User cannot start VirtualBox

[tarazed]

Having joined the QA team some few weeks ago, it seemed like a good idea to get to know something about VMs.
I have spent the last week trying to run virtualbox but so far have had problems on five different 64-bit machines. The overriding problem is that it will not run for an ordinary user.
First thing after installation from rpms was to add myself to the vboxusers group:

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id lcl
uid=500(lcl) gid=500(lcl) groups=419(vboxusers),500(lcl)

Invoke VirtualBox - a short hiatus, then

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VirtualBox - Critical Error
Failed to create the VirtualBox COM object
The application will now terminate

The "Details" button reveals:

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Callee RC:    NS_BASE_STREAM_WOULD_BLOCK (0x80470007)

What can this mean? The error is consistent between machines and all trials.
I have seen advice that vbox should not be run as root so how to ensure that a user can run it?

[benmc]

Hi

? you did install x86_64 version.

alt+f2 [ run command ] and type in "virtualbox" ,
or if in KDE you should have been able to start from the application launcher menu, should have been listed under "recently installed " and " Tools => Emulators, "
should have been an icon to click on at both locations.

let us know if that helps.
once you have it up and running there are some extras / settings that you may want / need to play with to get more out of your Vm,

regards

Benmc

[doktor5000]

You don't need to add yourself to any additional group on the virtualbox host. For the error message, doesn't look like you sucessfully installed it.

Please show the output of

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rpm -qa | grep -i -e virtualbox -e vbox
lsmod | grep vbox
journalctl -ab | grep -i vbox
dkms status
/etc/rc.d/init.d/virtualbox status

Could also be some old settings in ~/.VirtualBox or in your VM library ~/VirtualBox\ VMs so you may need to rename/move those away for testing.

[doktor5000]

alt+f2 [ run command ] and type in "virtualbox" ,
or if in KDE you should have been able to start from the application launcher menu, should have been listed under "recently installed " and " Tools => Emulators, "
should have been an icon to click on at both locations.

let us know if that helps.

You did read his post, he posted the error message he got on virtualbox start there, so why tell him how to run virtualbox?

[tarazed]

Yes, I have installed and reinstalled on several machines and always find the same error with users. Under root it starts up no bother but that is not the way to go. The dkms sequence always ends with an error message, which I shall try to find, but vboxdrv is created and reloads automatically at boot time. My suspicion is that the absence of the src directory, referenced below, is the cause of this message.
All three modules are loaded and at rpm install time I added virtualbox-devel. The log always records an error, that the /usr/lib64/virtualbox/src tree does not exist, and it does not. Anyway, the devel
package adds sdk to the tree not src. The png wrong profile warning is always posted to the command line but that does not seem to bother root, but, however, I spotted a message on another forum which indicated that upgrading libpng did the trick. This whole issue seems to be a very common problem but with no clear solution.

I will try to find time to run your code doktor5000. Cut and paste does not seem to work for these exchanges so it will likely be a bit slow. Later and thanks for the suggestions.
By the way, I never see a .VirtualBox or "VirtualBox VMs" in user directory although they did appear for root (now deleted).

[doktor5000]

Sorry, but your writing is quite jumpy and confusing. You do not need virtualbox-devel at all. You should not run virtualbox as root. You do not need any dkms stuff for virtualbox to run on a normal installation.

And ultimately, from your mentioning of cut&paste not working, I've got to ask again:
Is this about the virtualbox host or the virtualbox guests? As on the host cut&paste should not be an issue at all.

Also, you never mentioned that Mageia version do you currently run? 3? 4? cauldron?

[tarazed]

OK, sorry about the confusing writing. I am so busy with domestic affairs and at the end of my tether after a week of wasted time on VMs.

