Arch Linux

onlypretending

Member

Registered: 2018-02-27

Posts: 8

[SOLVED] vboxdrv kernel module is not loading

After an upgrade, I'm having issues running my Virtual Box machines:

$ vagrant up
The provider 'virtualbox' that was requested to back the machine
'default' is reporting that it isn't usable on this system. The
reason is shown below:

VirtualBox is complaining that the kernel module is not loaded. Please
run `VBoxManage --version` or open the VirtualBox GUI to see the error
message which should contain instructions on how to fix this error.

$ VBoxManage --version
WARNING: The vboxdrv kernel module is not loaded. Either there is no module
         available for the current kernel (4.15.4-1-ARCH) 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.
5.2.6r120293

$ sudo /sbin/vboxconfig
sudo: /sbin/vboxconfig: command not found

I receive an error on boot:

Feb 27 11:06:02 shanepc kernel: vboxdrv: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
Feb 27 11:06:02 shanepc kernel: vboxdrv: disagrees about version of symbol pv_mmu_ops
Feb 27 11:06:02 shanepc kernel: vboxdrv: Unknown symbol pv_mmu_ops (err -22)
Feb 27 11:06:02 shanepc kernel: vboxdrv: disagrees about version of symbol pv_mmu_ops
Feb 27 11:06:02 shanepc kernel: vboxdrv: Unknown symbol pv_mmu_ops (err -22)
...
Feb 27 11:06:02 shanepc systemd-modules-load[278]: Failed to insert 'vboxdrv': Invalid argument
...
Feb 27 11:06:02 shanepc systemd-modules-load[278]: Failed to insert 'vboxpci': Invalid argument
...
Feb 27 11:06:02 shanepc kernel: vboxdrv: disagrees about version of symbol pv_mmu_ops
Feb 27 11:06:02 shanepc kernel: vboxdrv: Unknown symbol pv_mmu_ops (err -22)
...
Feb 27 11:06:02 shanepc kernel: vboxdrv: disagrees about version of symbol pv_mmu_ops
Feb 27 11:06:02 shanepc kernel: vboxdrv: Unknown symbol pv_mmu_ops (err -22)

Trying to insert manually:

# modprobe vboxdrv
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'vboxdrv': Invalid argument

Reinstalled virtualbox and host modules:

# pacman -Sy virtualbox virtualbox-host-modules-arch
warning: virtualbox-5.2.6-2 is up to date -- reinstalling
warning: virtualbox-host-modules-arch-5.2.6-14 is up to date -- reinstalling
:: Synchronizing package databases...
 core is up to date
 extra is up to date
 community is up to date
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...

Packages (2) virtualbox-5.2.6-2  virtualbox-host-modules-arch-5.2.6-14

Total Installed Size:  103.67 MiB
Net Upgrade Size:        0.00 MiB

checking keyring...
checking package integrity...
loading package files...
checking for file conflicts...
checking available disk space...
:: Processing package changes...
reinstalling virtualbox-host-modules-arch...
reinstalling virtualbox...
:: Running post-transaction hooks...
(1/6) Updating linux module dependencies...
(2/6) Updating icon theme caches...
(3/6) Updating system user accounts...
(4/6) Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate...
(5/6) Updating the desktop file MIME type cache...
(6/6) Updating the MIME type database...

Tried rebooting as well. Any ideas?

Last edited by onlypretending (2018-02-27 18:48:10)

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,729

Re: [SOLVED] vboxdrv kernel module is not loading

This is because of a partial update. If you ever think that running pacman -Sy is a good idea, you're doing it wrong. You have the modules for a newer kernel than you're running

onlypretending

Member

Registered: 2018-02-27

Posts: 8

Re: [SOLVED] vboxdrv kernel module is not loading

This is because of a partial update. If you ever think that running pacman -Sy is a good idea, you're doing it wrong. You have the modules for a newer kernel than you're running

I ran

pacman -Sy

from another forum post with a similar issue. My daily routine is to run

pacman -Syu

in the morning. What should i be doing, exactly?

Last edited by onlypretending (2018-02-27 18:25:35)

onlypretending

Member

Registered: 2018-02-27

Posts: 8

Re: [SOLVED] vboxdrv kernel module is not loading

Downgraded the host modules to solve the issue. The poster above mentioned it was a partial update, although I'm unsure how that happened since I only run pacman -Syu in the mornings.

# pacman -U /var/cache/pacman/pkg/virtualbox-host-modules-arch-5.2.6-13-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz
# modprobe vboxdrv
# modprobe vboxnetadp
# modprobe vboxnetflt

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 19,113

Re: [SOLVED] vboxdrv kernel module is not loading

5.2.6-13 is for linux 4.15.4-1 but the current kernel in the repositories is 4.15.5-1.
Is pacman -Syu not synchronising on those package versions?

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,543

Website

Re: [SOLVED] vboxdrv kernel module is not loading

emphasis added:

You have the modules for a newer kernel than you're running

If we assume the use of -Sy did not cause the problem here* then you likely just need to reboot.  I don't see any evidence that the modules are for a newer kernel than you have installed, just newer than the one you are running.  If you have rebooted, then I'd suspect your boot partition may not have been mounted for the upgrade.

