confused by mixed 32/64 bit Linux environment

[Peter Eisentraut]

I am using the virtualbox_1.5.6-28266_Debian_etch_i386.deb package from your web site on a Debian lenny/sid sid with kernel linux-image-2.6.24-1-686. The kernel modules are compiled using /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup. Everything is working fine.

But when I use kernel linux-image-2.6.24-1-amd64, which is a 64-bit kernel but running with 32-bit userland, VirtualBox complains after I start a VM from the GUI that the installed kernel module belongs to a different version than the currently running software. I believed this for a while and tried to reinstall the software a few times, without success. Note that VirtualBox works fine with the equivalent 32-bit kernel. I assume the problem is somewhere where the GUI communicates with the kernel module and is not expecting that it might be talking to a 64-bit kernel. I understand that this setup is a bit unusual, but everything else seems to be working fine with it. Since Debian lenny will be released with these kinds of kernels, it would be nice if this issue could be addressed sometime.

[Frank Mehnert]

This issue cannot be addressed. If you are running a 64-bit host kernel you need to install the 64-bit version of VirtualBox.

[Peter Eisentraut]

I can see how this might be difficult to fix. But perhaps you could make the failure mode cleaner. It currently says, the version of the module is not from the same version as the program, which is not the case. Maybe you could say, the kernel is incompatible with the userland or the bitnesses don't match or something that would point the user to the cause more accurately.

[Frank Mehnert]

Yes right, the error message is not very clear in that case. We will try to improve this.

[hack64]

Debian Lenny i386 has basic 64 bit support. I installed the "amd64-libs" Debian official package and borrow some libraries from Debian amd64 packages. Thus, the virtualbox-2.1_2.1.0-41146_Debian_lenny_amd64.deb works fine with Debian Lenny 32 bit userland. (linux-image-2.6.26-1-amd64 + 32 bit userland + 64 bit multilib + 64 bit virtualbox)

You can request Debian Squeeze(Lenny+1) to provide "amd64-libs-qt4" to support 64 bit virtualbox in i386 installation. (Debian amd64 has "ia32-libs-gtk" to support 32 bit GTK+ and Qt4 applications.)

[Sander van Leeuwen]

That should be fixed by now. If not reopen please.