Arch Linux

fileserverpls

Member

Registered: 2018-10-21

Posts: 15

Unable to load VirtualBox modules with linux hardened

I want to play around with OpenBSD but I am unable to even boot the ISO file because my kernel will not load the necessary VirtualBox modules! I am using Linux hardened and I do not have any other linux version installed (on my previous install I had both linux and linux-hardened, which worked fine with VirtualBox.) I have tried installing VirtualBox + virtualbox-host-modules-arch as well as VirtualBox + virtualbox-host-dkms (aka uninstalled virtualbox-host-modules-arch.) I have linux-hardened-headers installed as well as the wiki says.

Awebb

Member

Registered: 2010-05-06

Posts: 6,688

Re: Unable to load VirtualBox modules with linux hardened

What is "does not load [...] modules" in exact error messages? What wiki article are you talking about exactly? How did you install the virtualbox modules? Do you understand, what linux-hardened does?

EDIT: Carefully read https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/VirtualBox, especially the Installation steps for Arch Linux hosts.

Last edited by Awebb (2020-05-13 04:11:17)

fileserverpls

Member

Registered: 2018-10-21

Posts: 15

Re: Unable to load VirtualBox modules with linux hardened

What is "does not load [...] modules" in exact error messages? What wiki article are you talking about exactly? How did you install the virtualbox modules? Do you understand, what linux-hardened does?

EDIT: Carefully read https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/VirtualBox, especially the Installation steps for Arch Linux hosts.

The day the Arch Linux Forum does not require my whole life story... Sure. I installed everything by doing the following (warning: VERY surprising)

pacman -S linux-hardened linux-hardened-headers virtualbox virtualbox-host-dkms --needed

y

resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...

Packages (2) virtualbox-6.1.6-1  virtualbox-host-dkms-6.1.6-1

Total Installed Size:  172.15 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] y
(2/2) checking keys in keyring                                                                                                                  [########################################################################################] 100%
(2/2) checking package integrity                                                                                                                [########################################################################################] 100%
(2/2) loading package files                                                                                                                     [########################################################################################] 100%
(2/2) checking for file conflicts                                                                                                               [########################################################################################] 100%
(2/2) checking available disk space                                                                                                             [########################################################################################] 100%
:: Processing package changes...
(1/2) installing virtualbox-host-dkms                                                                                                           [########################################################################################] 100%
Optional dependencies for virtualbox-host-dkms
    linux-headers: build modules against Arch kernel
    linux-lts-headers: build modules against LTS kernel
    linux-zen-headers: build modules against ZEN kernel
(2/2) installing virtualbox                                                                                                                     [########################################################################################] 100%
Optional dependencies for virtualbox
    vde2: Virtual Distributed Ethernet support
    virtualbox-guest-iso: Guest Additions CD image
    virtualbox-ext-vnc: VNC server support
    virtualbox-sdk: Developer kit
:: Running post-transaction hooks...
(1/9) Creating system user accounts...
(2/9) Reloading system manager configuration...
(3/9) Reloading device manager configuration...
(4/9) Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate...
(5/9) Install DKMS modules
==> dkms install vboxhost/6.1.6_OSE -k 5.6.11.a-1-hardened
(6/9) Updating icon theme caches...
(7/9) Updating the desktop file MIME type cache...
(8/9) Updating the MIME type database...
(9/9) SELinux: relabel installed files

And when that did not work I rebooted and tried to start my OpenBSD virtualbox again. It did not work after a reboot either so I uninstalled "linux-hardened-headers virtualbox virtualbox-host-dkms" via "pacman -R linux-hardened-headers virtualbox virtualbox-host-dkms" and then executed the first commando again and tried. Still not working. I uninstalled "virtualbox-host-dkms", rebooted, installed "virtualbox-host-modules-arch" and tried. Still not working. I rebooted and tried again. Still not working.

I tried the following as well

modprobe vboxdrv
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'vboxdrv': Operation not permitted

sudo modprobe vboxdrv
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'vboxdrv': Operation not permitted

su
(logged in as root)
modprobe vboxdrv
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'vboxdrv': Operation not permitted

The output of "lsmod | grep vbox" is blank

find /lib/modules/`uname -r` -print | grep vboxdrv

/lib/modules/5.6.11.a-1-hardened/kernel/misc/vboxdrv.ko.xz

The Arch Wiki Security page (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Se … le_loading) states the following

Restricting module loading

The default Arch kernel has CONFIG_MODULE_SIG_ALL enabled which signs all kernel modules build as part of the linux package. 
This allows the kernel to restrict modules to be only loaded when they are signed with a valid key, in practical terms this means that all out of tree 
modules compiled locally or provides by packages such as virtualbox-host-modules-arch cannot be loaded. 
Kernel module loading can be restricted by setting the kernel parameter module.sig_enforce=1. More information can be found at the kernel documentation. 

But I have loaded virtualbox modules on a linux-hardened kernel before, as I said in the initial post.

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 18,232

Re: Unable to load VirtualBox modules with linux hardened

in practical terms this means that all out of tree modules compiled locally or provides by packages such as virtualbox-host-modules-arch cannot be loaded.

This is incorrect / confusing.  CONFIG_MODULE_SIG_FORCE is not set so the module being signed may only taint the kernel depending on other settings.
Is module.sig_enforce set to 1 on your system?  Is secure boot enabled?

cqknard

Member

Registered: 2019-09-17

Posts: 4

Re: Unable to load VirtualBox modules with linux hardened

All,

Is there any news about that ?
I have the same issue.

$ uname -r
5.7.17.a-1-hardened

$ sudo pacman -S --noconfirm --noprogress virtualbox virtualbox-host-dkms 
warning: virtualbox-6.1.12-4 is up to date -- reinstalling
warning: virtualbox-host-dkms-6.1.12-4 is up to date -- reinstalling
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...

Packages (2) virtualbox-6.1.12-4  virtualbox-host-dkms-6.1.12-4

Total Installed Size:  170.86 MiB
Net Upgrade Size:        0.00 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] 
checking keyring...
checking package integrity...
loading package files...
checking for file conflicts...
checking available disk space...
:: Running pre-transaction hooks...
(1/1) Remove upgraded DKMS modules
==> dkms remove --no-depmod -m vboxhost -v 6.1.12_OSE -k 5.7.17.a-1-hardened
:: Processing package changes...
reinstalling virtualbox-host-dkms...
reinstalling virtualbox...
:: Running post-transaction hooks...
(1/8) Creating system user accounts...
(2/8) Reloading system manager configuration...
(3/8) Reloading device manager configuration...
(4/8) Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate...
(5/8) Install DKMS modules
==> dkms install --no-depmod -m vboxhost -v 6.1.12_OSE -k 5.7.17.a-1-hardened
==> depmod 5.7.17.a-1-hardened
(6/8) Updating icon theme caches...
(7/8) Updating the desktop file MIME type cache...
(8/8) Updating the MIME type database...

$ sudo modprobe vboxdrv
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'vboxdrv': Operation not permitted

$ mokutil --sb-state
SecureBoot disabled

I tried with other kernel: linux-lts, but I have the same issue.

$ uname -r ; sudo modprobe vboxdrv
5.4.60-1-lts
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'vboxdrv': Operation not permitted

Regards,

Last edited by cqknard (2020-08-26 09:04:28)