Genymotion, “Unable to load VirtualBox engine.” on Mavericks. VBox is setup correctly

Question

I keep getting the following error:

I have reinstalled, deleted and tried about EVERYTHING to get Genymotion to work again.

I do not have the device I need, but Genymotion was PERFECT for the job, until Mavericks update I have been fighting to get it to work again.

MacBook Pro, Retina 13-inch, Early 2013. i5, 8gb.

I'm running version 1.3.1 for os x. I do have Virtualbox 4.3 installed with Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.3.0-89960.vbox-extpack too.

My Virtualbox starts up normally without ANY errors. I tried Environment variables putting vbox on my $PATH, all sorts of things. Nothing works!

I have no idea what to do anymore, anyone out there had similar problems and fixed it ?

EDIT: LOG:

Oct 28 09:49:36 [Genymotion] [Warning] ****  STARTING GENYMOTION  **** 
Oct 28 09:49:36 [Genymotion] [Warning] Genymotion Version: Genymotion 1.3.1 
Oct 28 09:49:36 [Genymotion] [Debug] Network request to URL:  "/launchpad/last_version/mac/x64/" 
Oct 28 09:49:39 [Genymotion] [Debug] Genymotion server informs that version  "1.3.0"  is available from  "https://ssl-files.genymotion.com/genymotion/genymotion-1.3.0/genymotion-1.3.0.dmg" 
Oct 28 09:49:39 [Genymotion] [Debug] Version: "1" 
Oct 28 09:49:39 [Genymotion] [Error] Genymotion is newer than the database... how is possible? 
Oct 28 09:49:39 [Genymotion] [Debug] Getting currently authenticated user from  local cache 
Oct 28 09:49:39 [Genymotion] [Debug] Loading "vboxmanage" plugin 
Oct 28 09:49:39 [Genymotion] [Debug] Library loaded with success 
Oct 28 09:49:39 [Genymotion] [Debug] Chipset: "GenuineIntel" 
Oct 28 09:49:39 [Genymotion] [Debug] CPUID 0x1 (Intel): ECX= "7fbae3bf" 
Oct 28 09:49:39 [Genymotion] [Debug] VBoxManage path (default value): "VBoxManage" 
Oct 28 09:50:09 [Genymotion] [Debug] Can't run VBoxManage ("list", "hostonlyifs") 
Oct 28 09:50:09 [Genymotion] [Warning] QProcess: Destroyed while process is still running.
Oct 28 09:50:09 [Genymotion] [Error] "Fail to load vboxmanage plugin from /Applications/Genymotion.app/Contents/MacOS/plugins/" 
Oct 28 09:50:09 [Genymotion] [Error] Unable to find VM Engine. Plugin loading aborted. 

EDIT 2:

VBoxManage list hostonlyifs

Prints the following:

VBoxManage: error: Failed to create the VirtualBox object!
VBoxManage: error: Code NS_BASE_STREAM_WOULD_BLOCK (0x80470007) - Stream operation would block (extended info not available)
VBoxManage: error: Most likely, the VirtualBox COM server is not running or failed to start.

Answer 1

I had the same problem and solved it by running the following command:

sudo /Library/StartupItems/VirtualBox/VirtualBox restart

In later versions, the command is

sudo /Library/Application\ Support/VirtualBox/LaunchDaemons/VirtualBoxStartup.sh restart

Make sure you've unblocked VirtualBox's kernel extensions in System Preferences->Security and Privacy->General (You'll get a popup when you install VirtualBox).

Answer 2

Eventually, you might not have anything in your /Library/StartupItems.

Using the following command helps :

sudo /Library/Application\ Support/VirtualBox/LaunchDaemons/VirtualBoxStartup.sh restart

It worked for me on two different Mavericks installs.

Answer 3

Update: Genymotion's 2.5.1 release (https://www.genymotion.com/#!/release-notes/251#251) seems to have fixed this issue. (thanks for the heads up @Roger!)

---

For those that may be stumbling upon this a bit later, I resolved this by installing VirtualBox 4.3.28 (https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Download_Old_Builds_4_3). The new 5.0.0 and 4.3.30 versions didn't work for me with Genymotion 2.5. None of the above solutions worked :(

It's also worth noting that at the time of writing, Genymotion's FAQ states the following:

However, for performance reasons, we recommend using version 4.3.12

Answer 4

You need to restart VirtualBox service you can do it with this:

sudo /Library/StartupItems/VirtualBox/VirtualBox restart

If in this path is empty you can use:

sudo /Library/Application\ Support/VirtualBox/LaunchDaemons/VirtualBoxStartup.sh restart

After I use Parallels I always need to do it.

Answer 5

On Ubuntu GNU/Linux:

sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

Answer 6

What worked for me in Win 7 is to remove the Host-only Network (in Oracle virtual box preferences menu [CTRL+G] -> Network -> host only networks). Genymotion will recreate it automatically at the next virtual device start.

Answer 7

Ok after a whole productive day down the drain I got it to work.

First I uninstalled all traces of Genymotion and Virtualbox. I then proceeded to install Genymotion and then Virtual Box again, but the previous version (4.2.18)

I ran Genymotion, Downloaded an Image, I got an error message about the network trying to run it. So I ran it Directly inside Virtual Box, It started up 100% with network and everything. I shut it down, went to Image's settings and changed the first adapter to "Host-only".

I opened the Genymotion Launcher again and "Played" my device and it started up with no problems.

Answer 8

For those who are hitting this thread from Mac OSX with the same error message but a potentially different problem:

1) Check that you have opened GenyMotion through /Applications and that you have enabled the internet permissions

2) Install Virtual box from here: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads. Once you download and install, retry running GenyMotion

3) If those do not work, try Mul0w''s suggestion:

sudo /Library/Application\ Support/VirtualBox/LaunchDaemons/VirtualBoxStartup.sh restart

Answer 9

It happens when upgrading to el capitan from yosemite. Virtual box needs to be installed again. Reinstalling geny motion does nothing. You will keep all your virtual devices unchanged.

Answer 10

For Arch Linux try this :

sudo vboxreload

Answer 11

Deleting Host-only network helped me. 1. Open Virtual Box 2. File->Preferences-> Network 3. Select the Host-only network and remove it.

Now try starting the Genymotion.

Answer 12

Uninstall VirtualBox with uninstaller (it comes with dmg), then install VirtualBox again. This has solved that issue for me.

Answer 13

Virtual box version 4.3.28 worked with Genymotion 2.5.2 for me. Nothing else seemed to work.

Answer 14

i installed Oracle virtualbox (Download link) then everything working fine

Answer 15

On Ubuntu 16.04 vboxdrv is not longer in /etc/init.d, therefore you must run this:

/usr/lib/virtualbox/vboxdrv.sh setup

Answer 16

I also Struggled with el captain installed. I installed the VirtualBox 4.3.26 version. Other latest versions doesnt worked for me. It works like a charm :)

Answer 17

In GNU/Linux you can use this command

 /etc/init.d/virtualbox

Options

• start
• stop
• stop_vms
• restart
• force-reload
• status

for example

 /etc/init.d/virtualbox force-reload

Good Luck