virtualbox NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Olivia Zamora 
Yesterday my Virtualbox guests were still running. Today I get the following error for all guests (windows or Linux).
Failed to open a session for the virtual machine win10.
The VM session was closed before any attempt to power it on.
Result Code: NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component: SessionMachine
Interface: ISession {7844aa05-b02e-4cdd-a04f-ade4a762e6b7}I already tried to run sudo /sbin/vboxconfig, reinstalling from Software Manager, reinstalling following Cannot run virtual machines after upgrading virtualbox from 5.0 to 5.1 and upgrading to 5.2.12 r122591 and 5.2.14 r123301. The result was always the same.
My current kernel version is 4.15.0-24-generic #26-Ubuntu SMP.
$ VBoxManage list extpacks
Extension Packs: 1
Pack no. 0: Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack
Version: 5.2.14
Revision: 123301
Edition:
Description: USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 Host Controller, Host Webcam, VirtualBox RDP, PXE ROM, Disk Encryption, NVMe.
VRDE Module: VBoxVRDP
Usable: true 10 Answers
I had similar issue on xubuntu 18.04 where my Virtualbox guests was to run windows 7. Although I had Virtualbox 5.2 installed previously that worked.
I made sure that
virtualbox-dkmswas installed by running this command:dpkg -l | grep virtualbox-dkmsThen I purged it and and reinstalled only
dkms:apt-get purge virtualbox-dkms && sudo apt-get install dkmsThen I ran the suggested command to rebuild the kernel:
sudo /sbin/vboxconfig
This is what worked for me.
5After a long, friendly and fruitful chat with @DavidFoerster, it turned out that Microsoft and its weird update policy was the culprit!
David patiently guided me through the reinstallation of the VirtualBox packages from the Ubuntu repositories and check out the configuration (dkms, extension packages, etc.). At last, he asked me to try a new installation with a live ISO. It was then that I noticed that my "Default Machine Folder" defined in VirtualBox - File - Preferences - General was not usable. I knew that it was on a mounted NTFS used by the dualboot Win10 system. A closer look showed that at present it was mounted read-only, which prevented the virtual machines from starting (with a not very helpful error message).
As I recalled then, shortly after I had last successfully booted the VirtualBox guests, I had not only got Ubuntu updates, but I had also booted for the first time since long my native Win10 system. Apparently, Microsoft had then installed updates AND had reactivated the 'fast startup' option (which certainly had been deactivated before!) - so that later, back in Ubuntu, the NTFS file system was mounted in read-only mode, as Windows had not properly shut down.
Now that I have again deactivated the 'fast startup' option in Windows10, my guest systems are running again.
Thank you, David, for asking the right question which set me on the right track!
2Just had the same issue and figured out the problem and an easier solution... The problem was the usb settings... if you switched your usb settings back to 1.1 it would boot again... incase anyone else like me finds this post having the same problem... that solved it for me... but thanks for this post it led me to that solution...
1I have encountered the mentioned issue and I tried all the suggested solutions, but they didn't solve my problem.
In my case, I figured out that the VirtualBox.xml file (which is located under ~/.config/VirtualBox) seems to be empty and there was a file named as VirtualBox.xml-prev. So I moved second file, renamed as VirtualBox.xml in the same directory and my problem is solved.
The Answers given here, by the other AskUbuntu users, are already very good.
As an additional measure it might help if you download a suitable VirtualBox Extension Pack from the Downlads Page of the Virtualbox Web site.
Do this only if you know that you had the Extension Pack installed previously. (I think it enables a better USB access to VirtualBox guests).
The minor version number (for v6.1.18, thats the 6.1) of the Extension Pack should match the Minor version of your virtualbox installation.
I had an older Windows guest that refused to start because I had built a new host kernel, a new SSD to store, pending Windows upgrades, and tried to start a snapshot (I don't remember).
However a more decriptive error message ("Extension Pack too old"), better thanNS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005) came up only after doing a start of a "cleaner", different Windows guest.
Maybe this is purely cosmetic, but worth a try.
Changing USB from 3.0 to 1.1 immediately fixed my inability to boot my Win10 guest under Ubuntu. Simple, easy solution.
For me the issue was that I tried starting it with simply vboxmanage startvm ExampleVM but I didn't have X forwarding working, so it would presumably try to create a display and fail. Adding --type headless fixed the issue:
vboxmanage startvm ExampleVM --type headless
Of course, this only applies if headless is what you want to do.
I cross-posted this answer from a very similar question (same error code) at
Below commands Fixed for me (Ubuntu 18.04)
Reinstall the virtualbox-dkms
sudo apt install virtualbox-dkmsRestart the virualbox
After a freeze of Linux I had to do a "hard" restart of my Laptop. After reboot none of my VirtualBoxes was able to be started. I got the same error message with every Box: ns_error_failure 0x80004005.
Solution: Another regular restart of Linux
Sounds too simple, but it worked.
I had the same issue today and the cause was that the network adapter the VM was using until yesterday doesn't exist anymore on my host (Mint 20) for some reason.
My error message was
"Nonexistent host networking interface, name 'enp4s0' (VERR_INTERNAL_ERROR)."I went into the VM's network properties, changed the network adapter from Bridged to something else and then back to Bridged. For whatever reason, the network interface is now enp6s0.
