[Pkg-virtualbox-devel] Bug#601819: virtualbox-ose-guest-utils: /dev/vbox* devices do not get created in Debian i386 guest OS (whereas amd64 guest is OK)

[Michael Hanke]

Package: virtualbox-ose-guest-utils
Severity: normal

I installed Debian as a guest OS in a VirtualBox VM. The host is running
Debian squeeze amd64 (virtualbox-ose 3.2.10-dfsg-1). The guest is also
Debian squeeze as of today.

I do a fairly small install (no tasks selected in the installer). For
the initial setup I install 

 dkms gnome-core mc evince bash-completion ntpdate file-roller gnome-utils
 gnome-themes eog vim software-center gdebi gedit-plugins gnome-media synaptic
 menu less desktop-base gnome-icon-theme sudo virtualbox-ose-guest-utils
 virtualbox-ose-guest-x11 virtualbox-ose-guest-dkms gdm update-manager-gnome
 update-notifier, popularity-contest

and their dependencies.

Now for the problem. When I do this on amd64, I get a beautifully working VM
with fully functional guest extensions. When I run exactly the same
setup script on i386 VM runs, but the guest extensions do not. I see the
same behavior as reported here:

  http://bugs.debian.org/594726

There are no /dev/vbox* devices on i386, but they are fine on amd64.

I repeated the install procedure a couple of times and I always get a
functional setup on amd64 and never in i386. BTW: ther kernel modules
are built and loaded on i386, but no devices et created.

Michael


-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-686 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash