Why do Guest Additions need kernel headers in VirtualBox 4.04.?

11.10 virtualbox guest-additions

35,598

Solution 1

I found that installing dkms with

sudo apt-get install dkms

resolved this error/warning for me. See this answer.

Solution 2

This command will install the kernel headers:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Now, try to install the Guest Additions again.

Solution 3

For me (Ubuntu 12.04 LTS host; Ubuntu 13.04 guest; virtualbox 4.1.18 running on the host), it seems that the downloaded guest-additions iso on the host was old, so installing by mounting that iso through vbox's menus failed consistently. There was no package virtualbox-guest-additions available on the guest, so I installed

$ sudo apt-get install virtualbox-guest-dkms

instead, which also pulled in dkms, fakeroot, virtualbox-guest-utils, and virtualbox-guest-x11. Then I rebooted the guest, and copy/paste worked (also, the resolution jumped up).

Solution 4

It seems that ubuntu 11.10 does not ship compiler by default. Try apt-get install gcc gcc-4.7

View more solutions

35,598

Takkat

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Takkat almost 2 years
I'm trying to install the Guest Additions in VirtualBox 4.04.on ubuntu 11.10

I have this error:
```
The headers for the current running kernel were not found.
If the module compilation fails then this could be the reason.
```
Note that I have already installed the headers but still get this error.

Do you have you an ideas please?
- Admin almost 12 years
  
  the headers have already installed !!
- Admin almost 12 years
  
  i have done apt-get install virtualbox-guest-additions and in the restart i have this message: modprobe vboxsf failed! starting the virtualbox-guest-additions fail !
- Takkat almost 12 years
  
  Did you install the guest additions in the guest? (Edited my answer to make that clear).
- Admin almost 12 years
  
  @Takkat yes i have done apt-get install virtualbox-guest-additions in ubuntu 11.10 now i canot open the virtual machine 11.10 i don't know why , have you an idea please it display that starting the virtualbox-guest-additions fail ! it still blocked
- David Cary almost 10 years
  
  Is this a duplicate of askubuntu.com/questions/98416/… ?
Mike Pelley almost 11 years

This worked for me!
Maciej Zgadzaj about 10 years

Also, make sure you have most recent VirtualBox (download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox)
Ben Creasy over 6 years

dkms is not required these days - there's a script over at forums.virtualbox.org/… which might be able to help install guest additions
f0nzie almost 4 years

This fixed my issue in a Debian 10 (Buster) VM running under VirtualBox 6.1. The error I was getting VirtualBox Guest Additions: Kernel headers not found for target kernel.