* for future reference, never use the -Sy flags without also including a 'u', you can do `pacman -S <pkgname>`, or `pacman -Syu <pkgname>`, but just never use -Sy without 'u'.

---

"UNIX is simple and coherent" - Dennis Ritchie; "GNU's Not Unix" - Richard Stallman

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 19,113

Re: [SOLVED] vboxdrv kernel module is not loading

I wonder why /usr/lib/modules-load.d/virtualbox-host-modules-arch.conf did not load the correct modules on boot before the upgrade
or if virtualbox was trying to load the module irrespective of it being loaded already for the old kernel.

onlypretending

Member

Registered: 2018-02-27

Posts: 8

Re: [SOLVED] vboxdrv kernel module is not loading

5.2.6-13 is for linux 4.15.4-1 but the current kernel in the repositories is 4.15.5-1.
Is pacman -Syu not synchronising on those package versions?

I ran pacman -Syu this morning and it installed virtualbox-host-moduels-arch 5.2.6-14. After rebooting, it does not load the kernel modules again.

The current version of the kernel on my system is 4.15.4-1. How do I fix pacman to synchronize on the correct kernel?

Last edited by onlypretending (2018-02-28 16:24:31)

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 19,113

Re: [SOLVED] vboxdrv kernel module is not loading

Is the linux package on the IgnorePkg list in /etc/pacman.conf ?  If not check the mirror status of the first mirror in the systems mirrorlist against https://www.archlinux.org/mirrors/status/ to see if it is synching correctly.
Post the output of pacman -Syu before and after switching the first mirror.

onlypretending

Member

Registered: 2018-02-27

Posts: 8

Re: [SOLVED] vboxdrv kernel module is not loading

Is the linux package on the IgnorePkg list in /etc/pacman.conf ?  If not check the mirror status of the first mirror in the systems mirrorlist against https://www.archlinux.org/mirrors/status/ to see if it is synching correctly.
Post the output of pacman -Syu before and after switching the first mirror.

You got it. It was an out of sync mirror: http://mirror.cc.columbia.edu/pub/linux/archlinux/

Before:

:: Synchronizing package databases...
 core is up to date
 extra is up to date
 community is up to date
:: Starting full system upgrade...
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...

Packages (1) virtualbox-host-modules-arch-5.2.6-14

Total Installed Size:  0.16 MiB
Net Upgrade Size:      0.00 MiB

After:

:: Synchronizing package databases...
downloading core.db...
downloading extra.db...
downloading community.db...
:: Starting full system upgrade...
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...

Packages (17) btrfs-progs-4.15.1-1  gnupg-2.2.5-1  gpgme-1.10.0-2  gvim-8.0.1542-2  iana-etc-20180221-1  less-530-1  libinput-1.10.0+25+g3e77f2e9-1  libsystemd-237.64-1  linux-4.15.5-1  mkinitcpio-busybox-1.28.1-1  pacman-mirrorlist-20180224-1  systemd-237.64-1  systemd-sysvcompat-237.64-1  vim-runtime-8.0.1542-2  virtualbox-5.2.8-1  virtualbox-guest-iso-5.2.8-1  virtualbox-host-modules-arch-5.2.8-1

Total Download Size:   143.50 MiB
Total Installed Size:  346.67 MiB
Net Upgrade Size:        0.49 MiB

Should I make it a habit to check the mirror status page before upgrading in the morning? This is the first time this has happened.

Last edited by onlypretending (2018-02-28 16:43:28)

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,543

Website

Re: [SOLVED] vboxdrv kernel module is not loading

Should I make it a habit to check the mirror status page before upgrading in the morning?

That's certainly be overkill.  But you should make a habit of periodically checking/updating your mirrors.  Tools like reflector make this trivially easy.  As for what 'periodically' exactly means, I suppose it may depend on your region: are you surrounded by lots of good mirrors, or do you have only a few choices on moderate quality.  I don't have a schedule for it, but I think I run reflector to check/update my mirrors every month or so.

---

"UNIX is simple and coherent" - Dennis Ritchie; "GNU's Not Unix" - Richard Stallman

onlypretending

Member

Registered: 2018-02-27

Posts: 8

Re: [SOLVED] vboxdrv kernel module is not loading

Should I make it a habit to check the mirror status page before upgrading in the morning?

That's certainly be overkill.  But you should make a habit of periodically checking/updating your mirrors.  Tools like reflector make this trivially easy.  As for what 'periodically' exactly means, I suppose it may depend on your region: are you surrounded by lots of good mirrors, or do you have only a few choices on moderate quality.  I don't have a schedule for it, but I think I run reflector to check/update my mirrors every month or so.

This tool is awesome--thanks. How do you use it? I was thinking something like this:

sudo sh -c 'reflector -a 8 -c "United States" -i ".edu" -f 5 > /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist'

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,543

Website

Re: [SOLVED] vboxdrv kernel module is not loading

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Reflector

There is definitely no need to run a separate shell as root.  The wiki recommend the --save flag so reflector itself can be run as root, but generally I prefer to minimize what must run as root, so:

reflector <your flags here> | sudo tee /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Last edited by Trilby (2018-02-28 20:14:37)

---

"UNIX is simple and coherent" - Dennis Ritchie; "GNU's Not Unix" - Richard Stallman