Guest additions broken with debian squeeze amd64 kernel

[peter green]

I am running virtualbox 3.2.8 with a debian squeeze amd64 system (originally installed as lenny and then upgraded) as a guest. The host is windows XP proffesional x64 edition (I don't think the host is relavent to this bug though)

When I boot with the current squeeze kernel (2.6.32-5-amd64) and attempt to install the guest additions I get a message that "modprobe vboxguest" failed. Running modprobe vboxguest manually gives an error about "invalid module format".

If I reboot with the lenny kernel (2.6.26-2-amd64) and install the guest additions the driver installs fine so it seems this must be something that changed in the kernel between lenny and squeeze.

[Frank Mehnert]

Yes, for instance the kernel version number (2.6.26-2 versus 2.6.32-5). Did you recompile the guest kernel module for the for 2.6.32-5 (i.e. /etc/init.d/vboxadd setup) when you booted the 2.6.32 kernel?

[peter green]

After rebooting with a different kernel I re-ran the guest additions installer which rebuilt the kernel module.

[Frank Mehnert]

Still relevant? If yes, please post what happens after you did /etc/init.d/vboxadd start. Also post relevant output of dmesg.

[peter green]

debian:~# cp /cdrom/VBoxLinuxAdditions-amd64.run .
debian:~# ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-amd64.run
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox 3.2.8 Guest Additions for Linux........
VirtualBox Guest Additions installer
Removing installed version 3.2.8 of VirtualBox Guest Additions...
Building the VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel modules
Your guest system does not seem to have sufficient OpenGL support to enable
accelerated 3D effects (this requires Linux 2.6.27 or later in the guest
system).  This Guest Additions feature will be disabled.


Building the main Guest Additions module ...done.
Building the shared folder support module ...done.
Doing non-kernel setup of the Guest Additions ...done.
Starting the VirtualBox Guest Additions ...fail!
(modprobe vboxguest failed)
Installing the Window System drivers
Installing X.Org Server 1.7 modules ...done.
Setting up the Window System to use the Guest Additions ...done.
You may need to restart the hal service and the Window System (or just restart
the guest system) to enable the Guest Additions.

Installing graphics libraries and desktop services components ...done.
debian:~#

debian:~# /etc/init.d/vboxadd start
Starting the VirtualBox Guest Additions ...fail!
(modprobe vboxguest failed)
debian:~#

debian:~# dmesg | tail
<--various lines unrelated to virtualbox trimmed-->
[85865.439988] vboxguest: no symbol version for module_layout
[85865.618869] vboxguest: no symbol version for module_layout
[85866.418387] vboxguest: no symbol version for module_layout
[85915.612007] vboxguest: no symbol version for module_layout
debian:~# modprobe vboxguest
FATAL: Error inserting vboxguest (/lib/modules/2.6.32-5-amd64/misc/vboxguest.ko): Invalid module format

[Frank Mehnert]

Thanks. Could you post the content of /var/log/vboxadd-install.log as well?

[Frank Mehnert]

I mean, please attach that file.

[peter green]

i've found the issue myself from looking at that log (i'm attatching it anyway.

"Makefile:25: Warning: using /usr/src/linux as the source directory of your Linux"

Turns out i'd forgotten to install the headers for the new kernel and so the virtualbox guest editions installer decided to use the headers from /usr/src/linux which are not intended for building kernel modules at least on debian.

IMO that warning should at least be made visible to the user and probablly turned into an error.

[Frank Mehnert]

The next major release will print a warning when calling /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup and the kernel version does not match.