Fixing the Virtual Box Kali Linux VM ‘kernel service not running’ issue.

The actual pop-up error looks like this:

VBoxClient: the VirtualBox kernel service is not running. Exiting.

I experienced this issue while using my Kali Linux VM in Virtual Box. It happened a couple of times. Though I mostly fixed it by reinstalling the VBox Guest Additions in my Kali VM, during my last incident, it didn’t work. It got a bit frustrating but I looked up multiple solutions online and found one that worked for my latest occurrence of the issue.

This issue disables features like Shared Clipboard which are useful when using both your VM and Host OS. Below are solutions you can use to fix it:

First, update Kali: sudo apt update

Try 1 and then 2 first [If 1 doesn’t work].

1. Reinstall the VBox Guests Additions ISO in your (Kali) Linux VM.

This has worked most of the time and should be the first try.

• Mount the VBox Guest Additions ISO.
• Go to its directory.
• Run sudo ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
• If it doesn’t work, copy all the files in this dir into a local folder and name it e.g. VBoxAdditions. Run the above command again.

2. Completely remove the VBox Guest Additions ISO & the config files.

This one worked in my latest occurrence of the issue and seems to be very effective but it’ll require that you reinstall the VBox Guest Additions ISO after executing the following commands.

• Open the terminal and type, sudo apt --purge remove 'virtualbox-guest-*
• Type: reboot or manually restart Kali.
• Mount and install the Vbox Guest Additions ISO using sudo ./VBoxLinuxAdditons.run
• If you can’t install it directly, copy the contents of the dir locally and run the install command from there.

3. Upgrading the Guest Additions ISO.

It’s also worth a try since an outdated Guest Additions ISO could be the problem.

• Click on the Upgrade Guest Additions ISO.

4. Reinstall VirtualBox in your Host OS.

This one has worked for me only once so it’s not the best but it’s worth a try.

• Uninstall VirtualBox, and make sure to NOT delete your VMs. Only remove the VMs from Virtual Box but DON’T CLICK delete.
• Download and install the latest version of Virtual Box afresh.
• Add back all the VMs you had removed [not deleted].