Cannot Install VirtualBox Guest Additions: Installer Hangs

by Max Rohde,

Problem

For a CentOS based guest, the update of the VirtualBox Guest Additions hangs after the step: "Removing exiting VirtualBox non-DKMS kernel modules"

install

Solutions

  • Check the log file in /var/log/VBoxGuestAdditions-uninstall.log. See if there is anything obvious reported there you can fix.
  • Check if your RAM disks are valid by running the command `sudo lsinitrd`.
    • If they are not, try rebuilding broken images with `sudo dracut -f [broken-image].img [kernel version]`
  • Verify you have all dependencies installed:
    • yum install dkms
    • yum groupinstall "Development Tools"
    • yum install kernel-devel
  • Reinstall your Kernel image
  • Verify that you have the correct version of kernel-devel installed
    • yum remove kernel-devel
    • yum install kernel-devel-`uname -r`
    • Restart system!
  • Wait!
    • Let the installation run for a while, at least 15-20 min. It might do something!