Error inserting vboxdrv: Cannot allocate memory

[László Monda]

​I've been told on the forum to report this issue as a bug, so I do so:

As an Ubuntu user who has recently upgraded to 4G RAM, I had to compile a custom kernel with high memory support because Ubuntu doesn't ship such a kernel with restricted drivers which I happen to use.

Next, I've installed virtualbox_1.6.0-30421_Ubuntu_gutsy_i386.deb successfully.

root@whisper:~# /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
* Stopping VirtualBox kernel module
*  done.
* Removing old VirtualBox kernel module
*  done.
* Recompiling VirtualBox kernel module
*  done.
* Starting VirtualBox kernel module
* modprobe vboxdrv failed. Please use 'dmesg' to find out why

root@whisper:~# dmesg

[ 1608.644113] vboxdrv: Trying to deactivate the NMI watchdog
permanently...
[ 1608.644117] vboxdrv: Successfully done.
[ 1608.644119] vboxdrv: Found 2 processor cores.
[ 1608.644131] vboxdrv: fAsync=0 u64DiffCores=406.

root@whisper:~# lsmod | grep vboxdrv

root@whisper:~# modprobe vboxdrv
FATAL: Error inserting vboxdrv
(/lib/modules/2.6.24-whisper-2008-05-03/misc/vboxdrv.ko): Cannot
allocate memory

root@whisper:~# free
             total       used       free     shared    buffers    cached
Mem:       4139832    1190780    2949052          0      55336    735604
-/+ buffers/cache:     399840    3739992
Swap:            0          0          0

Considering the amount of free memory, it's impossible for vboxdrv to not to have enough memory.

[László Monda]

The .config file related to the kernel in question

[Frank Mehnert]

Please reopen if this problem persists with VirtualBox 2.2.0.