I use Oracle VirtualBox to test various Linux and Unix distributions. I've tested so many virtual machines in VirtualBox. Today, I started Ubuntu 18.04 server VM in my Ubuntu 18.04 desktop and I encountered with the following error:
Kernel driver not installed (rc=-1908) The VirtualBox Linux kernel driver (vboxdrv) is either not loaded or there is a permission problem with /dev/vboxdrv. Please reinstall virtualbox-dkms package and load the kernel module by executing 'modprobe vboxdrv' as root. where: suplibOsInit what: 3 VERR_VM_DRIVER_NOT_INSTALLED (-1908) - The support driver is not installed. On linux, open returned ENOENT.
"Kernel driver not installed (rc=-1908)" Error in Ubuntu
I clicked OK to close the message box and and I saw another one in the background.
Failed to open a session for the virtual machine Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Server.
The virtual machine 'Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Server' has terminated unexpectedly during startup with exit code 1 (0x1).
Result Code:
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component:
MachineWrap
Interface:
IMachine {85cd948e-a71f-4289-281e-0ca7ad48cd89} 
The virtual machine has terminated unexpectedly during startup with exit code 1 (0x1)
I didn't know what to do first. So, I ran the following command to check if it helps.
$ sudo modprobe vboxdrv
And, I got this error:
modprobe: FATAL: Module vboxdrv not found in directory /lib/modules/5.0.0-23-generic
After carefully reading the both error messages, I realized that I should update the Virtualbox application.
If you ever run into this error in Ubuntu and its variants like Linux Mint, all you have to do is just reinstall or update the "virtualbox-dkms" package using command:
$ sudo apt install virtualbox-dkms
Or, it is much better to update the whole system:
$ sudo apt upgrade
Now the error has gone and I could start VMs from VirtualBox without any issues.
Related read:
- Solve "Cannot change group vboxusers for device /dev/vboxdrv" Virtualbox Error
- Solve “Result Code: NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)” VirtualBox Error In Arch Linux
16 comments
Thanks. This worked for me on Ubuntu 19.10.
Thank you very much! Worked like a charm on Ubuntu 19.10!
Thank you for the easy solution!
With Kernel 5.2+ install gcc-8 before installing virtualbox.
Ubuntu 18.04.x comes with gcc-7.x.
The newer kernels are build with gcc-9 and use some instructions that are not available with gcc-7.
For me it worked after I rebooted my machine
It didn’t work on Linux Mint 20. The error stayed the same even after the reboot :/
https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=46958 oldy bu it works in fedora 32
for me too! can’t find my way over this error >.<
thanks but if i doesn’t start enable virtualization in the BIOS
Thank you, This worked for me on Ubuntu 20.10
thanks worked on ubuntu (reboot was required)
Glad I could help.
Didn’t work. Output here:
sudo apt install virtualbox-dkms
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
You might want to run ‘apt –fix-broken install’ to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
systemd-timesyncd : Depends: systemd (= 245.4-4ubuntu3.6)
E: Unmet dependencies. Try ‘apt –fix-broken install’ with no packages (or specify a solution).
Have you tried this command?
sudo apt --fix-broken installI am facing same issue but didn’t get resolved. I am using Ubuntu 20
Thank you it`s solve my problem