| 1 | <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
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| 2 | <!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN" "topic.dtd">
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| 3 | <topic xml:lang="en-us" id="externalkernelmodules">
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| 4 | <title>The <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> Kernel Modules</title>
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| 5 |
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| 6 | <body>
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| 7 | <p>In order to run other operating systems in virtual machines alongside your main operating system, <ph
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| 8 | conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> needs to integrate very tightly with your system. To do this
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| 9 | it installs a driver module called <userinput>vboxdrv</userinput> into the system kernel. The kernel is the part
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| 10 | of the operating system which controls your processor and physical hardware. Without this kernel module, you can
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| 11 | still use <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/vbox-mgr"/> to configure virtual machines, but they will not
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| 12 | start. </p>
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| 13 | <p>Network drivers called <userinput>vboxnetflt</userinput> and <userinput>vboxnetadp</userinput> are also
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| 14 | installed. They enable virtual machines to make more use of your computer's network capabilities and are needed
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| 15 | for any virtual machine networking beyond the basic NAT mode. </p>
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| 16 | <p>Since distributing driver modules separately from the kernel is not something which Linux supports well, the <ph
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| 17 | conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> install process creates the modules on the system where they
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| 18 | will be used. This means that you may need to install some software packages from the distribution which are
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| 19 | needed for the build process. Required packages may include the following: </p>
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| 20 | <ul>
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| 21 | <li>
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| 22 | <p>GNU compiler (GCC) </p>
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| 23 | </li>
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| 24 | <li>
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| 25 | <p>GNU Make (make) </p>
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| 26 | </li>
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| 27 | <li>
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| 28 | <p>Kernel header files </p>
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| 29 | </li>
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| 30 | </ul>
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| 31 | <p>Also ensure that all system updates have been installed and that your system is running the most up-to-date
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| 32 | kernel for the distribution. </p>
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| 33 | <note>
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| 34 | <p>The running kernel and the kernel header files must be updated to matching versions. </p>
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| 35 | </note>
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| 36 | <p>The following list includes some details of the required files for some common distributions. Start by finding
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| 37 | the version name of your kernel, using the command <userinput>uname -r</userinput> in a terminal. The list assumes
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| 38 | that you have not changed too much from the original installation, in particular that you have not installed a
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| 39 | different kernel type. </p>
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| 40 | <ul>
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| 41 | <li>
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| 42 | <p>With Debian and Ubuntu-based distributions, you must install the correct version of the
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| 43 | <filepath>linux-headers</filepath>, usually whichever of <filepath>linux-headers-generic</filepath>,
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| 44 | <filepath>linux-headers-amd64</filepath>, <filepath>linux-headers-i686</filepath> or
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| 45 | <filepath>linux-headers-i686-pae</filepath> best matches the kernel version name. Also, the
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| 46 | <filepath>linux-kbuild</filepath> package if it exists. Basic Ubuntu releases should have the correct
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| 47 | packages installed by default. </p>
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| 48 | </li>
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| 49 | <li>
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| 50 | <p>On Fedora, Red Hat, Oracle Linux and many other RPM-based systems, the kernel version sometimes has a code of
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| 51 | letters or a word close to the end of the version name. For example "uek" for the Oracle Unbreakable
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| 52 | Enterprise Kernel or "default" or "desktop" for the standard kernels. In this case, the package name is
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| 53 | <filepath>kernel-uek-devel</filepath> or equivalent. If there is no such code, it is usually
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| 54 | <filepath>kernel-devel</filepath>. </p>
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| 55 | </li>
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| 56 | <li>
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| 57 | <p>On some SUSE and openSUSE Linux versions, you may need to install the <filepath>kernel-source</filepath> and
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| 58 | <filepath>kernel-syms</filepath> packages. </p>
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| 59 | </li>
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| 60 | </ul>
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| 61 | <p>If you suspect that something has gone wrong with module installation, check that your system is set up as
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| 62 | described above and try running the following command, as root: </p>
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| 63 | <pre xml:space="preserve">rcvboxdrv setup</pre>
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| 64 | </body>
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| 65 | </topic>
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