Virtualbox 6.1 Guest Additions failing on Kernel 5.4.8

[David]

The following error is returned when running the install on a Linux guest with kernel 5.4.8 using Windows 10 as the host. It is successful with 5.3.15 kernel.

VBox_GAs_6.1.0/VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

Building the main Guest Additions 6.1.0 module for kernel 5.4.8-050408-generic.
Error building the module.  Build output follows.
make V=1 CONFIG_MODULE_SIG= CONFIG_MODULE_SIG_ALL= -C /lib/modules/5.4.8-050408-generic/build M=/tmp/vbox.0 SRCROOT=/tmp/vbox.0 -j2 modules
make[1]: warning: -jN forced in submake: disabling jobserver mode.
test -e include/generated/autoconf.h -a -e include/config/auto.conf || (                \
echo >&2;                                                       \
echo >&2 "  ERROR: Kernel configuration is invalid.";           \
echo >&2 "         include/generated/autoconf.h or include/config/auto.conf are missing.";\
echo >&2 "         Run 'make oldconfig && make prepare' on kernel src to fix it.";      \
echo >&2 ;                                                      \
/bin/false)

[Frank Batschulat (Oracle)]

Q1: What distro are you using that provied a 5.4.8 kernel?
Q2: have you done what the error message suggests?
"Run 'make oldconfig && make prepare' on kernel src to fix it."

can you attach the corresponding log file written to /var/log please.

[Frank Batschulat (Oracle)]

I cannot reproduce this with fedora 31 and kernel 5.4.7

[root@localhost VBox_GAs_6.1.0]# ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox 6.1.0 Guest Additions for Linux........
VirtualBox Guest Additions installer
Removing installed version 6.0.15 of VirtualBox Guest Additions...
Copying additional installer modules ...
Installing additional modules ...
VirtualBox Guest Additions: Starting.
VirtualBox Guest Additions: Building the VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel
modules.  This may take a while.
VirtualBox Guest Additions: To build modules for other installed kernels, run
VirtualBox Guest Additions:   /sbin/rcvboxadd quicksetup <version>
VirtualBox Guest Additions: or
VirtualBox Guest Additions:   /sbin/rcvboxadd quicksetup all
VirtualBox Guest Additions: Building the modules for kernel
5.4.7-200.fc31.x86_64.
VirtualBox Guest Additions: Running kernel modules will not be replaced until
the system is restarted
 
=> reboot
 
[fbatschu@localhost ~]$ lsmod|grep vbox
vboxvideo              36864  0
vboxsf                 81920  2
drm_kms_helper        212992  2 vmwgfx,vboxvideo
ttm                   122880  2 vmwgfx,vboxvideo
drm                   548864  7 vmwgfx,drm_kms_helper,vboxvideo,ttm
vboxguest             339968  7 vboxsf
[fbatschu@localhost ~]$ dmesg|grep vbox
[    1.750878] vboxguest: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
[    1.751125] vboxguest: module verification failed: signature and/or required key missing - tainting kernel
[    1.756976] vboxguest: Successfully loaded version 6.1.0
[    1.756987] vboxguest: misc device minor 60, IRQ 20, I/O port d040, MMIO at 00000000f2400000 (size 0x400000)
[    1.756988] vboxguest: Successfully loaded version 6.1.0 (interface 0x00010004)
[   39.815012] vboxsf: g_fHostFeatures=0x8000000f g_fSfFeatures=0x1 g_uSfLastFunction=29
[   39.815115] vboxsf: Successfully loaded version 6.1.0
[   39.815129] vboxsf: Successfully loaded version 6.1.0 on 5.4.7-200.fc31.x86_64 SMP mod_unload  (LINUX_VERSION_CODE=0x50407)
[fbatschu@localhost ~]$

[David]

LOG: Building the main Guest Additions 6.1.0 module for kernel 5.4.0-050400-generic.

[David]

Q1: What distro are you using that provided a 5.4.8 kernel?

A1: Linux Mint 19 with Ukuu Kernel Update Utility. I have selected the 5.4.0 kernel with the same results. The 5.3.15 works with any issues.

NAME="Linux Mint"
VERSION="19 (Tara)"
ID=linuxmint
ID_LIKE=ubuntu
PRETTY_NAME="Linux Mint 19"
VERSION_ID="19"
HOME_URL="https://www.linuxmint.com/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://forums.ubuntu.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="http://linuxmint-troubleshooting-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/"
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.linuxmint.com/"
VERSION_CODENAME=tara
UBUNTU_CODENAME=bionic

 ukuu --list
ukuu v18.9.3
Distribution: Linux Mint 19 Tara
Architecture: amd64
Running kernel: 5.4.0-050400-generic
Kernel version: 5.4.0-050400-generic
Cache: /home/user/.cache/ukuu
Temp: /tmp/ukuu/lz9rirVf
aria2c version: 1.33.1
Fetching index from kernel.ubuntu.com...
OK
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Found installed: 5.4.0-050400.201911242031
Found installed: 5.3.15-050315.201912041733
Found installed: 4.15.0-20.21
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q2: have you done what the error message suggests? "Run 'make oldconfig && make prepare' on kernel src to fix it."

A2: It returns the following with the 5.4.0 kernel

make[1]: *** No rule to make target 'arch/x86/entry/syscalls/syscall_32.tbl', needed by 'arch/x86/include/generated/asm/syscalls_32.h'.  Stop.
arch/x86/Makefile:238: recipe for target 'archheaders' failed

Log file attached: /var/log/vboxadd-setup.log

[Frank Batschulat (Oracle)]

you have a problem with you custom kernel build setup.

As I demonstarted, this problem does not exist on real 5.4 kernel distributions like Fedora 31 & 30. please talk to the folks managing Ukuu. Your kernel source header tree in /lib/modules/5.4.0-050400-generic/build needed to compile the Virtualbox guest modules is inconsistent or not properly populated for the 5.4 kernel you are running and trying to compile the GAs against. We cannot solve this. We can also discuss such things in the _forum_ for example, this is not a Virtualbox bug.

This should exist, pls. check:

$ uname -a
Linux lserver 5.0.0-37-generic #40~18.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Thu Nov 14 12:06:39 UTC 2019 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

root@lserver:/lib/modules/5.0.0-37-generic/build# ls include/config/auto.conf
include/config/auto.conf

root@lserver:/lib/modules/5.0.0-37-generic/build#  ls include/generated/autoconf.h 
include/generated/autoconf.h

root@lserver:/lib/modules/4.15.0-74-generic/build# ls include/config/auto.conf
include/config/auto.conf
root@lserver:/lib/modules/4.15.0-74-generic/build# ls include/generated/autoconf.h 
include/generated/autoconf.h

[fbatschu@localhost build]$ uname -a
Linux localhost.localdomain 5.4.7-200.fc31.x86_64 #1 SMP Tue Dec 31 22:25:12 UTC 2019 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
 
[fbatschu@localhost build]$ pwd
/lib/modules/5.4.7-200.fc31.x86_64/build

[fbatschu@localhost build]$ ls -ls include/generated/autoconf.h
204 -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 207900 Dec 31 23:38 include/generated/autoconf.h
[fbatschu@localhost build]$ ls -ls include/config/auto.conf
212 -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 214894 Dec 31 23:38 include/config/auto.conf

You got to fix your build environments. We cannot do that for you.

[David]

Thank you for the additional details. I will contact the ukuu developer and provide this information to them.

[Frank Batschulat (Oracle)]

see also #19244