Can't boot VMs after host kernel upgrade (spawning session ...) => Fixed in 2.0.4

[Marcelo Bonatto]

In Ubuntu's kernel version 2.6.24-19, Virtual Box 2.0.2 works good. But today Ubuntu upgrade the kernel to 2.6.24-21 and Virtual Box stay in the message "Spawning session..." and don't open the guest OS. Occurs when I try open any guest OS (I have a Windows VM and a Ubuntu 8.10 VM). Virtual Box don't generate a log of this connection.

[Marcelo Bonatto]

Screen showed before open a guest OS. Virtual Box stay here and don't run any guest OS.

[Marcelo Bonatto]

Log with description when I run in kernel 2.6.24-19. When I run in 2.6.24-21, don't generate a log.

[Sander van Leeuwen]

You are aware of the fact that you must recompile the vbox kernel module when you upgrade your linux kernel?

[Hummele]

I wanted just to report the same bug ;) It seems, like VirtualBox doesn't detected, that the kernel has changed after the update. At a "right" update of kernel normally a window with the information will pop up.

A simply /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup helped me.

[Frank Mehnert]

It is not the job of VirtualBox to detect a change in the environment. The check is if the module is available or not. If the module is not available, there could be several reasons, for instance, some data corruption changed the file and the kernel was not able to load it.

I suggest you to install the dkms package. AFAIR, this is mentioned in the user manual. DKMS will track kernel changes and recompile registered modules. The script for compiling vboxdrv will detect the presence of DKMS and register the module sources.

[Marcelo Bonatto]

Ok, don't be furious, frank. After some hours, I decided re-install Virtual Box in kernel version 2.6.24-21 and it works. I think that it will be tested better by Virtual Box team and not only problems in Windows or Solaris.

Thanks for all.

[Frank Mehnert]

I'm not furious at all, I just explained that the application cannot check every condition. I still suggest you to install the dkms package to prevent the same problem after the next kernel upgrade.

[Jonathan Blackhall]

Thanks for the info about dkms frank. I didn't realize this would happen, but now that I've installed dkms and reinstalled virtualbox, I shouldn't have to worry about this anymore, right? If that's the case, is there any way to add this to the Linux Downloads page? It shouldn't matter for people who are just downloading the individual packages, but maybe in the instructions for adding the repository? Just having a little note to let you know would be very helpful for people like me :)

[Frank Mehnert]

Added a note. Nevertheless I will leave this bug open because something is still wrong: The Spawning session window should not hang forever in that case. Have to investigate further.

[Peter Hagen]

I noticed the same issue. I understand that its not virtualbox its problem that the kernel has changed, but when I started 'VirtualBox' from the command line, it does say:

WARNING: The vboxdrv kernel module is not loaded. Either there is no module

available for the current kernel (2.6.24-21-generic) or it failed to load. Please recompile the kernel module and install it by

sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

You will not be able to start VMs until this problem is fixed.

Couldn't this message be displayed when start of a vm is pressed?

[Frank Mehnert]

Sure. Until 1.6.6 exactly this would happen. With 2.0.0, the spawning session window problem was introduced. This will be fixed in 2.0.4.

[Frank Mehnert]

2.0.4 prints a proper error message in that case.