VBoxManage: error: Failed to create a session object!

[Nebu]

I'm running ArchLinxu 64 bit. The output of my uname -s -r -v -m -o is Linux 3.11.6-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Oct 18 23:22:36 CEST 2013 x86_64 GNU/Linux, and I believe I'm running the official Arch VirtualBox package from ​https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/virtualbox/

When I run VBoxManage list, I get this output:

VBoxManage: error: Failed to create a session object!
VBoxManage: error: Code NS_ERROR_FACTORY_NOT_REGISTERED (0x80040154) - Class not registered (extended info not available)
VBoxManage: error: Most likely, the VirtualBox COM server is not running or failed to start.

VirtualBox were both working earlier today, but I updated a bunch of packages via yaourt -Syua which I suspect is what caused the problem. Here's (what I think are) the relevant part of /var/logs/pacman.log:

[2013-10-22 15:53] [PACMAN] starting full system upgrade
...
[2013-10-22 15:55] [PACMAN] upgraded libpng (1.6.5-1 -> 1.6.6-1)
...
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] >>> Updating module dependencies. Please wait ...
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] >>> Generating initial ramdisk, using mkinitcpio.  Please wait...
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset: 'default'
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/initramfs-linux.img
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Starting build: 3.11.6-1-ARCH
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [base]
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [udev]
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [autodetect]
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [modconf]
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [block]
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [filesystems]
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [keyboard]
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [fsck]
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Generating module dependencies
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Creating gzip initcpio image: /boot/initramfs-linux.img
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Image generation successful
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset: 'fallback'
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img -S autodetect
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Starting build: 3.11.6-1-ARCH
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [base]
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [udev]
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [modconf]
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [block]
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: aic94xx
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: bfa
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: smsmdtv
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [filesystems]
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [keyboard]
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [fsck]
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Generating module dependencies
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Creating gzip initcpio image: /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img
[2013-10-22 15:55] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Image generation successful
[2013-10-22 15:55] [PACMAN] upgraded linux (3.11.5-1 -> 3.11.6-1)
...
[2013-10-22 15:56] [ALPM] warning: /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg installed as /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg.pacnew
[2013-10-22 15:56] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] Syslinux BIOS update successful
[2013-10-22 15:56] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] If you used syslinux-install_update to install syslinux:
[2013-10-22 15:56] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> If you want to use syslinux with menu and all modules please rerun
[2013-10-22 15:56] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==>   # /usr/bin/syslinux-install_update -i -a -m
[2013-10-22 15:56] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] 
[2013-10-22 15:56] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] If you manually installed syslinux:
[2013-10-22 15:56] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Please copy or symlink all .c32 modules to your /boot/syslinux directory.
[2013-10-22 15:56] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> If (/ and /boot on seperate fs):
[2013-10-22 15:56] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==>   # cp /usr/lib/syslinux/bios/*.c32 /boot/syslinux
[2013-10-22 15:56] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> If (/ and /boot on same fs):
[2013-10-22 15:56] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==>   # ln -s /usr/lib/syslinux/bios/*.c32 /boot/syslinux
[2013-10-22 15:56] [PACMAN] upgraded syslinux (4.07-1 -> 6.02-3)
[2013-10-22 15:56] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] In order to use the new version, reload all virtualbox modules manually.
[2013-10-22 15:56] [PACMAN] upgraded virtualbox-host-modules (4.2.18-7 -> 4.3.0-1)
[2013-10-22 15:56] [PACMAN] upgraded virtualbox (4.2.18-2 -> 4.3.0-1)

After merging in the changes from /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg.pacnew, I ran /usr/bin/syslinux-install_update -i -a -m, and then rebooted the system, and that's when I first discovered VirtualBox was no longer working.

I tried sudo modprobe vboxdrv, sudo modprobe vboxnetadp, sudo modprobe vboxnetflt and sudo modprobe vobxpci based on what I saw from ​https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=130317

I tried chown root.root /tmp; chmod ug-s /tmp; chmod 1777 /tmp based on what I saw from https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/2335#comment:4

The output of /bin/ls -ld /tmp is

drwxrwxrwt 4 root root 80 Oct 22 16:46 /tmp

Not sure what to try next.

[Frank Mehnert]

Please try the .run package from this website. Sorry, but we cannot support packages made by maintainers of Linux distributions.