on pae kernel, the linux-headers...-pae doesn't get installed

[rew]

Binary package hint: virtualbox-ose

On my workstation, an amd64 install, installing "virtualbox-ose" pulls in the modules, which seems to pull in the linux-kernel-headers. Or maybe they were pulled in for another reason, but it cleanly installed the modules without any user intervention.

On my server, which runs 32-bit with a lot of RAM, so it runs linux-image...-pae, the linux-headers...-pae did not get installed, so virtualbox would refuse to start with:

[copied from the web, the message on my machine scrolled out of reach while finding the fix]
# /etc/init.d/virtualbox-ose restart
 * Starting VirtualBox kernel module vboxdrv
 * No suitable module for running kernel found.

Installing the right kernel-headers triggered a rebuild which allowed:

sudo /etc/init.d/virtualbox-ose restart
 * Stopping VirtualBox kernel modules [ OK ]
 * Starting VirtualBox kernel modules [ OK ]

I think that it doesn't depend on any kernel-headers package. Probably because it's the users' choice which to install.

How about creating a dynamic dependency? i.e. in the install script determine which kernel is running and try to pull in the right kernel? (might not work due to locking of the installation database.)

Or how about when the module cannot be found in virtualbox-ose startup, try to rebuild it, and in the rebuild check for the install of the proper kernel-headers file? (a disadvantage is that it will increase the boot time if the rebuild fails much later in the build!)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: virtualbox-ose-dkms 3.1.6-dfsg-2ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-generic-pae 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic-pae i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Apr 20 18:26:58 2010
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/tcsh
SourcePackage: virtualbox-ose

[Felix Geyer (debfx)]

Reassigning to dkms as this affects all modules using it and therefore should be handled by dkms.