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Kernel Modules Created by DKMS Show "Exec format error" (after update to Ubuntu 21.04)

rated 0 times [ 0] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 3074 / 3 Years ago, sat, may 1, 2021, 11:00:58

Hi I'm in a weird situation. The update to Hirsute seemed just fine until I plugged my Dockingstation in the Laptop and noticed that I wouldn't be able to use my external monitors. Narrowing down the cause led me to DKMS failing to produce modules for my kernel, as also the NVidia drivers and VirtualBox were not usable anymore.

What I found out is that GCC and BinUtils on the system should match the versions used to create the kernel.

So dmesg output contains:

sudo dmesg



Linux version 5.11.0-18-generic (buildd@lgw01-amd64-049) (gcc (Ubuntu 10.3.0-1ubuntu1) 10.3.0, GNU ld (GNU Binutils for Ubuntu) 2.36.1) #19-Ubuntu SMP Fri May 7 14:22:03 UTC 2021 (Ubuntu 5.11.0-18.19-generic 5.11.17)

GCC version is:

gcc --version



gcc (Ubuntu 10.3.0-1ubuntu1) 10.3.0

And binutils is:

sudo apt show binutils



Version: 2.36.1-6ubuntu1

So everything seems just fine, even when reinstalling for example virtualbox-dkms:

sudo apt install virtualbox-dkms



Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree... Done

Reading state information... Done

The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:

  libcg libcggl libnvidia-decode-460:i386 libnvidia-encode-460:i386 libnvidia-fbc1-460:i386 libnvidia-gl-460:i386 libnvidia-ifr1-460:i386 libpython2-stdlib libpython2.7-minimal libpython2.7-stdlib libxnvctrl0

  nvidia-prime nvidia-settings nvidia-utils-460 python-is-python2 python2 python2-minimal python2.7 python2.7-minimal screen-resolution-extra xserver-xorg-video-nvidia-460

Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.

The following additional packages will be installed:

  dkms

Suggested packages:

  menu

The following NEW packages will be installed:

  dkms virtualbox-dkms

0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Need to get 761 kB of archives.

After this operation, 5.983 kB of additional disk space will be used.

Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y

Get:1 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hirsute/main amd64 dkms all 2.8.4-4 [68,3 kB]

Get:2 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hirsute/multiverse amd64 virtualbox-dkms amd64 6.1.18-dfsg-5 [692 kB]

Fetched 761 kB in 0s (2.382 kB/s)        

Selecting previously unselected package dkms.

(Reading database ... 237715 files and directories currently installed.)

Preparing to unpack .../archives/dkms_2.8.4-4_all.deb ...

Unpacking dkms (2.8.4-4) ...

Selecting previously unselected package virtualbox-dkms.

Preparing to unpack .../virtualbox-dkms_6.1.18-dfsg-5_amd64.deb ...

Unpacking virtualbox-dkms (6.1.18-dfsg-5) ...

Setting up dkms (2.8.4-4) ...

Setting up virtualbox-dkms (6.1.18-dfsg-5) ...

Loading new virtualbox-6.1.18 DKMS files...

Building for 5.11.0-18-generic

Building initial module for 5.11.0-18-generic

Secure Boot not enabled on this system.

Done.



vboxdrv.ko:

Running module version sanity check.

 - Original module

   - No original module exists within this kernel

 - Installation

   - Installing to /lib/modules/5.11.0-18-generic/updates/dkms/



vboxnetadp.ko:

Running module version sanity check.

 - Original module

   - No original module exists within this kernel

 - Installation

   - Installing to /lib/modules/5.11.0-18-generic/updates/dkms/



vboxnetflt.ko:

Running module version sanity check.

 - Original module

   - No original module exists within this kernel

 - Installation

   - Installing to /lib/modules/5.11.0-18-generic/updates/dkms/



depmod....



DKMS: install completed.

