted from virtualbox.org forum):

sudo apt-get install dkms build-essential linux-headers-generic

If you want further granularity you can install the headers as such:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

After this step reinstall the virtualbox related packages.

Some people in the forum said that only the second version worked for them.

edited Dec 17 '12 at 12:51

Eric Carvalho

54,385

answered Oct 19 '12 at 11:21

lucacerone

1,690

score 2 · Answer 12 · edited Jan 10 '13 at 23:09

2

Did you install Virtualbox by downloading it from some web site?

If so, I'd recommend you to install it using the Ubuntu Software Center instead (type Virtualbox and click on install and you're set).

If you have some terminal skills, type this into the console:

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-ose

If you still want to do weird stuff to you computer/OS, then install the dependencies by hand: virtualbox-ose-dkms, libgl1-mesa-glx

edited Jan 10 '13 at 23:09

weberc2

1,402

answered May 08 '11 at 01:30

Noe Nieto

339

Thanks, I have no terminal skills but am going to try and learn some :) and I did not install it, but am heading to try the software center. I was getting an error when I tried to update the new Virtualbox so maybe that will help also. I have the Oracle Virtualbox will go into it and see what it has... – Cyndi May 08 '11 at 20:35

score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Oct 23 '17 at 01:42

I had the same error on the VirtualBox start after the kernel upgrade. virtualbox-dkms could not be resinstalled because I used the latest (non-default) Ubuntu kernel and virtualbox-dkms has not been patched yet for that kernel:

$ sudo apt-get install --reinstall virtualbox-dkms
...
ERROR (dkms apport): kernel package linux-headers-4.12.14-041214-generic is not supported
Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 4.12.14-041214-generic (x86_64)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/virtualbox/5.0.40/build/make.log for more information.
Job for virtualbox.service failed because the control process exited with error code. See "systemctl status virtualbox.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.
invoke-rc.d: initscript virtualbox, action "restart" failed.
● virtualbox.service - LSB: VirtualBox Linux kernel module
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/virtualbox; bad; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Mon 2017-10-23 02:31:15 CEST; 4ms ago
     Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
  Process: 10851 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/virtualbox start (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
...

So, I ended up with installation of the latest VirtualBox from Oracle, which works fine!

Thank you so much, I tried almost every other suggestion in others and this thread, and only this seemed to hep. So it might be perhaps due to some automatic core increase. — FantomX1, Jan 08 '21 at 14:12
Symptoms ' Kernel Driver Not Installed , failed to start lsb , modprobe: FATAL: Module vboxdrv not found , VERR_VM_DRIVER_NOT_INSTALLED ' — FantomX1, Jan 08 '21 at 15:33

score 0 · Answer 14 · edited Dec 17 '12 at 12:51

0

I think Chriskin provided the answer, but you also want to make sure you have the proper Linux headers installed, as husni pointed out:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`

then

sudo apt-get install dkms
sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

edited Dec 17 '12 at 12:51

Eric Carvalho

54,385

answered Nov 17 '12 at 17:45

jason

174
7

2

This doesn't work. The /etc/init.d/vboxdrv file still doesn't exist. It was a nice try though. – weberc2 Jan 10 '13 at 23:47

score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Jun 24 '13 at 02:31

I had exactly the same problem. My solution was to totally reinstall VirtualBox, with the following commands:

1) Delete (backup) the hidden VirutalBox directory in your home directory

mv ~/.VirtualBox ~/.VirtualBox-backup

2) Reinstall VirtualBox

sudo apt-get purge virtualbox
sudo apt-get install virtualbox

3) Run VirtualBox and set it (Virtual Images) up again.

score 0 · Answer 16 · edited Jan 06 '14 at 01:45

0

This worked for me:

wget -O /tmp/virtualbox.patch 'http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?msg=99;filename=vbox-wheezy.patch;att=1;bug=696011'
cd /usr/src/virtualbox-4.1.12/
patch -p4 < /tmp/virtualbox.patch
dkms autoinstall

edited Jan 06 '14 at 01:45

Thomas Ward

74,764

answered Jan 06 '14 at 00:47

user232212

1

score 0 · Answer 17 · answered May 19 '15 at 08:41

I had this problem in Kubuntu Vivid. I was struggling for a long time with the error "Your kernel headers for kernel 3.13.0-36-generic cannot be found.", and apt-get was unable to find it in the repositories.

