On 19/11/25 at 23:47, Fernando Cassia wrote:
My favorite AI tool replied this (like I said, I only run vbox windows
host and guest).
--
This error means your user doesn't have permission to access the
VirtualBox kernel driver (/dev/vboxdrv). However, setting setuid on
VBoxHeadless is not the correct solution and creates security risks.
Correct Fix
1. Add your user to the vboxusers group:
bashsudo usermod -aG vboxusers $USER
2. Log out and log back in (or reboot) for the group membership to take
effect.
3. Verify the group membership:
bashgroups
~$ groups
frank cdrom floppy audio dip video plugdev users netdev vboxusers
# You should see 'vboxusers' in the list
4. Check /dev/vboxdrv permissions:
bashls -l /dev/vboxdrv
~$ ls -l /dev/vboxdrv
crw------- 1 root root 10, 123 18 nov 17.25 /dev/vboxdrv
```
It should show something like:
```
crw-rw---- 1 root vboxusers 10, 54 Nov 19 12:00 /dev/vboxdrv
5. If the kernel modules aren't loaded:
bash# Check if modules are loaded
lsmod | grep vbox
~$ lsmod | grep vbox
vboxnetadp 28672 0
vboxnetflt 40960 0
vboxdrv 569344 2 vboxnetadp,vboxnetflt
# If not loaded, reload them:
sudo modprobe vboxdrv
sudo modprobe vboxnetflt
sudo modprobe vboxnetadp
# Or restart the VirtualBox service:
sudo systemctl restart vboxdrv
6. If vboxdrv service fails to start:
bash# Check the service status
sudo systemctl status vboxdrv
~$ sudo systemctl status vboxdrv
● vboxdrv.service - VirtualBox Linux kernel module
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/virtualbox/vboxdrv.sh; enabled; preset:
enabled)
Active: active (exited) since Tue 2025-11-18 17:25:30 CET; 1 day
22h ago
Invocation: 0e92536cd6074502b3137cf11c16b383
Process: 820 ExecStart=/usr/lib/virtualbox/vboxdrv.sh start
(code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Mem peak: 32.9M
CPU: 348ms
nov 18 17:25:27 itek systemd[1]: Starting vboxdrv.service - VirtualBox
Linux kernel module...
nov 18 17:25:29 itek vboxdrv.sh[820]: vboxdrv.sh: Starting VirtualBox
services.
nov 18 17:25:29 itek vboxdrv.sh[985]: Starting VirtualBox services.
nov 18 17:25:30 itek systemd[1]: Started vboxdrv.service - VirtualBox
Linux kernel module.
# You may need to rebuild kernel modules:
sudo /sbin/vboxconfig
Done at least two times…
Sorry I can't help more. But try the above, it's worth a shot.
Thanks you very much for your help!
So the culprits seems to be permissions on "/dev/vboxdrv" but my udev
configuration doesn't take effect, I don't know why?
This is the original "/etc/udev/rules.d/60-vboxdrv.rules":
---
KERNEL=="vboxdrv", OWNER="root", GROUP="root", MODE="0600"
KERNEL=="vboxdrvu", OWNER="root", GROUP="root", MODE="0666"
KERNEL=="vboxnetctl", OWNER="root", GROUP="root", MODE="0600"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb_device", ACTION=="add",
RUN+="/usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxCreateUSBNode.sh $major $minor
$attr{bDeviceClass}"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="add", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device",
RUN+="/usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxCreateUSBNode.sh $major $minor
$attr{bDeviceClass}"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb_device", ACTION=="remove",
RUN+="/usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxCreateUSBNode.sh --remove $major $minor"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="remove", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device",
RUN+="/usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxCreateUSBNode.sh --remove $major $minor"
---
and this is my customized "/etc/udev/rules.d/60-vboxdrv.rules":
---
KERNEL=="vboxdrv", OWNER="root", GROUP="vboxusers", MODE="0660"
KERNEL=="vboxdrvu", OWNER="root", GROUP="vboxusers", MODE="0666"
KERNEL=="vboxnetctl", OWNER="root", GROUP="vboxusers", MODE="0660"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb_device", ACTION=="add",
RUN+="/usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxCreateUSBNode.sh $major $minor
$attr{bDeviceClass}"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="add", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device",
RUN+="/usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxCreateUSBNode.sh $major $minor
$attr{bDeviceClass}"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb_device", ACTION=="remove",
RUN+="/usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxCreateUSBNode.sh --remove $major $minor"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="remove", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device",
RUN+="/usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxCreateUSBNode.sh --remove $major $minor"
---
after reboot the attributes of the files are:
~$ ls -l /dev/vboxdrv* /dev/vboxnetctl
crw-rw---- 1 root root 10, 123 20 nov 19.46 /dev/vboxdrv
crw-rw-rw- 1 root vboxusers 10, 122 20 nov 19.46 /dev/vboxdrvu
crw-rw---- 1 root vboxusers 10, 121 20 nov 19.46 /dev/vboxnetctl
so only group permissions are changed (rw-) and not the group name of
"/dev/vboxdrv" why? It seems that something has overwritten my changes
to "/etc/udev/rules.d/60-vboxdrv.rules" file…
However if a manually change the group name:
~# chown root:vboxusers /dev/vboxdrv
~$ ls -l /dev/vboxdrv* /dev/vboxnetctl
crw-rw---- 1 root vboxusers 10, 123 20 nov 19.46 /dev/vboxdrv
crw-rw-rw- 1 root vboxusers 10, 122 20 nov 19.46 /dev/vboxdrvu
crw-rw---- 1 root vboxusers 10, 121 20 nov 19.46 /dev/vboxnetctl
Nothing changes, starting the VM from the CLI it returns the same error
message, sigh… Any hints?
Cheers,
--
Franco Martelli
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