But now I see that the virtualbox.service is not running:

systemctl status virtualbox.service 

● virtualbox.service - LSB: VirtualBox Linux kernel module

     Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/virtualbox; generated)

     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sat 2021-06-12 20:05:44 CEST; 5min ago

       Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)

    Process: 2331 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/virtualbox start (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)



Jun 12 20:05:43 icy systemd[1]: Starting LSB: VirtualBox Linux kernel module...

Jun 12 20:05:43 icy virtualbox[2331]:  * Loading VirtualBox kernel modules...

Jun 12 20:05:44 icy virtualbox[2331]:  * No suitable module for running kernel found

Jun 12 20:05:44 icy virtualbox[2331]:    ...fail!

Jun 12 20:05:44 icy systemd[1]: virtualbox.service: Control process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE

Jun 12 20:05:44 icy systemd[1]: virtualbox.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

Jun 12 20:05:44 icy systemd[1]: Failed to start LSB: VirtualBox Linux kernel module.

And the reason seems to be the module itself:

sudo modprobe vboxdrv



modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'vboxdrv': Exec format error

So finally the question is what can I do to make DKMS modules run again?

Update 1

As requested here is also the output of modinfo:

modinfo vboxdrv



filename:       /lib/modules/5.11.0-18-generic/updates/dkms/vboxdrv.ko

version:        6.1.18_Ubuntu r142142 (0x00300000)

license:        GPL

description:    Oracle VM VirtualBox Support Driver

author:         Oracle Corporation

srcversion:     5EB879B583F3535AB3CD593

depends:        

retpoline:      Y

name:           vboxdrv

vermagic:       5.11.0-18-generic SMP mod_unload modversions 

sig_id:         PKCS#7

signer:         icy Secure Boot Module Signature key

sig_key:        23:63:30:57:34:DB:4B:33:E5:70:6F:95:8E:AD:BC:C3:58:DA:A9:35

sig_hashalgo:   sha512

signature:      52:41:92:C6:00:84:D2:AC:7C:CB:B2:18:72:35:91:2D:49:AE:5C:CB:

        B4:E6:48:00:63:B2:E9:30:3A:68:D8:EC:CA:58:B4:14:0F:4D:4A:C2:

        83:BA:70:3A:6E:B8:F2:07:7D:8A:5B:F0:03:C8:83:61:FF:F9:1B:0D:

        ED:53:85:FF:6E:4F:C2:8A:1B:B5:4C:DC:79:13:00:D9:F8:87:58:19:

        3E:F6:C4:BC:93:5D:9F:6C:60:42:B0:55:8E:A1:B5:9E:50:EB:0C:BB:

        92:42:82:BE:F1:24:89:C3:5C:CB:3E:2B:51:66:57:00:62:55:63:2E:

        D6:4A:10:47:66:4D:33:F6:0F:DF:02:A3:17:1E:34:7D:BF:64:99:88:

        E3:D2:18:DA:B9:39:13:BC:19:28:E3:6A:F4:51:94:41:35:E5:F0:C5:

        5E:61:A2:11:C3:1C:D4:4B:7C:09:64:41:C9:A1:D6:73:A2:5C:E9:FF:

        21:E4:A3:B7:85:5C:17:AE:75:1A:06:41:3F:63:3A:69:36:2F:3C:C9:

        4B:8B:65:FF:92:1B:00:67:43:37:32:91:9A:9E:A6:C9:42:EB:1A:18:

        A4:47:89:B2:E0:02:B8:C6:6F:DE:B4:D8:40:34:30:70:84:85:4F:C1:

        1D:B2:BA:BE:4A:15:73:6C:C0:99:DE:06:8C:E6:89:74

parm:           force_async_tsc:force the asynchronous TSC mode (int)

Update 2

dpkg:

dpkg -l *virtualbox*



Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold

| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend

|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)

||/ Name                           Version                   Architecture Description

