VirtualBox won't work: Kernel driver not installed (rc=-1908)

[sebby12]

Hi everyone,

I just installed Fedora 18 on my laptop, I come from Fedora 17 and I had no problem for installing VirtualBox.
I followded a tutorial on French Fedora website, but it won't work...
I updated my système and restarted it afterward:
yum update
Then I started by installing Development tools and the kerne-devel

 su -
yum groupinstall "Development Tools"
yum install kernel-devel

Then I installed dkms

yum install dkms

I added the repository

cd /etc/yum.repos.d/
# urlgrabber http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/rpm/fedora/virtualbox.repo

and start the install

yum install VirtualBox-4.2

I have the 4.2.10

I added my user in the vboxuser group, and restarted the system (just in case).
When I want to start a VM, je told me that the kernel driver is not installed...
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. If it is available in your distribution, you should install the DKMS package first. This package keeps track of Linux kernel changes and recompiles the vboxdrv kernel module if necessary.

Then I try the above command:
[root@localhost /]# /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
Stopping VirtualBox kernel modules                         [  OK  ]
Uninstalling old VirtualBox DKMS kernel modules            [  OK  ]
Trying to register the VirtualBox kernel modules using DKMS[  OK  ]
Starting VirtualBox kernel modules                         [ÉCHOUÉ]
  (modprobe vboxdrv failed. Please use 'dmesg' to find out why)
[root@localhost /]#

have you seen this problem before? I don't understand because I guess VB has everything what he need...

Thanks for the help.

[smr54]

Some common issues, though I don't know if any apply to you. (You restarted, which takes care of one, but if you have a PAE kernel, might help.)

http://home.roadrunner.com/~computer...rhkerndev.html

[sea]

Try it with:

sudo yum install -y kernel*devel kernel*headers
sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

Or install dkms to automaticly update the virtual box kernel modules.

hth

[sebby12]

I installed the kernel-debug-devel.x86_64 0:3.8.4-202.fc18 and the kernel-tools-libs-devel.x86_64 0:3.8.4-202.fc18 with you command sudo yum install -y kernel*devel kernel*headers
but it still won't work,

[root@localhost /]# /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
Stopping VirtualBox kernel modules                         [  OK  ]
Uninstalling old VirtualBox DKMS kernel modules            [  OK  ]
Trying to register the VirtualBox kernel modules using DKMS[  OK  ]
Starting VirtualBox kernel modules                         [ÉCHOUÉ]
  (modprobe vboxdrv failed. Please use 'dmesg' to find out why)

Or install dkms to automaticly update the virtual box kernel modules.

dkms is already installed:

[root@localhost /]# rpm -q dkms
dkms-2.2.0.3-4.fc18.noarch

But, as I said above, I install it by
yum install dkms

Does it need some setting/config?

Thanks a lot

---------- Post added at 12:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:01 PM ----------

Thanks SMR54, but my Kernel-devel are the same as the command result uname -r

[root@localhost /]# uname -r
3.8.4-202.fc18.x86_64
[root@localhost /]# rpm -q kernel-devel
kernel-devel-3.8.4-202.fc18.x86_64

---------- Post added at 12:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:07 PM ----------

Hey guys,

I wrote the command sudo yum install -y kernel*devel kernel*headers of "sea" I restarted y computer and try this command

[root@localhost /]# /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
Stopping VirtualBox kernel modules                         [  OK  ]
Uninstalling old VirtualBox DKMS kernel modules            [  OK  ]
Trying to register the VirtualBox kernel modules using DKMS[  OK  ]
Starting VirtualBox kernel modules                         [ÉCHOUÉ]
  (modprobe vboxdrv failed. Please use 'dmesg' to find out why)

Ok it won't work, as I said above...

Then I had a look in the bios, and I saw that the Secure Boot is enable (there was Windows 8 on this computer before...) I disabled it just in case, and then it works!!!!!!!!

If somebody is enought good in secure boot for to tell me if it can have an impact? If yes, it could be great to inform developper team... Or maybe the command of sea took effect only after 2 reboot?

[DBelton]

Yes, secure boot could have a definite impact if the virtualbox kernel module isn't signed. That is exactly what secure boot is supposed to prevent.

With secure boot, your kernel and all kernel modules have to be signed.

Now this is where things get tricky or flat out painful.

You kernel is signed by Fedora using their key. Fedora isn't going to sign the virtualbox drivers, especially since it goes against their FOSS policy. Oracle can't sign virtualbox using Fedora's key.

So, you are pretty much left with 2 options.

1: Disable secure boot

or

2: get your own key and sign everything yourself.

[sebby12]

Thanks a lot DBelton for that details!!!!

That really interesting.

best

[martain]

Try it with:

sudo yum install -y kernel*devel kernel*headers
sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

Sea, God bless you, after killing some time trying to give life to my Virtualbox I saw your post and it worked for me. So simple! Just 2 commands in terminal

[mikrobyte]

none of the options was working for me until i:


[root@L0calh0st sbin]# /usr/lib/virtualbox/vboxdrv.sh setup
Stopping VirtualBox kernel modules [ OK ]
Uninstalling old VirtualBox DKMS kernel modules [ OK ]
Trying to register the VirtualBox kernel modules using DKMS[ OK ]
Starting VirtualBox kernel modules [ OK ]
[root@L0calh0st sbin]#


and then it was back to business as usual.