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Dear All,
I have a feeling that the problem is related to the kernel module, that's why I posted here. If not, then please move this topic to the appropriate sub-forum. Thanks!
I'm a very advanced Linux user for several decades. I'm using Arch for years now, and I'm usually able to solve issues on my own. But lately Arch is getting worse (no offense, that's just how I feel), because every time I upgrade, something goes wrong in a non-trivial way, and more often I have to read the forums to find the solutions.
Today I've upgraded Arch again with pacman -Syu. It upgraded the kernel and virtualbox as well, and now it is not working any more. Normally I can find an answer, but this is the second time I'm unable to find any solution on the forum.
So, all the kernel modules are seemingly loaded properly (kvm, vboxdrv etc.). There's no error message during boot, not in the logs, not in dmesg, nor in journalctl -xe. They are listed in "lsmod". But I can't start any VM, I got a "unable to open session" error without any further explanation, just the error code 0x80004005.
I'm unable to turn VT-x acceleration off in virtualbox, because the option is gray (it is not checked btw, and the whole line is gray. I can use PAE and Nested page tables checkboxes on the Acceleration tab). However on the overall screen I can see "Acceleration: VT-x/AMD-x". I've selected "None" on the Acceleration tab, did not helped. I've tried to run the CLI commands "vboxmanage modifyvm X --vtxux off" and "vboxmanage modifyvm X --vtxvpid off", both returned successfully, yet I still can see acceleration VT-x on the overall screen.
I've tried to edit the xml configuration, added HardwareVirtEx without any enabled tags, did not helped.
I've tried to reload the kernel modules with /sbin/vboxreload, did not helped either. Same with "/sbin/rcvboxdrv setup". I've also tried to reinstall virtualbox, both with arch linux host modules and with dkms, same error. I've checked the forums and found that the problem may be related to the VT-x support (which my hardware lacks), but looks like the kernel modules demands.
Please advise what can I do to get Virtualbox working again. It was running for years properly, up until today's pacman -Syu.
Thanks,
bzt
Last edited by bztarch (2020-01-03 00:33:59)
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The reverse has been reported i.e. lack of VT-x breaking virtualbox https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=251558
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Hi,
Thanks for the reply! Yes, I've read that topic, but it did not match my case.
After hours of painful trial-and-error, I've downgraded virtualbox (6.1.0, 6.0.14) and the host modules as well as the kernel (5.4.7, 5.4.6, 5.3.11) with all proper combinations, the problem remained. However I accidently noticed that some package changed the ownership of the /usr directory during the last pacman -Syu. So I did
"chown root.root /usr"
and that solved the issue! I can't belive it that was the actual problem for virtualbox, and that it printed exactly the same error message as with the the VT-x... I've double checked just to be sure: running "chown 1000 /usr" breaks virtualbox without any meaningful error message, and it looks like if it were a module problem!
Cheers,
bzt
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