VirtualBox Guest extensions with kernel 3.8.0-31 don't work

Question

my Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (running in a VirtualBox on an Windows 7 PC) just updated to kernel 3.8.0-31.

After that I tried to install the vitualbox-guest-additions, but this failed with an error, that no suitable module for the running kernel was found.

The make.log said something like: 
CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/virtualbox/4.1.12/build/vboxdrv/r0drv/linux/initterm-r0drv-linux.o
CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/virtualbox/4.1.12/build/vboxdrv/r0drv/linux/memobj-r0drv-linux.o
/var/lib/dkms/virtualbox/4.1.12/build/vboxdrv/r0drv/linux/memobj-r0drv-linux.c: In function ‘rtR0MemObjNativeMapUser’:
/var/lib/dkms/virtualbox/4.1.12/build/vboxdrv/r0drv/linux/memobj-r0drv-linux.c:1451:38: error: ‘VM_RESERVED’ undeclared (first use in this function)
/var/lib/dkms/virtualbox/4.1.12/build/vboxdrv/r0drv/linux/memobj-r0drv-linux.c:1451:38: note: each undeclared identifier is reported only once for each function it appears in
make[2]: *** [/var/lib/dkms/virtualbox/4.1.12/build/vboxdrv/r0drv/linux/memobj-r0drv-linux.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [/var/lib/dkms/virtualbox/4.1.12/build/vboxdrv] Error 2
make: *** [_module_/var/lib/dkms/virtualbox/4.1.12/build] Error 2
make: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.8.0-31-generic'

What can I do?

Answer 1

The kernel header package for the running kernel is required to install VirtualBox guest additions (build the dkms module).

To fix the problem, install the kernel header for 3.8.0-31-generic and build-essential packages.

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential

Mount the Guest Additions ISO (if no X) and install the guest addition by running the install script

mount /dev/cdrom /media
cd /media
/path/to/./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run