+++-==============================-=========================-============-============================================================

ii  virtualbox                     6.1.18-dfsg-5             amd64        x86 virtualization solution - base binaries

un  virtualbox-2.0                 <none>                    <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-2.1                 <none>                    <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-2.2                 <none>                    <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-3.0                 <none>                    <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-3.1                 <none>                    <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-3.2                 <none>                    <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-4.0                 <none>                    <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-4.1                 <none>                    <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-4.2                 <none>                    <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-4.3                 <none>                    <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-5.0                 <none>                    <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-5.1                 <none>                    <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-5.2                 <none>                    <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-6.0                 <none>                    <none>       (no description available)

rc  virtualbox-6.1                 6.1.22-144080~Ubuntu~eoan amd64        Oracle VM VirtualBox

ii  virtualbox-dkms                6.1.18-dfsg-5             amd64        x86 virtualization solution - kernel module sources for dkms

un  virtualbox-guest-additions-iso <none>                    <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-guest-dkms          <none>                    <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-guest-modules       <none>                    <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-modules             <none>                    <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-ose                 <none>                    <none>       (no description available)

ii  virtualbox-qt                  6.1.18-dfsg-5             amd64        x86 virtualization solution - Qt based user interface

ii  virtualbox-source              6.1.18-dfsg-5             amd64        x86 virtualization solution - kernel module source

usr/src:

ls -al /usr/src/



total 900

drwxr-xr-x 29 root       root    4096 Jun 12 20:34 .

drwxr-xr-x 14 root       root    4096 Apr 23  2020 ..

drwx------  2 nm-openvpn pulse   4096 Jun 18  2019 evdi-5.2.14

drwxr-xr-x  3 root       root    4096 Mai 14  2020 libdvd-pkg

drwxr-xr-x 24 root       root    4096 Jun  5 13:55 linux-headers-5.11.0-18

drwxr-xr-x  7 root       root    4096 Jun  5 14:13 linux-headers-5.11.0-18-generic

drwxr-xr-x 20 root       root    4096 Jun  5  2020 linux-headers-5.4.0-29

drwxr-xr-x  4 root       root    4096 Jun  5  2020 linux-headers-5.4.0-29-generic

drwxr-xr-x  3 root       root    4096 Jun 16  2020 linux-headers-5.4.0-31

drwxr-xr-x 20 root       root    4096 Jul  6  2020 linux-headers-5.4.0-33

drwxr-xr-x  4 root       root    4096 Jul  6  2020 linux-headers-5.4.0-33-generic

drwxr-xr-x 20 root       root    4096 Jul  6  2020 linux-headers-5.4.0-37

drwxr-xr-x  4 root       root    4096 Jul  6  2020 linux-headers-5.4.0-37-generic

drwxr-xr-x 20 root       root    4096 Aug  1  2020 linux-headers-5.4.0-39

drwxr-xr-x  4 root       root    4096 Aug  1  2020 linux-headers-5.4.0-39-generic

drwxr-xr-x 20 root       root    4096 Sep 11  2020 linux-headers-5.4.0-40

drwxr-xr-x  4 root       root    4096 Sep 11  2020 linux-headers-5.4.0-40-generic

drwxr-xr-x 20 root       root    4096 Sep 16  2020 linux-headers-5.4.0-42

drwxr-xr-x  4 root       root    4096 Sep 16  2020 linux-headers-5.4.0-42-generic

drwxr-xr-x 20 root       root    4096 Sep 27  2020 linux-headers-5.4.0-45

drwxr-xr-x  4 root       root    4096 Sep 27  2020 linux-headers-5.4.0-45-generic

drwxr-xr-x 20 root       root    4096 Okt 25  2020 linux-headers-5.4.0-48

drwxr-xr-x  4 root       root    4096 Okt 25  2020 linux-headers-5.4.0-48-generic

drwxr-xr-x 20 root       root    4096 Nov  3  2020 linux-headers-5.4.0-51

drwxr-xr-x  4 root       root    4096 Nov  3  2020 linux-headers-5.4.0-51-generic

drwxr-xr-x 20 root       root    4096 Nov  3  2020 linux-headers-5.4.0-52

drwxr-xr-x  4 root       root    4096 Nov  3  2020 linux-headers-5.4.0-52-generic

drwxr-xr-x  7 root       root    4096 Jun 12 19:57 nvidia-460.80

drwxr-xr-x 11 root       root    4096 Jun 12 20:34 virtualbox-6.1.18

-rw-r--r--  1 root       root  802665 Apr  8 20:43 virtualbox.tar.bz2

modules:

ls -al /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/updates/dkms



total 680

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   4096 Jun 12 20:34 .

drwxr-xr-x 3 root root   4096 Jun 12 20:34 ..

