/dev/vboxdrv not owned by vboxusers

[xtknight]

Package: virtualbox-ose
Version: 1.5.0-dfsg2-1ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64

If you try to start a virtual machine, you get this error message:

"The VirtualBox kernel driver is not accessible to the current user. Make sure that the user has write permissions for /dev/vboxdrv by adding them to the vboxusers groups. You will need to logout for the change to take effect..
VBox status code: -1909 (VERR_VM_DRIVER_NOT_ACCESSIBLE)."

My user is in the vboxusers group.

$ groups
andy adm dialout cdrom floppy audio dip video plugdev netdev scanner lpadmin powerdev admin vboxusers

Fix:

sudo chgrp vboxusers /dev/vboxdrv

[xtknight (xt-knight)]

$ uname -a
Linux andy-desktop 2.6.23-rc7 #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Sep 20 18:30:59 EDT 2007 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[Chuck Short (zulcss)]

This should be fixed as well in gutsy.

[Stephan Rügamer (sruegamer)]

Hi, again in hardy, /dev/vboxdrv is not accessible for group vboxusers.
The permissions are still 0660

Regards,

\sh

[Stephan Rügamer (sruegamer)]

It looke like, that at least on amd64 the udev rule is not reloaded correctly.
After installing the packages it creates a /dev/vboxdrv device, but with root:root 0660 not as stated in udev/rules.d/50-virtualbox-ose.rules as root:vboxusers 0660.

I didn't restart my box, but logoff/login to a new gnome session.

[Florin Iucha (florin-iucha)]

It might be that one needs to restart the box. I have removed the vboxdrv module then modprobed it again, and the device was created with the proper ownership and mode:

$ ls -l /dev/vboxdrv
crw-rw----+ 1 root vboxusers 10, 62 2008-02-18 16:17 /dev/vboxdrv

[Thorsten Rhau (thorre)]

Same problem in hardy (8.04 beta) with kernel 2.6.24-8-generic and virtualbox 1.5.4dfsg-4ubuntu1

[Daniel Hahler (blueyed)]

It should have been fixed since some months in Debian (and Ubuntu).
This might be an udev problem then.
Is this only for amd64?

From the Debian bug report:
  For the record, udev uses the kernel inotify feature to learn about new
  rules. If for whatever reason (not compiled in e.g.) this didn't work,
  it didn't learn about the new rule before a restart. I added a manual
  reload to the postinst file to work around this.

The used workaround is:
/sbin/udevcontrol reload_rules

The problem in Ubuntu appears to be that the vboxdrv kernel module gets loaded/modprobed, _before_ the udev rule is active.

I'll move the init script, which modprobes the vboxdrv module from virtualbox-ose-modules to virtualbox-ose and then the udev rule should be installed, _before_ the init script is executed.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package virtualbox-ose - 1.5.6-dfsg-2ubuntu1

---------------
virtualbox-ose (1.5.6-dfsg-2ubuntu1) hardy; urgency=low

  * Merge from Debian unstable (LP: #202727). Remaining Ubuntu changes:
    - Move virtualbox-ose-modules from recommends
      to depends for virtualbox-ose. We can drop this change when Synaptic
      installs recommended packages by default.
    - Fix deprecated values in desktop file (LP: #196714)
    - Change Maintainer to Ubuntu MOTU Developers.
  * debian/virtualbox-ose.vboxdrv.init, debian/rules:
    Move init script from virtualbox-ose-modules to here (LP: #200380).
    This also makes sure that the udev rule to handle permissions of
    /dev/vboxdrv is installed, when this init script to modprobe the
    module is run (LP: #147076).
    debian/control: Add Breaks for virtualbox-ose-modules* meta packages
    (<< 17)
  * debian/control: virtualbox-ose-guest-utils depends on
    virtualbox-ose-guest-modules, instead of "recommends". The "vboxadd"
    module is required by the guest-utils init script (LP: #189444).
    This is also in line with the Depends for virtualbox-ose on the vboxdrv module.
  * debian/control: Drop "suggest uml-utilities" for virtualbox-ose again
    (LP: #154305)
  * Fixes the following bugs in Ubuntu:
    - Clearer message about losing snapshots during upgrade (LP: #187082)
    - virtualbox-ose conditionally modprobes vboxdrv
      (from virtualbox-ose-modules) in its init script, so that the
      modules do not need any init scripts anymore (LP: #200380)

virtualbox-ose (1.5.6-dfsg-2) unstable; urgency=low

  [ Daniel Baumann ]
  * Added Brazilian-Portuguese debconf translation from Eder L. Marques
    <email address hidden> (Closes: #467452).

  [ Michael Meskes ]
  * Added patch by Frans Pop <email address hidden> to make modules compile with
    kernel 2.6.25, closes: #468864
  * Suggest bridge-utils which is needed for static host networking.
  * Added patch against init script to remove newly created file again on
    failure, closes: #468419
  * Fixed watch file to cope with -1 upstream release.

virtualbox-ose (1.5.6-dfsg-1) unstable; urgency=low

  [ Michael Meskes ]
  * New upstream version
  * Fixed LSB headers in init.d scripts, closes: #466311
  * list x11config.pl with correct path in README file, closes: #466621
  * Added last changes made by the translation projects, thanks to
    Christian Perrier <email address hidden>.
  * Tweaked dfsg-free target in rules file so it is really executable, first
    steps made by Hilko.

  [ Hilko Bengen ]
  * Make module loading in initscript configurable (disabled by default).

  [ Patrick Winnertz ]
  * prevent initscript from failing if module doesn't exist. (Closes: #466851)

virtualbox-ose (1.5.4-dfsg-5) unstable; urgency=low

  [ Daniel Baumann ]
  * Again removing reimported useless whitespaces at EOL and EOF in debian/*.
  * Unified headers of debconf template translations.
  * Rediffed patches and again fixed their headers.
  * Added Portuguese debconf translation from Ricardo Silva <email address hidden>
    (Closes: #464761).
  * Removed extra whitespace in maintainer field of control, thanks to
    Christoph Be...

[mikemunsil (mikemunsil)]

The fix above, sudo chgrp vboxusers /dev/vboxdrv, worked for me.

Gutsy Gibbon 7.10
virtual Box 1.5.0.-OSE