Unable to launch VirtualBox in Ubuntu 16.04

Question

Attempting to launch VirtualBox in Ubuntu 16.04 produces an error about the vboxdrv module not being able to load, then another error about /usr/lib/virtualbox/VirtualBox not being found.

$ virtualbox
WARNING: The vboxdrv kernel module is not loaded. Either there is no module
         available for the current kernel (4.10.0-35-generic) or it failed to
         load. Please recompile the kernel module and install it by

           sudo /sbin/vboxconfig

         You will not be able to start VMs until this problem is fixed.
/usr/bin/virtualbox: 111: exec: /usr/lib/virtualbox/VirtualBox: not found

To obtain VirtualBox, I downloaded the .deb file from the website and installed it from local using:

sudo dpkg -i virtualbox5.1_5.1.28-117968~Ubuntu~xenial_i386.deb

Please run this sudo lsmod | grep vbox and post into your question — George Udosen, Sep 21 '17 at 09:10
Is this a fresh install, if so ho did you install, if not what did you do before this issue? — George Udosen, Sep 21 '17 at 09:13
Actually i downloaded the .deb file from the website and installed it from local using sudo dpkg -i virtualbox5.1_5.1.28-117968~Ubuntu~xenial_i386.deb — nitin bakaya, Sep 21 '17 at 10:18
You are using a 32bit version on a 64bit Ubuntu ( I am guessing ), please download the 64bit version — George Udosen, Sep 21 '17 at 10:30
You will also need to install the dkms package which helps you in building the required VirtualBox drivers. — AmeyaVS, Sep 21 '17 at 10:38
Possible duplicate of How to install VirtualBox to use Windows or other OS? — David Foerster, Sep 21 '17 at 14:07

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 02 '17 at 07:40

1

I've had exactly the same problem on ubuntu 17.04 amd64 with kernel 4.10.0-35-generic. FIxed with the following line:

apt --fix-broken install

apt installed then libqt5x11extras5. Hope this will help.

answered Oct 02 '17 at 07:40

Ilshat Karazbayev

11

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 21 '17 at 13:39

0

From information originally provided in comments, it appears your system is a 64-bit system and you're using a 32-bit VirtualBox installer. Please re-download the 64-bit version for your Ubuntu system.

edited Sep 21 '17 at 13:39

Eliah Kagan

117,780

answered Sep 21 '17 at 10:32

George Udosen

36,677

Unable to launch VirtualBox in Ubuntu 16.04

2 Answers2

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