Public bug reported:
Bug Report: Ubuntu Kernel Update Failure Caused by VirtualBox DKMS
Module Build Error
I am using Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat) with the Hardware Enablement
(HWE) kernel stack. The system is currently running kernel version
6.17.0-40-generic, and the update process attempts to install and
configure the new kernel version 7.0.0-28-generic. The package causing
the issue is virtualbox-dkms, version 7.0.16, which is responsible for
rebuilding the VirtualBox kernel modules whenever a new Linux kernel is
installed. During the update process, Ubuntu triggers DKMS to rebuild
external kernel modules, and the VirtualBox module fails during this
compilation stage.
The expected behavior is that running a normal system update should
successfully install and configure all available updates, including the
new Linux kernel packages. The DKMS framework should automatically
rebuild all installed third-party kernel modules against the new kernel
without errors, allowing packages such as linux-image-7.0.0-28-generic,
linux-headers-7.0.0-28-generic, linux-generic-hwe-24.04, and linux-
headers-generic-hwe-24.04 to be configured correctly.
Instead, the update process fails during the kernel configuration phase.
The package manager successfully downloads and unpacks the kernel
packages, but the DKMS automatic rebuild fails specifically for the
VirtualBox kernel module. The output shows that the r8125 module rebuild
succeeds, while the VirtualBox module fails with the message dkms
autoinstall on 7.0.0-28-generic/x86_64 failed for virtualbox(10). This
causes the DKMS process to exit with an error, which prevents the kernel
post-installation scripts from completing successfully. As a result,
several kernel-related packages remain in a partially configured state,
and dpkg returns an error code.
The failure appears to be caused by an incompatibility between the
installed VirtualBox DKMS module version (7.0.16) and the new Linux
kernel version (7.0.0-28-generic). The kernel update itself is
downloaded correctly, but the VirtualBox kernel driver cannot be rebuilt
for the new kernel environment, blocking the completion of the Ubuntu
upgrade process.
ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 24.04
Package: virtualbox-dkms 7.0.16-dfsg-2ubuntu1.3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.17.0-40.40~24.04.1-generic 6.17.13
Uname: Linux 6.17.0-40-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.28.2-0ubuntu0.1
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
DKMSKernelVersion: 7.0.0-28-generic
Date: Fri Jul 17 17:40:34 2026
InstallationDate: Installed on 2026-04-30 (78 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS "Noble Numbat" - Release amd64 (20260210)
PackageVersion: 7.0.16-dfsg-2ubuntu1.3
Python3Details: /usr/bin/python3.12, Python 3.12.3, python3-minimal,
3.12.3-0ubuntu2.1
PythonDetails: N/A
RelatedPackageVersions:
dpkg 1.22.6ubuntu6.6
apt 2.8.3
SourcePackage: virtualbox
Title: virtualbox-dkms 7.0.16-dfsg-2ubuntu1.3: virtualbox kernel module failed
to build
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
** Affects: virtualbox (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
** Tags: amd64 apport-package noble third-party-packages
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2161113
Title:
virtualbox-dkms 7.0.16-dfsg-2ubuntu1.3: virtualbox kernel module
failed to build
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