Getting VERR_SUPLIB_OWNER_NOT_ROOT error after upgrading to 4.0.0, Linux host

[ronaaron]

Failed to open a session for the virtual machine a. Failed to load VMMR0.r0 (VERR_SUPLIB_OWNER_NOT_ROOT). Unknown error creating VM (VERR_SUPLIB_OWNER_NOT_ROOT).

My VMs all loaded just fine yesterday w/ 3.2; now not even one will load, with 4.0!

[ronaaron]

Just in case it's important, I'm running Kubuntu 10.10 as my host OS, installed vb from the repository.

[tonyx]

i use archlinux and package AUR virtualbox 4.0.0  https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=31996

i see the log:

00:00:01.670 VirtualBox 4.0.0 r69151 linux.amd64 (Dec 22 2010 15:30:03) release log
00:00:01.670 Log opened 2010-12-24T18:47:24.910206000Z
00:00:01.670 OS Product: Linux
00:00:01.670 OS Release: 2.6.36-ARCH
00:00:01.670 OS Version: #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Dec 10 20:32:37 CET 2010
00:00:01.670 DMI Product Name: System Product Name
00:00:01.670 DMI Product Version: System Version
00:00:01.670 Host RAM: 3896MB RAM, available: 2927MB
00:00:01.670 Executable: /opt/VirtualBox/VirtualBox
00:00:01.670 Process ID: 7008
00:00:01.670 Package type: LINUX_64BITS_GENERIC
00:00:01.721 pdmR3LoadR0U: pszName="VMMR0.r0" rc=VERR_SUPLIB_OWNER_NOT_ROOT
   szErr="The owner is not root: '/opt'"
00:00:01.721 VMSetError: /home/vbox/tinderbox/lnx64-rel/src/VBox/VMM/VM.cpp(579)
   int vmR3CreateU(UVM*, uint32_t, int (*)(VM*, void*), void*); rc=VERR_SUPLIB_OWNER_NOT_ROOT
00:00:01.721 VMSetError: Failed to load VMMR0.r0
00:00:01.721 VMSetError: /home/vbox/tinderbox/lnx64-rel/src/VBox/VMM/VM.cpp(350)
   int VMR3Create(uint32_t, const VMM2USERMETHODS*,
                 void (*)(VM*, void*, int, const char*, unsigned int, const
                          char*, const char*, __va_list_tag*), void*,
                          int (*)(VM*, void*), void*, VM**);
   rc=VERR_SUPLIB_OWNER_NOT_ROOT
00:00:01.721 VMSetError: Unknown error creating VM
00:00:01.721 ERROR [COM]: aRC=NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
   aIID={515e8e8d-f932-4d8e-9f32-79a52aead882} aComponent={Console}
   aText={Failed to load VMMR0.r0 (VERR_SUPLIB_OWNER_NOT_ROOT).
00:00:01.721 Unknown error creating VM (VERR_SUPLIB_OWNER_NOT_ROOT)}, preserve=false
00:00:01.810 Power up failed (vrc=VERR_SUPLIB_OWNER_NOT_ROOT, rc=NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0X80004005))

[tonyx]

I found, I changed the permissions on the directory

to show the permissions ls -ld /opt it gaves me tonyx:user /opt

changed as root without recursive chown root:root /opt/

[vadiml]

I'm getting EXACTLY the same error on Mac OS/X 10.5 However the fix eludes me.

It is obviously not /opt dir on Mac...

[vadiml]

Finally after examining Virtual Box log files i saw that it complains that /Applications folder is not owned by root... a "sudo chown root /Applications" fixes the problem

[virtualprof]

on my ubuntu box 10.04 it was the owner of /usr/lib that had to be root:root

the commands to fix were: cd / sudo chown root:root usr cd usr sudo chown root:root lib

[frank]

To summarize: The permissions of a part of the VMMR0.ro directory was not owned by root:root, correct? VirtualBox insists on these owner for security reasons. What about the original reporter?

