VBox on 14.04, Kernel driver not installed (rc=-1908)
You need to compile some kernel drivers:
First
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential module-assistant
$ sudo m-a prepare
Second, as mentioned in the error, reinstall the kernel module.
sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
This should solve your problem.
Sometime only second step can solve your problem (so try it first).
Source: http://www.binarytides.com/fix-vbox-kernel-driver-error/
Kapil
Updated on September 18, 2022Comments
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Kapil over 1 year
On Installing Virtual box on Ubuntu 14.04, I got following message:
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 on following the link I entered these commands:
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic build-essential dkms sudo apt-get remove --purge virtualbox-dkms sudo apt-get install virtualbox-dkms
On Running the last command
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-dkms
I get an error:
Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable distribution that some required packages have not yet been created or been moved out of Incoming. The following information may help to resolve the situation: The following packages have unmet dependencies: virtualbox-dkms : Depends: virtualbox (>= 4.3.10-dfsg-1) E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
Just for reference, I checked the version of the Virtual Box, I got 4.3.16 r95972
It worked using the solution
sudo apt-get install build-essential module-assistant sudo m-a prepare
Second as mentioned in the error reinstall kernal module.
sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
More Details are from link
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smertrios almost 8 yearsThanks. Ubuntu 14.04. VB stopped working as described from one day to next after a system update. the second step is all I needed to run.
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James over 7 yearsI've tried doing these suggestions, @hunch, and it keeps failing and saying to run
dmesg
to find out why. I can't interpret that much code. Where do I go to find my error aside from AU (or is AU the best option)? -
prkos over 4 yearsI tried
sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup dmesg
and got responseLook at /var/log/vbox-setup.log to find out what went wrong.
Looking into that file :Error building the module: /tmp/vbox.0/Makefile-header.gmk:193: *** Error: unable to find the headers of the Linux kernel to build against (KERN_DIR=/lib/modules/dmesg/build). Specify KERN_VER=<version> (currently dmesg) and run Make again. Stop.
I included the kernel version but it still failedsudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup 3.13.0-51-generic
.