[SOLVED] Transferring Virtualbox to a new computer

[RichardM]

Hi all
I have tried to do some due diligence to solve this based on what is already on forums etc but nothing I have tried is working. I recently transferred my system (LM12 64 bit) to a new laptop - from a Toshiba Satellite u305 to a Lenovo x220. What I did was reinstall the OS and used the Mint backup for the software selections, then copied the home folder over from the old laptop (I did not use the Mint backup for files - calling it "slow" would be incorrect - it is painfully glacial!). It worked really well, except for:
-having to reinstall some wine program - no big deal
-a hard to solve (for me) Virtualbox problem. I run Win7 in Vbox for just a few things but I need it to be working. Basically Vbox itself opens seemingly fine and shows my virtual machine but it will not open it. When I try to start it I get two pop up windows:
#1
Failed to open a session for the virtual machine Windows 7.
The virtual machine 'Windows 7' has terminated unexpectedly during startup with exit code 1.
Result Code:
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component:
Machine
Interface:
IMachine {5eaa9319-62fc-4b0a-843c-0cb1940f8a91}

#2
Virtualbox Error in suplibOsInit
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 the kernel module by executing
'/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup'
as root. If it is available in your distribution, you should install the DKMS package first. This package keeps track of Linux kernel changes and recompiles the vboxdrv kernel module if necessary

I have tried following these instructions to no avail. I have looked at forum postings for Mint and Ubuntu and nothing has worked. I have tried exporting the machine from my old laptop, which I still have, but it does not work - it gives me an error when I try to copy and paste it into an external hard drive to transfer - telling me the file is too large.
I have tried to reinstall the machine with a new name pointing to it in Vbox and it gives me the same error.

I am hoping this has a simple solution and I am just ignorant.
Thanks!
Richard

[remoulder]

This doesn't sound as if VB is installed correctly on the host. I would completely remove it using synaptic along with the pre-installed extensions, then re-install it again ensuring it is the same version as the one you used on your laptop. Ensure you restart afterwards to initiate the kernel drivers. There shouldn't be any problem copying the virtual machines between machines as long as you get all the files and the VB versions are the same and one is not the oem version. Note you also have to download and install the USB extension from the VB site if you want to use that.

[RichardM]

Thanks, I will try that. I guess I was hoping that it would be something simple - it was a bit of a pain to install and configure and getting working just right - but maybe the second time will be easier!
Richard

[RichardM]

Hi Remoulder
Your suggestion did not work. I get the same error messages... will keep trying to problem solve.
Richard

[DrHu]

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 the kernel module by executing
'/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup'

The VirtualBox Linux kernel driver (vboxdrv) is either not loaded...
I would search on this error message, see what trurns up..

Might be a mismatch with the Linux kernel, there are some recompile options from virtualbox to adapt..
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1885936
post 9..

And the usual other concerns, use a 64bit VM with a 64bit guest, or if the guest is 32bit, use a 32bit VM, simply to avoid mismatching/transalting between 64<-->32 bits..

[RichardM]

Well I have tried to implement what is in my capacity on this link to the Ubuntu forum. Nothing works. Reinstalling Virtualbox from terminal or from the software manager doesn't work. I am a newbie so maybe some more experienced could figure it out, but it has become a big problem now not having the ability to use a virtual machine. I will have to look into other options if someone cannot give me some more explicit instructions on what I could try. What is strange is that it was so easy to install a new virtual machine on my old laptop. Thanks for your suggestions and if you have others I will certainly give them a try.

[RichardM]

Some more detailed info:
When I do this as suggested as the "solution" in the Ubuntu forum thread:
sudo apt-get remove virtualbox-dkms
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-dkms

I get:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
libhal1
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following NEW packages will be installed:
virtualbox-dkms
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 11 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/665 kB of archives.
After this operation, 4,407 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Selecting previously deselected package virtualbox-dkms.
(Reading database ... 225443 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking virtualbox-dkms (from .../virtualbox-dkms_4.1.2-dfsg-1ubuntu1_all.deb) ...
Setting up virtualbox-dkms (4.1.2-dfsg-1ubuntu1) ...
Loading new virtualbox-4.1.2 DKMS files...
First Installation: checking all kernels...
Building only for 3.0.0-13-generic
Module build for the currently running kernel was skipped since the
kernel source for this kernel does not seem to be installed.

Maybe this last sentence which I put in bold is significant as to why it is not working?

[RichardM]

Okay I have a partial solution to report. After abandoning virtualbox and trying to install a Windows virtual machine in VMWare, and having error messages hit me there as well, I decided something else must be going on. So I investigated and learned that Lenovo's default bios settings disable virtualization from working. I changed those bios settings and voila! Vbox now works fine. I still could not import my old virtual machine - no vbox errors, but it would not boot, despite installing the same version of Vbox, the same extensions etc. Oh well. At least I can now reinstall from scratch and have it work.

Maybe this goes in the category of "oh you dumb noobie of course check if there are bios settings to change first" but nowhere was I finding that advice! Should be more prominently stated in key places that discuss installing virtualizaiton software, I think...

[Davetesc]

Had this same problem but with a laptop that was already running vbox nonfree fine under Mint 10 KDE, problem came when I installed Mint 12 Kde also. Finally found that I needed to install the kernell headers for vboxdrv to be ble to set up DKMS correctly, ( installed then using synaptic using the kernel version reported by vboxdrv ) this seems to have cured my problem, not certain yet as now having to reinstall XP as deleted previous version thinking that was the problem, OOOOPPPS! Hope this helps anybody else falling into this hole.

[usbtux]

I installed Virtualbox via synaptic and had lots of problems where it wouldn't load disks/backups just like yours

Finally got it working by downloading direct from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads installed the deb, then downloaded the Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension pack straight into Virtualbox; then added myself to the vboxusers group and every thing works fine now.