[sneeuwitje]

log - Vbox4.0.4_OSX10.6 - VERR_SUPLIB_WORLD_WRITABLE

[sneeuwitje]

log - Vbox4.0.4_OSX10.6 - VERR_SUPLIB_OWNER_NOT_ROOT

[sneeuwitje]

I think this problem occurs in the same way on OSX

Before changing permissions on /Applications from:
[some-admin-user]:admin
to:
root::admin (root:root does not apply for OSX)
I got VERR_SUPLIB_OWNER_NOT_ROOT for /Users/vbox/tinderbox/4.0-mac-rel/src/VBox/VMM/VMMR3/VM.cpp -- see attachment VBox.log.1

Afterwards I got VERR_SUPLIB_WORLD_WRITABLE in /Users/vbox/tinderbox/4.0-mac-rel/src/VBox/VMM/VMMR3/VM.cpp -- see attachment VBox.log.1

/Users/vbox/ is not on my system --- created on the fly, or is that where the trouble lies???

[sneeuwitje]

After re-installing OSX Vbox3.2.12 all my machines boot as expected ... seems Vbox4.0 does not respect (some) platform-permissions..?

For completeness...:

• I only have this problem on my 32-bit Mac at home, not on the 64-bit Mac at work (both OSX 10.6),
• I only have this in a situation where my vdi-files and machines (etc.) are stored on an ignore-permissions external drive (sorry about all this circumstance :/ ).

[bifferos]

I just got this out of the blue, on 4.1.2, Linux 64-bit. No upgrade, no downgrade.
Re-installing VB doesn't help.
Rebooting doesn't help.

For me VMMR0.ro is owned by root:root. For me VMMR0.ro is a file, not a directory.

THE FIX: for me it was /opt itself that was the wrong permission, everything underneath it was correctly root:root, so the fix was

chown root:root /opt

Why this happens I've no idea.

[tonyx]

be careful to change the permissions of / opt you can crash your system, the ticket date 2010-12-24 close this ticket this solution is dangerous to the OS

[bifferos]

Please do not close this ticket. This is a useful placeholder for people experiencing VERR_SUPLIB_OWNER_NOT_ROOT errors. Perhaps evetually someone will be switched-on enough to remember exactly what they did to get this error, in the meantime this should stay. It's too much of a coincidence that so many people got this.

@tonyx: Please explain how changing permissions on /opt can crash a system. /opt starts off with root:root permissions on my distribution, so I would be just changing it back to what it should be.

[tonyx]

I can not explain it was a year ago I remember that my system had become unstable after changing the rights to opt to solve my problem I formatted and I just reinstalled archlinux

[Usefree.com.ua]

In my Ubuntu 11.04 i get VERR_SUPLIB_OWNER_NOT_ROOT. To solve i try as mentioned for 10.04:

sudo chown -R root:root /usr/lib/virtualbox

and get

Effective UID is not root

error.

Then try:

sudo chmod 4711 /usr/lib/virtualbox/VirtualBox

and you virtualbox alive again!)

[frank]

Replying to Usefree.com.ua:

In my Ubuntu 11.04 i get VERR_SUPLIB_OWNER_NOT_ROOT.

Which package (exact package name please) did you install?

[Usefree.com.ua]

Replying to frank:

Replying to Usefree.com.ua:

In my Ubuntu 11.04 i get VERR_SUPLIB_OWNER_NOT_ROOT.

Which package (exact package name please) did you install?

4.1.12_Ubuntu r77245

After upgrading to Ubuntu 11.10->Ubuntu 12.04 problem appear again and solution for Ubuntu 11.04 became useless((

[frank]

If the problem did re-appear then again some component of the path /usr/lib/virtualbox changed the owner to non-root and this has to be fixed again.

[Usefree.com.ua]

I confirm that this https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/7889?replyto=17#comment:14 fix problem in 12.04

[mkreder]

I am having this issue with Fedora 17 (i686). Permissions looks fine and SELinux is disabled.

# ls -ld /usr/lib/virtualbox/ drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Aug 13 13:41 /usr/lib/virtualbox/

# ls -ll /usr/lib/virtualbox/VirtualBox -r-s--x--x 1 root root 29948 Jun 20 12:48 /usr/lib/virtualbox/VirtualBox

[mkreder]

Not sure why /usr took uid:gid 500:500

chown root:root /usr fixed the issue for me.