The solution was to add a repository from trusty

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty-security main

to /etc/apt/sources.list, and install with

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r

and then run

sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

score 0 · Answer 18 · answered Oct 08 '15 at 20:50

I am using Ubuntu 14.04, I was having similar problem.My problem is solved by using below command for virtualbox installation:

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian '$(lsb_release -cs)' contrib non-free' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list" && wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add - && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install virtualbox-5.0

Actually it will remove your current version of Virtualbox and will install virtualbox-5.0 from the oracle maintained repository.

The above command is available at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VirtualBox/Installation

score 0 · Answer 19 · edited Oct 31 '15 at 17:53

0

i had this problem with Kubuntu 14.04.3 + virtualbox 4.3.10 from standard ubuntu trusty repository and none of previous solutions worked. the only solution was to add virtualbox.org repository and upgrade to latest virtualbox (4.3.32). you can do that with this command:

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian '$(lsb_release -cs)' contrib non-free' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list" && wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add - && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.3

edited Oct 31 '15 at 17:53

A.B.

90,397

answered Oct 31 '15 at 16:34

moky

1

Did this answer http://askubuntu.com/a/683170 not work? Invest some time in the site and you will gain sufficient privileges to upvote answers you like. – Martin Thornton Oct 31 '15 at 17:19

score 0 · Answer 20 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

Not sure where else to drop this but for purposes of completeness: I had the same problem after an upgrade to 15.10. I tried everything mentioned in this post and others to no avail. My problem was that I kept missing hints that the root problem was with the kernel itself. It wasn't properly updated during the upgrade from 15.04 to 15.10. Mine was solved by Ubuntu kernel not updating with 15.10 which I then followed up with both of the "sudo dpkg-reconfigure" mentioned in answers here.

score 0 · Answer 21 · answered Mar 24 '16 at 06:46

0

If I remember correctly I installed virtual-box using the .deb downloaded from the virtual box site, on 15.10. I fixed this problem by simply installing this package:

$ sudo apt-get install virtualbox-dkms

answered Mar 24 '16 at 06:46

Niel de Wet

221

score 0 · Answer 22 · answered Jul 09 '16 at 19:00

0

None of the answers mention simple solution which works for me.

sudo /usr/lib/virtualbox/vboxdrv.sh setup

I have Ubuntu 15.10 and Oracle VM 5.0.20. I've found the solution in vbox ticket.

answered Jul 09 '16 at 19:00

jangorecki

185
5
25

score 0 · Answer 23 · answered Jan 05 '17 at 05:00

I am on Linux Mint Rafaela 17.2, but with kernel update to v4.4 (xenial, 4.4.0-57). Since it is based on Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty), I added this PPA: https://www.ubuntuupdates.org/ppa/virtualbox.org_contrib?dist=trusty

purged old v5.0 and installed latest VirtualBox:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-5.1

Voila!

score 0 · Answer 24 · edited Oct 26 '17 at 23:26

Having upgraded my kernel recently I was unable to boot any images.

I ran

sudo apt-get purge virtualbox

Then I added the 5.1v of virtualbox. I am using Mint, so I ran lsb_release -c to see which version I was using, which was sarah for me, so I added

deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian sarah contrib

But for Ubuntu users, edit /etc/apt/sources.list file and add one of the following lines according to your distribution to your system:

For Ubuntu 17.04 ("Zesty")

deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian zesty contrib

For Ubuntu 16.04 ("Xenial")

deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian xenial contrib

For Ubuntu 14.04 ("Trusty")

deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian trusty contrib

Now get the cert for these

wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox_2016.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -
wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Then update and install

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-5.1

Now you can freely open VB... or at least I could.

Virtualbox Kernel driver not installed

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