"vagrant up" problem with virtualbox

Question

$ vagrant up

The provider 'virtualbox' that was requested to back the machine
'scdev' is reporting that it isn't usable on this system. The
reason is shown below:

VirtualBox is complaining that the installation is incomplete. Please
run `VBoxManage --version` to see the error message which should contain
instructions on how to fix this error.

Then I tried to investigate and seems like I already have those packages:

$ VBoxManage --version
WARNING: The character device /dev/vboxdrv does not exist.
 Please install the virtualbox-dkms package and the appropriate
 headers, most likely linux-headers-generic.

 You will not be able to start VMs until this problem is fixed.
5.0.24_Ubuntur108355

$ sudo apt install linux-headers-generic
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
linux-headers-generic is already the newest version (4.4.0.59.62).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

$ sudo apt install virtualbox-dkms
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
virtualbox-dkms is already the newest version (5.0.24-dfsg-0ubuntu1.16.04.1).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Answer 1

This is just a few months old, but I run into this problem occasionally and I wanted to post the solution/cause for my vagrant doing this.

The problem (for me) is generally caused by Vagrant unexpectedly ending (read my laptop battery dying). Here are a list of things that have worked for me:

1. Generally a modprobe vboxdrv will do the trick. This reapplies the kernel module, and everything is great.
2. Alternatively, reconfigure the package dpkg-reconfigure virtualbox-*
3. Worst case, blow it all away and try again sudo apt-get remove --purge virtualbox-dkms linux-headers-generic; #etc

Answer 2

I have a similar issue. Any time certain core kernel updates are applied, my virtualbox won't start complaining (in red):

The provider 'virtualbox' that was requested to back the machine
'default' is reporting that it isn't usable on this system. The
reason is shown below:

VirtualBox is complaining that the installation is incomplete. Please
run `VBoxManage --version` to see the error message which should contain
instructions on how to fix this error.

I have tried reconfiguring. I have tried completely removing and re-installing both virtualbox and dkms support. I can fix it by re-installing dkms any time it happens, but the next time the kernel gets an update, it pops up the red again and I have to go through it all over again.

Answer 3

Follow these steps it solved for me

1. Boot your device and then disable the secure boot

2. Then run

   sudo apt-get install virtualbox
   

   in your terminal

...I think this will solve your problem

Answer 4

Try enabling Virtualization and disabling secure boot.This can be done by entering your computer's boot settings. Additionally install the linux-headers-generic and virtualbox-dkms if it asks for it.