VirtualBox error in the last update

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1

Use Manjaro Linux X64 GNOME with AMD Hardware (Ryzen Series and RX500 series), Kernel 5.15 LTS, Headers: Linux515-headers, linux-api-headers, vulkan-headers.

When I first installed Virtualbox (Manjaro repositories) I was crashed all the time, I discovered that it was because I needed to install the Headers, in doing so everything was correctly, so far I have not had problems with Virtualbox to this day (day 13).

Today Manjaro Linux has put a series of updates, I have installed them correctly (without errors), one of those updates was VirtualBox, at the end of updating and restarting the PC, VirtualBox full time crash and give graphic errors (as If the Headers do not work), it happens to me in several VM not only in 1, I have reinstalled to the Headers, I have reinstalled VirtualBox, I have even installed VirtualBox from another source, but the problem persists, does any help?

Thank you very much in advance.

2 Likes
4

I’m having a similar issue. I have a number of older PCs on a local network running Manjaro and VirtualBox with Windows 7 guests, because I need to run some legacy software. This setup has been working for a few YEARS with no issues.

Last night I did the regular Manjaro updates on a couple of the machines and one of the items in the list was VirtualBox. VirtualBox has become completely unstable on both of those machines, while it continues to work fine on the machines I did not update.

UPDATED MACHINES HAVE:

# pacman -Qi virtualbox
Name            : virtualbox
Version         : 6.1.34-4
Description     : Powerful x86 virtualization for enterprise as well as home use
Architecture    : x86_64
URL             : https://virtualbox.org/
Licenses        : GPL  custom
Groups          : None
Provides        : None
Depends On      : glibc  openssl  curl  gcc-libs  libpng  python  sdl  libvpx  libxml2  procps-ng
                  shared-mime-info  zlib  libxcursor  libxinerama  libx11  libxext  libxmu  libxt
                  opus  qt5-base  qt5-x11extras  VIRTUALBOX-HOST-MODULES
Optional Deps   : vde2: Virtual Distributed Ethernet support
                  virtualbox-guest-iso: Guest Additions CD image [installed]
                  virtualbox-ext-vnc: VNC server support
                  virtualbox-sdk: Developer kit
Required By     : None
Optional For    : None
Conflicts With  : virtualbox-ose
Replaces        : virtualbox-ose
Installed Size  : 162.59 MiB
Packager        : Christian Hesse <eworm@archlinux.org>
Build Date      : Mon 30 May 2022 02:37:05 AM EDT
Install Date    : Sun 12 Jun 2022 08:28:59 PM EDT
Install Reason  : Explicitly installed
Install Script  : No
Validated By    : Signature

# pacman -Qi linux515-virtualbox-host-modules
Name            : linux515-virtualbox-host-modules
Version         : 6.1.34-14
Description     : Host kernel modules for VirtualBox
Architecture    : x86_64
URL             : http://virtualbox.org
Licenses        : GPL
Groups          : linux515-extramodules
Provides        : VIRTUALBOX-HOST-MODULES
Depends On      : linux515
Optional Deps   : None
Required By     : virtualbox
Optional For    : None
Conflicts With  : None
Replaces        : None
Installed Size  : 241.47 KiB
Packager        : Manjaro Build Server <build@manjaro.org>
Build Date      : Thu 09 Jun 2022 08:39:15 AM EDT
Install Date    : Sun 12 Jun 2022 08:28:42 PM EDT
Install Reason  : Installed as a dependency for another package
Install Script  : Yes
Validated By    : Signature

MACHINES NOT UPDATED AND STILL WORKING FINE:

# pacman -Qi virtualbox
Name            : virtualbox
Version         : 6.1.34-2
Description     : Powerful x86 virtualization for enterprise as well as home use
Architecture    : x86_64
URL             : https://virtualbox.org/
Licenses        : GPL  custom
Groups          : None
Provides        : None
Depends On      : glibc  openssl  curl  gcc-libs  libpng  python  sdl  libvpx  libxml2  procps-ng
                  shared-mime-info  zlib  libxcursor  libxinerama  libx11  libxext  libxmu  libxt
                  opus  qt5-base  qt5-x11extras  VIRTUALBOX-HOST-MODULES
Optional Deps   : vde2: Virtual Distributed Ethernet support
                  virtualbox-guest-iso: Guest Additions CD image [installed]
                  virtualbox-ext-vnc: VNC server support
                  virtualbox-sdk: Developer kit
Required By     : None
Optional For    : None
Conflicts With  : virtualbox-ose
Replaces        : virtualbox-ose
Installed Size  : 162.81 MiB
Packager        : Christian Hesse <eworm@archlinux.org>
Build Date      : Thu 21 Apr 2022 04:04:42 PM EDT
Install Date    : Sun 22 May 2022 06:46:39 PM EDT
Install Reason  : Explicitly installed
Install Script  : No
Validated By    : Signature

# pacman -Qi linux515-virtualbox-host-modules
Name            : linux515-virtualbox-host-modules
Version         : 6.1.34-9
Description     : Host kernel modules for VirtualBox
Architecture    : x86_64
URL             : http://virtualbox.org
Licenses        : GPL
Groups          : linux515-extramodules
Provides        : VIRTUALBOX-HOST-MODULES
Depends On      : linux515
Optional Deps   : None
Required By     : virtualbox
Optional For    : None
Conflicts With  : None
Replaces        : None
Installed Size  : 241.36 KiB
Packager        : Manjaro Build Server <build@manjaro.org>
Build Date      : Wed 18 May 2022 07:47:40 AM EDT
Install Date    : Sun 05 Jun 2022 10:47:15 PM EDT
Install Reason  : Installed as a dependency for another package
Install Script  : Yes
Validated By    : Signature

Any ideas? Thanks!!

I just used downgrade to go back to VirtualBox 6.1.34-2 like on the machines that still work fine, but its no good. It’s still completely unstable.

This suggests the issue is caused by the latest kernel modules, 6.1.34-14 vs 6.1.34-9 ???

And then I just tried downgrading to virtualbox kernel modules 6.1.34-9 but now when I run VirtualBox, it says my kernel modules aren’t installed.

Then in a terminal I get:

# /sbin/vboxreload
Unloading modules: 
Loading modules: modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'vboxnetadp': Exec format error
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'vboxnetflt': Exec format error
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'vboxdrv': Exec format error
5

There are reports of a kernel regression that is causing VirtualBox instability:

Many of the links mention Linux 5.18, but I saw instability issues with 5.15 (and others have reported issues with earlier kernel versions).

I was able to work around this issue by downgrading my linux515 and linux515-virtualbox-host-modules packages for now. (I also downgraded virtualbox but that might not have been necessary.)

6

I’m having issues with 5.15 as well. What did you downgrade to? Also, I only tried to downgrade the linux515-virtualbox-host-modules to 6.1.34-9 because that’s what is running on the machines I didn’t update and they still work fine

7

I am using linux515 5.15.32-1 and linux515-virtualbox-host-modules 6.1.32-20. My versions may be a little older than yours because I fell a bit behind on upgrades and those are the versions that were available in /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ :).

8

@vtriolet when I try to downgrade to linux515 5.15.32-1 everything seems to go fine. Then I reboot,and I get:

[FAILED] Failed to start Load Kernel Modules

Then I have to boot from my USB key and do a Pacman -Syyu

I’m certainly not an expert at all. I just want to get my VirtualBox working again and this is a nightmare. If you have specific instructions on how you successfully downgraded, I would super appreciate it. =)

9

I had similar issues with the latest update. LTS Kernels 5.15 and 5.12 lead to completly unusable VBox guests, with Kernel 5.18.3-1 everything seems to be fine again.