I have tried all this on Mageia 4 and on Mageia 5 rc2. And yes I am trying to run virtualbox as a user, not root. Under root it works which should prove that the installation is OK.
The only reason I tried it as root was because it would not run for a user which is where I am currently.
I removed everything, including any stuff lying around in /root and ran urpmi virtualbox as lcl: sudo urpmi virtualbox.
This installs virtualbox and dkms-virtualbox and runs the dkms stuff during the installation. That is what happens, and that is where I see the first error message which leads me to examining the log.
Since vboxdrv exists and is loaded along with the net modules that would not seem to be a problem. So the problem is the virtualbox manager on the host, the initial interface. That is never launched.
For some reason it is blocking or something else is blocking it. Rebooting does not clear it and this behaviour (blocking) is consistent from one real machine to another, i.e. four test PCs and my everyday workstation, two with Mageia 4 and three with Cauldron. Until this is solved I am going to concentrate on one test machine with mga4.

[tarazed]

OK. I went back to an mga4 system and cleared the decks and reinstalled virtualbox. This time the install components and messages were different.
It looks like the mga5 and mga4 rpms differ in their approach. This time the VM manager gui came up under lcl but it looks like there is no vboxdrv.

Now here goes. This where I try cut and paste....

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[lcl@altair ~]$ sudo urpmi virtualbox
    rsync://www.mirrorservice.org/mageia.org/pub/mageia/distrib/4/x86_64/media/core/updates/virtualbox-4.3.10-1.1.mga4.x86_64.rpm
installing virtualbox-4.3.10-1.1.mga4.x86_64.rpm from /var/cache/urpmi/rpms   
Preparing...                     #############################################
      1/1: virtualbox            #############################################
virtualbox.service is not a native service, redirecting to /sbin/chkconfig.
Executing /sbin/chkconfig --no-reload --no-redirect virtualbox on

[lcl@altair ~]$ VirtualBox
WARNING: The vboxdrv kernel module is not loaded. Either there is no module
         available for the current kernel (3.14.18-desktop-1.mga4) or it failed to
         load. Please recompile the kernel module and install it by

           sudo /etc/rc.d/init.d/virtualbox start

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

[lcl@altair ~]$ sudo /etc/rc.d/init.d/virtualbox start
Starting virtualbox (via systemctl):                           [  OK  ]

[lcl@altair ~]$ ls -l /dev/vboxdrv
ls: cannot access /dev/vboxdrv: No such file or directory
[lcl@altair ~]$ sudo lsmod | grep vbox
[lcl@altair ~]$ sudo /etc/init.d/virtualbox status
virtualbox kernel module is not loaded


So cut and paste works sometimes?!?
Making progress anyway. Maybe not such a good idea to run VMs on an experimental system like Cauldron. Think of it as a QA test.

[doktor5000]

If you don't post all the logs asked previously, probably nobody can help.

[tarazed]

Sorry. As I said, it is a slow process for me, rushing up and down stairs, scopying and all. And I keep losing my replies when I try to paste from emacs. The text appears on the input area then disappears.
Will try again immediately.

[tarazed]

This is my fourth attempt to post the diagnostics: please see attachment...

Nope, "extension not allowed". Change the name and try again...

vbox.txt

(3.7 KiB) Downloaded 87 times

[doktor5000]

Sorry. As I said, it is a slow process for me, rushing up and down stairs, scopying and all.

Sorry, I don't get your problem. If your cauldron installation runs on a different machine, why not connect to it via ssh and copy the stuff directly out of the ssh session into the forum editor?

Please also provide the output as root of

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dmesg

[tarazed]

Working on altair remotely. Have tried several ways to copy text and lost it as soon as it appears.
dmesg contained nothing more recent than this morning but I have attached the last few lines.

[tarazed]

VirtualBox now installed on one 64-bit machine. Not sure why the previous difficulties disappeared. procedure: removed all traces of virtualbox except vboxusers gid, urpmi'd virtualbox, and then invoked
VirtualBox. No critical error message. Straight into VM manager under user. Created virtual disk and associated it with mga4-32 iso. No start at that point because vboxdrv was missing. urpmi'd dkms-virtualbox and that generated the drivers and loaded them. Start then progressed to the installation. Reboot successful.

Not possible to say what caused the original problems so not really solved. Shall try other machines and report back.