Cannot restore VirtualBox

Ask Fedora
,
1

After a failed Fedora 41 —> 42 upgrade
cannot restore VirtualBox

When I start I only get a rectangle in the taskbar.

Screen-2025-04-24_16-01-02
Screen-2025-04-24_16-01-021366×768 88.4 KB

sudo dnf reinstall VirtualBox VirtualBox-server akmod-VirtualBox kmod-VirtualBox
doesn’t help

the console says nothing
journalctl says nothing

For reference

$ sudo dnf list installed *VirtualBox*
Installed packages
VirtualBox.x86_64                              7.1.6-3.fc42 rpmfusion-free
VirtualBox-kmodsrc.noarch                      7.1.6-3.fc42 rpmfusion-free
VirtualBox-server.x86_64                       7.1.6-3.fc42 rpmfusion-free
akmod-VirtualBox.x86_64                        7.1.6-1.fc42 rpmfusion-free
kmod-VirtualBox.x86_64                         7.1.6-1.fc42 rpmfusion-free
kmod-VirtualBox-6.13.11-200.fc41.x86_64.x86_64 7.1.6-1.fc41 @commandline
kmod-VirtualBox-6.14.2-300.fc42.x86_64.x86_64  7.1.6-1.fc42 @commandline
kmod-VirtualBox-6.14.3-300.fc42.x86_64.x86_64  7.1.6-1.fc42 @commandline

$ lsmod | grep -i vbox
vboxnetadp             32768  0
vboxnetflt             40960  0
vboxdrv               712704  2 vboxnetadp,vboxnetflt

Any advice<
please

1 Like
2

I guess this is not needed anymore while you have F42.

Virtualbox is probably missing the kernel modules for the new F42 Kerne.

Can you try to remove the F41 kmod-VirtualBox package?

sudo dnf remove kmod-VirtualBox-6.13.11-200.fc41.x86_64.x86_64

Does uname -a show the 6.14 Kernel?
Is hostnameclt showing F42 ?

Do you have an error in the journalctl about the interrupted upgrade?

3 
$ uname -a
Linux DELLV 6.14.3-300.fc42.x86_64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Sun Apr 20 16:08:39 UTC 2025 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ hostnamectl
     Static hostname: DELLV
           Icon name: computer-laptop
             Chassis: laptop 💻
          Machine ID: 2240ee57ad6d42549ec2e177ded73113
             Boot ID: ada99acb28ff4315a768ae802bc882fa
    Operating System: Fedora Linux 42 (Adams)         
         CPE OS Name: cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:42
      OS Support End: Wed 2026-05-13
OS Support Remaining: 1y 2w 4d                        
              Kernel: Linux 6.14.3-300.fc42.x86_64
        Architecture: x86-64
     Hardware Vendor: Dell Inc.
      Hardware Model: Vostro 3360
    Firmware Version: A12
       Firmware Date: Thu 2012-10-18
        Firmware Age: 12y 6month 5d

$ sudo dnf remove kmod-VirtualBox-6.13.11-200.fc41.x86_64.x86_64
Package                                      Arch       Version                                     Repository                  Size
Removing:
 kmod-VirtualBox-6.13.11-200.fc41.x86_64     x86_64     7.1.6-1.fc41                                @commandline           206.9 KiB

Transaction Summary:
 Removing:           1 package

After this operation, 207 KiB will be freed (install 0 B, remove 207 KiB).
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Running transaction
[1/2] Prepare transaction                                                                   100% |   2.0   B/s |   1.0   B |  00m00s
[2/2] Removing kmod-VirtualBox-6.13.11-200.fc41.x86_64-0:7.1.6-1.fc41.x86_64                100% |   0.0   B/s |   5.0   B |  00m11s
Complete!

reboot and all the same

was KernelPanic

4

see also After updating to F42 VirtualBox is broken

5

Even after yesterday’s virtualbox update nothing has changed.

6

this works for me.

# akmods
# systemctl restart vboxdrv.service

Installed packages
VirtualBox.x86_64                             7.1.6-3.fc42 rpmfusion-free
VirtualBox-kmodsrc.noarch                     7.1.6-3.fc42 rpmfusion-free
VirtualBox-server.x86_64                      7.1.6-3.fc42 rpmfusion-free
akmod-VirtualBox.x86_64                       7.1.6-1.fc42 rpmfusion-free
kmod-VirtualBox-6.14.3-300.fc42.x86_64.x86_64 7.1.6-1.fc42 @commandline
virtualbox-guest-additions.x86_64             7.1.8-1.fc42 updates
7 
$  sudo akmods
Checking kmods exist for 6.14.3-300.fc42.x86_64            [  OK  ]

$ sudo dnf list installed *VirtualBox*
Installed packages
VirtualBox.x86_64                             7.1.8-1.fc42 rpmfusion-free-updates
VirtualBox-kmodsrc.noarch                     7.1.8-1.fc42 rpmfusion-free-updates
VirtualBox-server.x86_64                      7.1.8-1.fc42 rpmfusion-free-updates
akmod-VirtualBox.x86_64                       7.1.8-1.fc42 rpmfusion-free-updates
kmod-VirtualBox.x86_64                        7.1.8-1.fc42 rpmfusion-free-updates
kmod-VirtualBox-6.14.3-300.fc42.x86_64.x86_64 7.1.8-1.fc42 @commandline
8

digging into my old notes about VirtualBox, I found this:

may need to disable the KVM kernel extension using
 modprobe -r kvm_intel

no idea if that’s still relevant

9

found a very interesting issue…while starting with an empty $HOME/.config/VirtualBox/ directory all works fine and with an empty section of MachineRegistry in the VirtualBox.xml I tried also with the original configuration

LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 virtualbox and the UI is starting (or LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 virtualbox)

while system has

env |grep LANG
GDM_LANG=de_DE.utf8
LANG=de_DE.utf8

it’s not starting proper in case of

LC_ALL=de_DE.UTF-8 virtualbox

Looks like a translation issue blocks displaying the UI

10

no,
that’s not it
I remember once virtual box started itself
but I couldn’t start virtual machines without
modprobe -r kvm_intel

Then it was fixed.

11

Yes
LC_ALL=C.UTF-8
works.

And I don’t feel much difference between English UI and my native one.

Thanks.