1 Like
10

If you choose to downgrade a Kernel, make sure to downgrade all pre-build Kernel modules you have installed. If you use for example Nvidia, downgrade the Nvidia modules too or if you need specific wifi modules, you have to downgrade them also. If with the last update the Nivida drive receiveed an update you will need to downgrade the complete Nvidia stack with all necessary libraries. This is usually not that easy and will often fail.
To start look in /etc/modules-load.d and check the contend of the files. They list all modules that get loaded.

11

@xabbu thank you and what you describe is just WAY to much to deal with tbh. I WANT all of my modules to be the latest (stable) versions. I don’t want to start messing with everything because I feel like I’m just going to break more things, or create a completely unstable system.

That’s why this is such a nightmare.

Anyway, I just loaded the linux54 kernel and rebooted into it. SO FAR (crosses toes) VirtualBox has not crashed yet and its been 10 minutes with 3 Chrome tabs open. (it usually crashes in less than a minute).

@TheInvisible maybe I should load 5.18 and try it too? How much better is it than 5.4 ??

Thanks again everyone for the feedback. I’ll post more as I do more tests.

@85083d95abcf08651fb6 did any of this help you?

1 Like
13

Difficult to say - I use virtualbox everyday - maintaining a backend developed for .net framework on IIS - I can tell - in my environment virtualbox is solid as rock.

 pacman-mirrors -G
unstable

$ inxi -S
System:
  Host: tiger Kernel: 5.18.3-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64
    Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.24.5 Distro: Manjaro Linux

$ vboxmanage --version
6.1.34r150636

Just a thought - do you all have the extension pack installed - from AUR?

Not having the correct version - may cause unexpected issues.

Another thought

I don’t use the Manjaro precompiled host module (linuxXYY-virtualbox-host-modules) but instead I use the virtualbox-host-dkms and the headers for my kernel(s)

14

I upgraded the kernel to 5.18.3-1 per @TheInvisible and VirtualBox 6.1.34 is back to stable. Running for 1 hour now with no issues. Many thanks to @TheInvisible

15

Thank you very much everyone for commenting and providing solutions.

@rob215x Yes, I think it would be best to switch to kernel 5.18.

If I want to upload the kernel, do I have to make any other changes (not to mention changing the headers)?

16

No - that shouldn’t be necesarry - that is - unless you are using nvidia - then you should take care.

You can check your installed kernels

mhwd-kernel -li

If you want to use the 5.18 kernel and virtualbox-host-dkms - this will do it

sudo pacman -Syu linux518 linux518-headers virtualbox-host-dkms

Or the better safe than sorry

sudo pacman -Syu linux515 linux515-headers virtualbox-host-dkms
17

Thanks for the reply, I have tried with kernel 5.15, linux515-headers and virtualbox-host-dkms, and It does not work, I get the same error, I think it will be best to risk uploading the kernel 5.18.

Thank you.

19

Did you remove the linuxXYY-virtualbox-host-modules before you installed virtualbox-host-dkms.

20

I am having the same issue.I rolled back both the kernel and Virtualbox version and still had the issue. went from 5.15.46-1 → 5.10121-1 → 5.18 and VB 6.1.34.4 to 6.1.34.2 to 6.1.32 it was better but still having some issues with stability in my main work win10 VM. Fixed by using timeshift to go to a pre update state.

21

I don’t use it very often but thought I’d give it a try as several are having issues.I’m running unstable branch and have the latest 5.18.3-1 kernel and virtualbox is 6.1.34 r150636.I can’t find any issues as I started Win10 and ran all the updates which were a lot restarted and didn’t see any issues.Maybe I got lucky or I had a different update but can’t find any issue.

22

Yes, eliminated both Virtualbox and Linux515-Virtualbox-Host-Modules and installed Virtualbox (Official Manjaro Repo) + Virtualbox-Host-DKMS, and then I restarted the PC, unfortunately it did not work.

23

With the 5.18 kernel I have had no problems, so far.

Thanks for all.

24

One thing that may or may not be part of the issue but my system having the issue is using the nvidia driver. I don’t have a system available to test/confirm that it is the nvidia driver.