In this article, we will see how to solve "VirtualBox kernel modules do not match this version of VirtualBox" error. You might have observed this error during installation of a new version of VirtualBox in your System. This issue can occur on both Windows as well as on Linux based systems. In my case, the problem occurred in my Windows 10 after installing the latest available version of VirtualBox. If you are also facing this error irrespective of the system you are using then you can follow the solution described in below section whichever works best for you.

 

[Solved]: "VirtualBox kernel modules do not match this version of VirtualBox"

Also Read: How to find files and directories in Linux

After installation of new version in your system, VirtualBox will ask to restart your system to implement the new changes. But as soon as you restart your system, it might display a message box that says "The VirtualBox kernel modules do not match this version of VirtualBox. The installation of VirtualBox was apparently not successful. Please try completely uninstalling and reinstalling VirtualBox" and then you will find this "where: supR3HardenedMainInitRuntime what:4 VERR_VM_DRIVER_VERSION_MISMATCH(-1912) - The installed support driver doesn't match the version of the user." message displayed on the bottom of the display box as shown below.

To fix above error, you can follow below solutions depending on the operating system you are using.

 

On Windows

Solution 1: Restart your system twice

If you are encountering this "VirtualBox kernel modules do not match this version of VirtualBox" error on Windows based systems then the first thing you should always try is that you should restart your windows system not just once but twice. You might have restarted after installation of new version but you need to again restart once to check if this problem goes away. Sometimes the solution is this much simple.

 

Solution 2: Reinstall VirtualBox

If restarting twice did not helped then I am afraid you have to uninstall your current installed version and then reinstall the latest version to deal with this problem. So to uninstall you can go Control Panel and select Uninstall a program under Programs section.

Then select Oracle VM VirtualBox <version> from the list of installed programs as shown below and uninstall it from your system.

Once uninstalled, you have to restart your system and then install the latest version by downloading it from VirtualBox official website. You can check more about this on How to Download and Install Oracle VirtualBox on Windows 10. This should solve your problem.

 

On Linux

Solution 1: Upgrade dkms package

If you are facing this "VirtualBox kernel modules do not match this version of VirtualBox" error on a linux based systems such as Ubuntu/Debian then it is possible that this error occurred because VirtualBox is updated but dkms package is not. So the simple solution is to upgrade dkms package by using sudo apt upgrade command. You can also list all the packages which needs to be upgraded by using sudo apt list --upgradable command.

cyberithub@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt upgrade

 

Solution 2: Reinstall VirtualBox

Sometimes it is possible that when you install VirtualBox from repository, all the modules does not get installed or may be the upgradation of all the modules during an upgrade did not went successful due to some reasons. So in that case, you can safely uninstall your virtualbox without damaging your vm's by simply running sudo apt remove --purge virtualbox command as shown below.

cyberithub@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt remove --purge virtualbox

Then install it again from repository by using sudo apt install virtualbox command as shown below.

cyberithub@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt install virtualbox

If virtualbox-dkms did not got installed then install this one as well by using sudo apt install virtualbox-dkms command as shown below.

cyberithub@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt install virtualbox-dkms

Alternatively, you can also download latest version from VirtualBox official website and install it from there.

 

Solution 3: Downgrade VirtualBox

If solution 1 and 2 does not work then I am afraid you have to try downgrading your virtualbox version by download and installing the older version from official website. Once you install the downgraded version, run sudo apt purge virtualbox-dkms command as shown below.

cyberithub@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt purge virtualbox-dkms

Then run sudo /sbin/rcvboxdrv setup command as shown below to try fixing the issue and see if it works or not. I am sure if nothing works then this solution will definitely work on your Debian/Ubuntu based linux system.

cyberithub@ubuntu:~$ sudo /sbin/rcvboxdrv setup