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I have two kernels installed, 3.5.0 and 3.6.0. For several reasons I have to run kernel 3.5.0. VirtualBox works perfectly on 3.6.0, but not on 3.5.0.

After I booted kernel 3.5.0 I triggered a module rebuild of the with apt-get --reinstall install virtualbox-dkms. This recompiled the VirtualBox module successfully. However, it fails to load.

# modprobe vboxdrv
ERROR: could not insert 'vboxdrv': Exec format error

/var/log/messages:

warning: `VirtualBox' uses 32-bit capabilities (legacy support in use)
vboxdrv: disagrees about version of symbol module_layout

The module seems to be installed correctly:

$ ls /lib/modules/3.5.0/updates/dkms/
vboxdrv.ko  vboxnetadp.ko  vboxnetflt.ko  vboxpci.ko

System information: Debian unstable, package virtualbox-dkms is installed

$ uname -r
3.5.0

$ apt-cache show virtualbox | grep Version
Version: 4.1.18-dfsg-1.1

$ apt-cache show dkms | grep Version
Version: 2.2.0.3-1.2

Here is the output of the module build:

-------- Uninstall Beginning --------
Module:  virtualbox
Version: 4.1.18
Kernel:  3.5.0 (x86_64)
-------------------------------------

Status: Before uninstall, this module version was ACTIVE on this kernel.

vboxdrv.ko:
 - Uninstallation
   - Deleting from: /lib/modules/3.5.0/updates/dkms/
 - Original module
   - No original module was found for this module on this kernel.
   - Use the dkms install command to reinstall any previous module version.


vboxnetadp.ko:
 - Uninstallation
   - Deleting from: /lib/modules/3.5.0/updates/dkms/
 - Original module
   - No original module was found for this module on this kernel.
   - Use the dkms install command to reinstall any previous module version.


vboxnetflt.ko:
 - Uninstallation
   - Deleting from: /lib/modules/3.5.0/updates/dkms/
 - Original module
   - No original module was found for this module on this kernel.
   - Use the dkms install command to reinstall any previous module version.


vboxpci.ko:
 - Uninstallation
   - Deleting from: /lib/modules/3.5.0/updates/dkms/
 - Original module
   - No original module was found for this module on this kernel.
   - Use the dkms install command to reinstall any previous module version.

depmod....

DKMS: uninstall completed.

-------- Uninstall Beginning --------
Module:  virtualbox
Version: 4.1.18
Kernel:  3.6.0 (x86_64)
-------------------------------------

Status: Before uninstall, this module version was ACTIVE on this kernel.

vboxdrv.ko:
 - Uninstallation
   - Deleting from: /lib/modules/3.6.0/updates/dkms/
 - Original module
   - No original module was found for this module on this kernel.
   - Use the dkms install command to reinstall any previous module version.


vboxnetadp.ko:
 - Uninstallation
   - Deleting from: /lib/modules/3.6.0/updates/dkms/
 - Original module
   - No original module was found for this module on this kernel.
   - Use the dkms install command to reinstall any previous module version.


vboxnetflt.ko:
 - Uninstallation
   - Deleting from: /lib/modules/3.6.0/updates/dkms/
 - Original module
   - No original module was found for this module on this kernel.
   - Use the dkms install command to reinstall any previous module version.


vboxpci.ko:
 - Uninstallation
   - Deleting from: /lib/modules/3.6.0/updates/dkms/
 - Original module
   - No original module was found for this module on this kernel.
   - Use the dkms install command to reinstall any previous module version.

depmod....

DKMS: uninstall completed.

------------------------------
Deleting module version: 4.1.18
completely from the DKMS tree.
------------------------------
Done.
Unpacking replacement virtualbox-dkms ...
Setting up virtualbox-dkms (4.1.18-dfsg-1.1) ...
Loading new virtualbox-4.1.18 DKMS files...
Building for 3.5.0 and 3.6.0
Building initial module for 3.5.0
Done.

vboxdrv:
Running module version sanity check.
 - Original module
   - No original module exists within this kernel
 - Installation
   - Installing to /lib/modules/3.5.0/updates/dkms/

vboxnetadp.ko:
Running module version sanity check.
 - Original module
   - No original module exists within this kernel
 - Installation
   - Installing to /lib/modules/3.5.0/updates/dkms/

vboxnetflt.ko:
Running module version sanity check.
 - Original module
   - No original module exists within this kernel
 - Installation
   - Installing to /lib/modules/3.5.0/updates/dkms/

vboxpci.ko:
Running module version sanity check.
 - Original module
   - No original module exists within this kernel
 - Installation
   - Installing to /lib/modules/3.5.0/updates/dkms/

depmod....

DKMS: install completed.
Building initial module for 3.6.0
Done.

vboxdrv:
Running module version sanity check.
 - Original module
   - No original module exists within this kernel
 - Installation
   - Installing to /lib/modules/3.6.0/updates/dkms/

vboxnetadp.ko:
Running module version sanity check.
 - Original module
   - No original module exists within this kernel
 - Installation
   - Installing to /lib/modules/3.6.0/updates/dkms/

vboxnetflt.ko:
Running module version sanity check.
 - Original module
   - No original module exists within this kernel
 - Installation
   - Installing to /lib/modules/3.6.0/updates/dkms/

vboxpci.ko:
Running module version sanity check.
 - Original module
   - No original module exists within this kernel
 - Installation
   - Installing to /lib/modules/3.6.0/updates/dkms/

depmod....

DKMS: install completed.
[ ok ] Stopping VirtualBox kernel modules.
[FAIL] Starting VirtualBox kernel modules[....] modprobe vboxdrv failed. Please use 'dmesg' to find out why ... failed!
 failed!
invoke-rc.d: initscript virtualbox, action "restart" failed.

How can I get VirtualBox to work on 3.5.0?

share|improve this question
apt-cache show will show the highest priority version, which may or may not be the one installed. Use apt-cache policy <package> – jordanm Oct 21 '12 at 21:48
You probably need to get the kernel headers(or sources) of 3.5.0 version to recompile it – Serge Oct 21 '12 at 22:34
@jordanm The versions I show are ones actually installed. – Marco Oct 21 '12 at 22:38
@Serge The package linux-headers-3.5.0 is installed. Otherwise the modules would not have been built and placed in /var/lib/modules/3.5.0 I assume. – Marco Oct 21 '12 at 22:39
Yes, you are right. Then I have no advice – Serge Oct 21 '12 at 22:43
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2 Answers

up vote 0 down vote

Do you have the virtualbox-dkms package installed?
I usually have to reinstall this after each kernel upgrade, which I think indicates that the dkms part of it is broken, but re-installing it works for me. I've never tried re-installing it on anything but a new kernel, but I assume it should build against whichever kernel is currently running.

share|improve this answer
Yes, virtualbox-dkms is installed. I triggered a rebuild with reinstalling the dkms package as mentioned in my question and the modules are successfully built. – Marco Oct 22 '12 at 6:06
up vote 0 down vote accepted

Thanks to the link from warlock I figured that there was some version mismatch. I assume it was caused by the fact that I didn't create a kernel-source package. Instead I was using the git repository which was used to compile several other versions as well.

First I deleted the packages linux-image and linux-headers (the currently running kernel).

The next step was a completely clean checkout (without build remains in the directory). Then I built the kernel and created the packges linux-image, linux-headers and the linux-source package and installed them. After this the VirtualBox module was built and its loading succeeded.

I don't know which versions didn't match before, but following these steps guarantees that there should be no version mismatch.

share|improve this answer

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