VirtualBox vboxdrv problem on Ubuntu

Problem Statement:

#1

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.

#2

Failed to open a session for the virtual machine “Windows XP”.

The virtual machine ‘Windows XP’ has terminated unexpectedly during startup with exit code 1.

(Running a virtual machine on VirtualBox the two dialogues would say that)

The cause — as the VirtualBox page states it:

Ubuntu/Debian users might want to install the dkms package to ensure that the VirtualBox host kernel modules (vboxdrv, vboxnetflt and vboxnetadp) are properly updated if the linux kernel version changes during the next apt-get upgrade.

The Fix:

The dkms package can be installed through the Synaptic Package manager or through the following command:

sudo apt-get install dkms

Running `virtualbox` in the terminal says almost the same thing…

$ virtualbox
WARNING: The vboxdrv kernel module is not loaded. Either there is no module
available for the current kernel (3.5.0-18-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.

# You have heard the man!
$ sudo /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
Error! Your kernel headers for kernel 3.5.0-18-generic cannot be found.
Please install the linux-headers-3.5.0-18-generic package,
or use the --kernelsourcedir option to tell DKMS where it's located

* Failed, trying without DKMS
* Recompiling VirtualBox kernel modules
* Look at /var/log/vbox-install.log to find out what went wrong

# Downloading the Linux Headers now
# sudo apt-get install linux-headers-3.5.0-18-generic
$ sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`

# Running it again
$ sudo /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                          [ OK ]

All good!

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