Ubuntu and Virtualbox. Broken packages.

[jbaldwinroberts]

Hi,

i am trying to install virtual box on ubuntu 8.04. i have installed it 2 or 3 times now but it dosnt work. i have totally removed virtual box in synaptic using totally remove, then i go to the terminal and type

sudo aptitude install virtualbox-ose virtualbox-ose-modules-generic

then my password. it gives me this

[sudo] password for joe: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information       
Initialising package states... Done
Writing extended state information... Done
Building tag database... Done             
The following packages are BROKEN:
  virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.24-20-generic 
The following packages have been automatically kept back:
  libpq5 
The following NEW packages will be automatically installed:
  virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.24-16-386 
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  virtualbox-ose virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.24-16-386 
  virtualbox-ose-modules-generic 
0 packages upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 331kB/7011kB of archives. After unpacking 22.5MB will be used.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.24-20-generic: Depends: linux-image-2.6.24-20-generic which is a virtual package.
Resolving dependencies...
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

Keep the following packages at their current version:
virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.24-20-generic [Not Installed]
virtualbox-ose-modules-generic [Not Installed]

Score is -9872

Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?]

if i type y the terminal says

The following packages have been automatically kept back:
  libpq5 
The following NEW packages will be automatically installed:
  virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.24-16-386 
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  virtualbox-ose virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.24-16-386 
0 packages upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/6680kB of archives. After unpacking 21.5MB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?]

i then install and restart. virtualbox then appears in the apps menu, but clicking on the icon does nothing.

i have searched on google and the forums but i cant find a solution.

can anyone help?

thanks in advance,

Joe

[kostasan]

Try removing it one more time and also do the following:

sudo apt-get clean all
sudo apt-get install -f

Then try to install it again.

[jbaldwinroberts]

thanks for your reply. i tried what you said, but the terminal still says the same thing.

joe@joes-desktop:~$ sudo apt-get clean all
[sudo] password for joe: 
joe@joes-desktop:~$ sudo apt-get install -f
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
joe@joes-desktop:~$ sudo aptitude install virtualbox-ose virtualbox-ose-modules-generic
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information       
Initialising package states... Done
Building tag database... Done      
The following packages are BROKEN:
  virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.24-20-generic 
The following packages have been automatically kept back:
  libpq5 
The following NEW packages will be automatically installed:
  virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.24-16-386 
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  virtualbox-ose virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.24-16-386 
  virtualbox-ose-modules-generic 
0 packages upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 7011kB of archives. After unpacking 22.5MB will be used.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.24-20-generic: Depends: linux-image-2.6.24-20-generic which is a virtual package.
Resolving dependencies...
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

Keep the following packages at their current version:
virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.24-20-generic [Not Installed]
virtualbox-ose-modules-generic [Not Installed]

Score is -9872

Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] 
joe@joes-desktop:~$

thanks

Joe

[jbaldwinroberts]

Does anyone know anything else i can try?

thanks

[mwolfe38]

Welll this might not be what you want, but it should work:
Uninstall the virtualbox open source edition provided by ubuntu and just go to the virtualbox website and download the regular version. The non open source version (well its mostly open source it just has a few things in it that are not) works much better in my opinion, and has a few bells and whistles that the regular version doesn't have (check out seemless mode).
Shared folders (with linux) and usb support were the main reasons I switched to the non open source version and have never looked back. I love open source, and hopefully virtualbox will open all of its source, however in the meantime I'll give them props for providing what I consider a better program than vmware server.

One minor annoyance with the non open source version is that when you upgrade your kernel you'll need to reinstall the package. Just keep the .deb file laying around and all you need to do is double click to install.

This isnt a big deal considering its much more user friendly than having broken packages when the kernel is upgraded which seemed to occur when using the open source edition.

[fberbert]

You should for the install of a virtualbox package with the same version of your kernel. Try (my sample):

$ uname -r
2.6.25-2-686

$ apt-cache search virtualbox `uname -r`
virtualbox-ose-guest-modules-2.6.25-2-686 - PC virtualization solution modules for Linux 2.6.25 on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
virtualbox-ose-guest-modules-2.6.25-2-686-bigmem - PC virtualization solution modules for Linux 2.6.25 on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.25-2-686 - PC virtualization solution modules for Linux 2.6.25 on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.25-2-686-bigmem - PC virtualization solution modules for Linux 2.6.25 on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4

So there is, choose what you want:

$ sudo apt-get install virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.25-2-686

Remenber that your kernel version can be different. You can install new versions of kernel searching for:

$ apt-cache search linux-image

---
Fabio Berbert de Paula
Viva o Linux

[DakoChan]

wow, this is a very simple solution.
i'm wondering why i don't think of it.
My virtualbox is working now.

Thx a lot.