Linux Mint 19.3 Kernel 5.4.12

[Mr.T]

The vboxdrv kernel module is not loaded.

This happens on ANY kernel 5.4 with ANY virtualbox 6.x on Linux Mint 19.3 The problem does not exist on any 5.3.x kernel.

[Frank Batschulat (Oracle)]

This is very likely caused by the same problem as in #19209

[Frank Batschulat (Oracle)]

yes, looking at the setup log file it is the same problem when it is attempting to build against:

make V=1 CONFIG_MODULE_SIG= CONFIG_MODULE_SIG_ALL= -C /lib/modules/5.4.12-050412-generic/build M=/tmp/vbox.0 SRCROOT=/tmp/vbox.0

RT_ARCH_AMD64  -DMODULE  -DKBUILD_BASENAME='"memuserkernel_r0drv_linux"' -DKBUILD_MODNAME='"vboxdrv"' -c -o /tmp/vbox.0/r0drv/l
inux/memuserkernel-r0drv-linux.o /tmp/vbox.0/r0drv/linux/memuserkernel-r0drv-linux.c
In file included from <command-line>:0:0:
./arch/x86/include/asm/page_64.h: In function ‘clear_page’:
././include/linux/compiler_types.h:210:24: error: expected ‘(’ before ‘__inline’
 #define asm_inline asm __inline
                        ^
./arch/x86/include/asm/alternative.h:256:2: note: in expansion of macro ‘asm_inline’
  asm_inline volatile (ALTERNATIVE_2("call %P[old]", "call %P[new1]", feature1,\

and more and more such macro expansion errors suggesting you are missing a proper compilation environment for kernel modules for this new kernel you installed using UKUU.

[Frank Batschulat (Oracle)]

We also have a forum thread related to this topic: ​https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=96297

[frant-hartm]

I have exactly the same issue on Ubuntu 18.04 (LTS) and mainline kernel from ​https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.4.12/.

[Frank Batschulat (Oracle)]

Given the errors related to standards system header file macros and all that it seems like we are building against a stale kernel source tree or something else is out of sync wrt to the new running kernel, eg. glibc and other userland header files from /usr/include are certainly sufficently different (and old) compared to the new kernel source tree pulled in from say /lib/modules/5.4.12-050412-generic/build.

I wonder if compiling the VBOX code that way ever worked at all with a sufficient different new kernel running on a sufficient ancient evironment. The UUKU docus from Ubuntu even mention that Virtualbox amongst others may not be able to compile and run using a new mainline kernel this way.

We certainly do not test Virtualbox in such a UUKU based timewarp kernel/system config at all. It is not even a config supported by Ubuntu itself. I may try this one out when I find some time.

[frant-hartm]

After some googling around the error I found quick and dirty workaround (not that I claim to understand what it does):

I modified

/usr/src/linux-headers-5.4.12-050412/include/linux/compiler_types.h

accordingly:

#ifdef CONFIG_CC_HAS_ASM_INLINE
/*#define asm_inline asm __inline*/
#define asm_inline asm
#else
#define asm_inline asm
#endif

and it seems to work now.

I suppose my gcc version doesn't support this inline?

gcc --version gcc (Ubuntu 7.4.0-1ubuntu1~18.04.1) 7.4.0

[Frank Batschulat (Oracle)]

Yes, this is all explained here, cannot work:

​https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg5671020.html
​https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1849348

CLosing as not our bug.