Virtualbox module gone after latest update

[Daniel Baumann]

Hi Stan,

background
==========

in general: virtualbox consists of several components, most prominently
virtualbox (the application itself) and virtualbox-dkms (the kernel module).

in order to run virtualbox, two things need to be done:

  1. virtualbox and virtualbox-dkms need to be at the same version
  2. virtualbox-dms and the kernel/kernel-headers need to be compatible

for your specific case:

  * you have a jessie system with debian-backports enabled.
  * debian-backports ship random backports of various packages,
    that not necessarily work together or are coordinated together.
  * at the moment jessie-backports has linux 4.9.0 (which is the current
    version), but only virtualbox 5.1.8 (which is outdated, the current
    version would be 5.1.14).

or in other words: the version of virtualbox is too old for your
kernel/the kernel is too new for your virtualbox.

this is one of the reasons that we maintain a list of "essential"
backports ourself, to ensure that the whole stack works at all times
together and is optimal in sync.

unfortunatly, we stopped supporting jessie/jessie-backports in fall
2016, so you cannot use packages from us to update virtualbox.


solution
========

there are two ways to get it working again:

  * either you downgrade your kernel (not recommended)
  * or you install virtualbox 5.1.14 from virtualbox.org (recommended).

installing virtualbox would work like that:

  1. remove all virtualbox packages from the host:
     sudo apt remove --purge virtualbox virtualbox-dkms virtualbox-qt

  2. make sure you have the right kernel headers installed:
     sudo apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

  3. download virtualbox from https://virtualbox.org

  4. install it with: sudo dpkg -i virtualbox*.deb

  5. profit and world domination :)

Hope that helps, otherwise don't hesitate to let us know.

Regards,
Daniel

-- 
Berner Fachhochschule / Bern University of Applied Sciences
IT-Services / Team Infrastructure Services
Daniel Baumann
IT System Engineer Linux
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