Jan 09, 2010

Installing VirtualBox 3 (PUEL) on CentOS 5 (rackspace slicehost)

is impossible.

Followed the `rpm installation instructions`_. Installed "Development Libraries", " Development Tools", gcc-devel, etc.., and kernel headers from the repo:

# yum install kernel_headers
# export KERN_DIR=/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-164.10.1.el5-x86_64
# /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
    ...  [FAIL]
# uname -r
2.6.31-302-rs

Version mistmatch. Damn.

Ah, here we go: `proper headers`_ — yay! Wait, what? /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.31-302-ec2/scripts/mod/modpost requires GLIBC_2.8, and we can't mess with glibc or the kernel. Attempted building and installing glibc 2.8 on the side, no go. Damn.

Ok, it's been a day now, we get resourceful and desperate:

# cd /usr/src/linux
# rm srcipts/mod/modpost
# make scripts
# ldd scripts/mod/modpost
(no problem, yay)
# /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
    ... [ DONE! ]

Finally! OK, let's fire it up:

# VBoxHeadless

!!Assertion Failed!!
Expression: GipMapReq.u.Out.pGipR3->u32Magic == SUPGLOBALINFOPAGE_MAGIC
Location  : /home/vbox/vbox-3.0.12/src/VBox/HostDrivers/Support/SUPLib.cpp(321) int SUPR3Init(PSUPDRVSESSION*)
Trace/breakpoint trap

Fuck it. I give up.

So, to recap: after a full day of installing headers, installing hacked headers, building glibc 2.8 and a futile attempt to get vboxdrv to build with that, hacking modpost, trying two different PUEL versions (3.0 and 3.1) we still get nothing.

VBox OSE won't compile because of failing some version dependency checks and CentOS repo is hopelessly out of date. Tried with multiple different versions of vbox, ultimately it's too much pain.

Another possibility worth exploring is bringing up the image in vmware or xen.

System Message: WARNING/2 (/home/dev/work.shared/unthingable/content/installing-virtualbox-puel-on-centos-5-rackspace-slicehost.rst, line 68)

malformed hyperlink target.

System Message: WARNING/2 (/home/dev/work.shared/unthingable/content/installing-virtualbox-puel-on-centos-5-rackspace-slicehost.rst, line 69)

Explicit markup ends without a blank line; unexpected unindent.

instructions: http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads .. _proper headers: http://cloudservers.rackspacecloud.com/index.php/Installing_Kernel_Headers_for_2.6.31-302-rs

Docutils System Messages

System Message: ERROR/3 (/home/dev/work.shared/unthingable/content/installing-virtualbox-puel-on-centos-5-rackspace-slicehost.rst, line 11); backlink

Unknown target name: "rpm installation instructions".

System Message: ERROR/3 (/home/dev/work.shared/unthingable/content/installing-virtualbox-puel-on-centos-5-rackspace-slicehost.rst, line 26); backlink

Unknown target name: "proper headers".