VM fails to start with error VERR_LDRELF_RELOCATION_NOT_SUPPORTED when built on Debian unstable -> fixed after (not in) 5.2.14

[radnaj]

In Debian Linux, after update to version 5.12.14 from version 5.12.12, the virtual machines fail to start due to an error "VERR_LDRELF_RELOCATION_NOT_SUPPORTED"

The Debian bug id is Bug#902897 (​https://www.mail-archive.com/debian-bugs-dist@lists.debian.org/msg1613858.html), and has been reported by a few people.

Some VirtualBox Logs compiled from my box and posted by others can be seen attached

[renoch]

vbox log with "fail to start guest" issue

[Karma]

VBox fails to start Windows Guest on Linux Host (4.16.0-1-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.16.5-1 (2018-04-29) x86_64 GNU/Linux)

[kodtaku]

Guest: FreeBSD -- Host: Debian 4.16.0-2-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.16.16-2 (2018-06-22) x86_64 GNU/Linux

[janitor]

You fail to mention that "In Debian Linux" actually seems to mean debian unstable, at least as far as I can infer from the thread on debian-bugs.

[janitor]

All these reports are for Debian's own package. Does the package from www.virtualbox.org work?

Also, was there a recent binutils upgrade in unstable?

[Kabelsalat]

There were binutils upgrades in July, but they look innocuous:

binutils (2.30.90.20180705-1) unstable; urgency=medium

  * Snapshot, taken from the 2.31 branch (20180705).
    - Install the diagnostics.h header. Closes: #902823.

 -- Matthias Klose <doko@debian.org>  Thu, 05 Jul 2018 17:55:14 +0200

binutils (2.30.90.20180627-1) unstable; urgency=medium

  * Snapshot, taken from the 2.31 branch (20180627).
    - CVE-2018-10372: PR binutils/23064, Fix illegal memory access when parsing
      corrupt DWARF information.
    - CVE-2018-10373: PR binutils/23065, nm segfault.
    - CVE-2018-10534: PR binutils/23110, objcopy segfault.
    - CVE-2018-10535: PR binutils/23113, objcopy segfault.

 -- Matthias Klose <doko@debian.org>  Wed, 27 Jun 2018 21:55:43 +0200

binutils (2.30.52.20180613-1) experimental; urgency=medium

  * Snapshot, taken from the trunk (20180613).

 -- Matthias Klose <doko@debian.org>  Wed, 13 Jun 2018 14:20:30 +0200

[Kabelsalat]

When I use the package you provide for Debian stretch (64 bit), I get this error message:

WARNING: The vboxdrv kernel module is not loaded. Either there is no module
         available for the current kernel (4.16.0-2-amd64) or it failed to             
         load. Please recompile the kernel module and install it by      
                                                                             
           sudo /sbin/vboxconfig                                               
                                                                                    
         You will not be able to start VMs until this problem is fixed.        
VBoxManage: error: Failed to create the VirtualBox object!                     
VBoxManage: error: Code NS_ERROR_FACTORY_NOT_REGISTERED (0x80040154) - Class not registered (extended info not available)
VBoxManage: error: Most likely, the VirtualBox COM server is not running or failed to start.

When I then tried sudo apt --fix-broken install things got really messy (segmentation violation!):

Die folgenden zusätzlichen Pakete werden installiert:
  libvpx4
Die folgenden NEUEN Pakete werden installiert:
  libvpx4
0 aktualisiert, 1 neu installiert, 0 zu entfernen und 94 nicht aktualisiert.
1 nicht vollständig installiert oder entfernt.
Es müssen 776 kB an Archiven heruntergeladen werden.
Nach dieser Operation werden 2.378 kB Plattenplatz zusätzlich benutzt.
Möchten Sie fortfahren? [J/n]
Holen:1 http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian unstable/main amd64 libvpx4 amd64 1.6.1-3+deb9u1 [776 kB]
Es wurden 776 kB in 1 s geholt (635 kB/s).
Vormals nicht ausgewähltes Paket libvpx4:amd64 wird gewählt.
(Lese Datenbank ... 559103 Dateien und Verzeichnisse sind derzeit installiert.)
Vorbereitung zum Entpacken von .../libvpx4_1.6.1-3+deb9u1_amd64.deb ...
Entpacken von libvpx4:amd64 (1.6.1-3+deb9u1) ...
libvpx4:amd64 (1.6.1-3+deb9u1) wird eingerichtet ...
Trigger für libc-bin (2.27-4) werden verarbeitet ...
virtualbox-5.2 (5.2.14-123301~Debian~stretch) wird eingerichtet ...
addgroup: Die Gruppe »vboxusers« existiert bereits als Systemgruppe. Programmende.

Message from syslogd@denovo at Jul 11 19:13:42 ...
 kernel:[63360.731295] systemd[1]: segfault at ffffffffffffffe0 ip 00007f867105f937 sp 00007ffc4f169588 error 5 in libc-2.27.so[7f8670f27000+146000]                                                                                         

Broadcast message from systemd-journald@denovo (Wed 2018-07-11 19:13:42 CEST):

systemd[1]: Caught <SEGV>, dumped core as pid 8926.


Broadcast message from systemd-journald@denovo (Wed 2018-07-11 19:13:42 CEST):

systemd[1]: Freezing execution.


Message from syslogd@denovo at Jul 11 19:13:42 ...
 systemd[1]: Caught <SEGV>, dumped core as pid 8926.

Message from syslogd@denovo at Jul 11 19:13:42 ...
 systemd[1]: Freezing execution.
Failed to enable unit: Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.systemd1': timed out (service_start_timeout=25000ms)                                                                                                                      
Failed to enable unit: Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.systemd1': timed out (service_start_timeout=25000ms)
Failed to enable unit: Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.systemd1': timed out (service_start_timeout=25000ms)
Failed to enable unit: Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.systemd1': timed out (service_start_timeout=25000ms)
Failed to start vboxdrv.service: Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.systemd1': timed out (service_start_timeout=25000ms)
See system logs and 'systemctl status vboxdrv.service' for details.
Failed to start vboxballoonctrl-service.service: Die Wartezeit für die Verbindung ist abgelaufen
See system logs and 'systemctl status vboxballoonctrl-service.service' for details.

Sorry for the bits of German in there.

[bird]

Looks like binutils commit 451875b4f976a527395e9303224c7881b65e12ed (​http://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=binutils-gdb.git;a=commit;h=451875b4f976a527395e9303224c7881b65e12ed) is what is causing this problem.

[bird]

Patches for dealing with R_X86_64_PLT32 relocation.

[bird]

The R_X86_64_PLT32-r2.diff patches fixes the issue. It has been applied in SVN and will be included in the next 5.2.x release (soon).

Btw. the linux kernel required similar modifications: ​https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=b21ebf2fb4cde1618915a97cc773e287ff49173e