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 620706 Jun 12 20:34 vboxdrv.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  17474 Jun 12 20:34 vboxnetadp.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  44378 Jun 12 20:34 vboxnetflt.ko

dkms status:

dkms status



virtualbox, 6.1.18, 5.11.0-18-generic, x86_64: installed

Update 3

The following command showed no results:

grep -i virtualbox /etc/apt/sources.list

In sources.list.d:

grep -i virtualbox /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*.list

/etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list:deb [arch=amd64] https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian hirsute contrib

Well I will delete this file since installing virtualbox-6.1 is not working anyways. But I think the root cause is still DKMS since I have the same problem with for example evdi.ko when installing from DisplayLink driver from synaptics.com.

Synaptics shows me virtualbox and virtualbox-6.1 only. After removing /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list only virtualbox is left.

Reinstalled dkms and virtualbox. Still the same problem.

Update 4

Turns out I cannot even build a kernel module without dkms, so something is really bad.

Tried this tutorial Writing a Simple Linux Kernel Module

Here is what I got:

user@icy:~/src/lkm-example$ make



make -C /lib/modules/5.11.0-18-generic/build M=/home/user/src/lkm-example modules

make[1]: Entering directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-5.11.0-18-generic'

  CC [M]  /home/user/src/lkm-example/lkm-example/lkm_example.o

  MODPOST /home/user/src/lkm-example/lkm-example/Module.symvers

  CC [M]  /home/user/src/lkm-example/lkm-example/lkm_example.mod.o

  LD [M]  /home/user/src/lkm-example/lkm-example/lkm_example.ko

make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-5.11.0-18-generic'



user@icy:~/src/lkm-example$ sudo insmod lkm_example.ko

[sudo] password for user:



insmod: ERROR: could not insert module lkm_example.ko: Invalid module format



user@icy:~/src/lkm-example$ modinfo lkm_example.ko



filename:       /home/user/src/lkm-example/lkm_example.ko

version:        0.01

description:    A simple example Linux module.

author:         Robert W. Oliver II

license:        GPL

srcversion:     0EC24E04A8469A9DB84342D

depends:

retpoline: Y
name: lkm_example
vermagic: 5.11.0-18-generic SMP mod_unload modversions

Update 5 - Current State

user@icy:~$ modinfo vboxdrv

filename:       /lib/modules/5.11.0-18-generic/updates/dkms/vboxdrv.ko

version:        6.1.18_Ubuntu r142142 (0x00300000)

license:        GPL

description:    Oracle VM VirtualBox Support Driver

author:         Oracle Corporation

srcversion:     5EB879B583F3535AB3CD593

depends:        

retpoline:      Y

name:           vboxdrv

vermagic:       5.11.0-18-generic SMP mod_unload modversions 

sig_id:         PKCS#7

signer:         icy Secure Boot Module Signature key

sig_key:        23:63:30:57:34:DB:4B:33:E5:70:6F:95:8E:AD:BC:C3:58:DA:A9:35

sig_hashalgo:   sha512

signature:      52:41:92:C6:00:84:D2:AC:7C:CB:B2:18:72:35:91:2D:49:AE:5C:CB:

        B4:E6:48:00:63:B2:E9:30:3A:68:D8:EC:CA:58:B4:14:0F:4D:4A:C2:

        83:BA:70:3A:6E:B8:F2:07:7D:8A:5B:F0:03:C8:83:61:FF:F9:1B:0D:

        ED:53:85:FF:6E:4F:C2:8A:1B:B5:4C:DC:79:13:00:D9:F8:87:58:19:

        3E:F6:C4:BC:93:5D:9F:6C:60:42:B0:55:8E:A1:B5:9E:50:EB:0C:BB:

        92:42:82:BE:F1:24:89:C3:5C:CB:3E:2B:51:66:57:00:62:55:63:2E:

        D6:4A:10:47:66:4D:33:F6:0F:DF:02:A3:17:1E:34:7D:BF:64:99:88:

        E3:D2:18:DA:B9:39:13:BC:19:28:E3:6A:F4:51:94:41:35:E5:F0:C5:

        5E:61:A2:11:C3:1C:D4:4B:7C:09:64:41:C9:A1:D6:73:A2:5C:E9:FF:

        21:E4:A3:B7:85:5C:17:AE:75:1A:06:41:3F:63:3A:69:36:2F:3C:C9:

        4B:8B:65:FF:92:1B:00:67:43:37:32:91:9A:9E:A6:C9:42:EB:1A:18:

        A4:47:89:B2:E0:02:B8:C6:6F:DE:B4:D8:40:34:30:70:84:85:4F:C1:

        1D:B2:BA:BE:4A:15:73:6C:C0:99:DE:06:8C:E6:89:74

parm:           force_async_tsc:force the asynchronous TSC mode (int)

user@icy:~$ dpkg -l *virtualbox*

Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold

| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend

|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)

||/ Name                           Version       Architecture Description

+++-==============================-=============-============-==========================================>

ii  virtualbox                     6.1.18-dfsg-5 amd64        x86 virtualization solution - base binaries

un  virtualbox-2.0                 <none>        <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-2.1                 <none>        <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-2.2                 <none>        <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-3.0                 <none>        <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-3.1                 <none>        <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-3.2                 <none>        <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-4.0                 <none>        <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-4.1                 <none>        <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-4.2                 <none>        <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-4.3                 <none>        <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-5.0                 <none>        <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-5.1                 <none>        <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-5.2                 <none>        <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-6.0                 <none>        <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-6.1                 <none>        <none>       (no description available)

ii  virtualbox-dkms                6.1.18-dfsg-5 amd64        x86 virtualization solution - kernel modul>

un  virtualbox-guest-additions-iso <none>        <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-guest-dkms          <none>        <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-guest-modules       <none>        <none>       (no description available)

un  virtualbox-modules             <none>        <none>       (no description available)

ii  virtualbox-qt                  6.1.18-dfsg-5 amd64        x86 virtualization solution - Qt based use>

un  virtualbox-source              <none>        <none>       (no description available)

user@icy:~$ ls -al /usr/src/

total 24

drwxr-xr-x  6 root root 4096 Jun 13 10:51 .

drwxr-xr-x 14 root root 4096 Apr 23  2020 ..

drwxr-xr-x  3 root root 4096 Mai 14  2020 libdvd-pkg

drwxr-xr-x 24 root root 4096 Jun  5 13:55 linux-headers-5.11.0-18

drwxr-xr-x  7 root root 4096 Jun  5 14:13 linux-headers-5.11.0-18-generic

drwxr-xr-x 11 root root 4096 Jun 13 10:51 virtualbox-6.1.18

user@icy:~$ ls -al /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/updates/dkms

total 680

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   4096 Jun 13 10:52 .

drwxr-xr-x 3 root root   4096 Jun 13 10:52 ..

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 620706 Jun 13 10:52 vboxdrv.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  17474 Jun 13 10:52 vboxnetadp.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  44378 Jun 13 10:52 vboxnetflt.ko

user@icy:~$ dkms status

virtualbox, 6.1.18, 5.11.0-18-generic, x86_64: installed

user@icy:~$ grep -i virtualbox /etc/apt/sources.list

<No output here>

user@icy:~$ grep -i virtualbox /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*.list

<No output here>

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answered 3 Years ago rieency · Accepted Answer

After performing various Ubuntu distribution upgrades, now with the installation of 21.04 you have a problem. It's not totally unusual that multiple distribution upgrades can leave the system incomplete.

Booting to a Ubuntu Live 21.04 USB/DVD proves that the problem is with your current installation.

Please clean reinstall Ubuntu 21.04.