virtualbox - E: Package 'linux-headers-4.15.0-29-generic' has no installation candidate

Question

I am trying to set up VirtualBox on Ubuntu 18.04 but when I try to run it says:

WARNING: The vboxdrv kernel module is not loaded. Either there is no module
     available for the current kernel (4.15.0-29-generic) or it failed to
     load. Please recompile the kernel module and install it by

       sudo /sbin/vboxconfig

     You will not be able to start VMs until this problem is fixed.

So I ran sudo /sbin/vboxconfig, for which I got the following error:

vboxdrv.sh: Stopping VirtualBox services.
vboxdrv.sh: Starting VirtualBox services.
vboxdrv.sh: Building VirtualBox kernel modules.
This system is currently not set up to build kernel modules.
Please install the Linux kernel "header" files matching the current kernel
for adding new hardware support to the system.
The distribution packages containing the headers are probably:
    linux-headers-generic linux-headers-4.15.0-29-generic
This system is currently not set up to build kernel modules.
Please install the Linux kernel "header" files matching the current kernel
for adding new hardware support to the system.
The distribution packages containing the headers are probably:
    linux-headers-generic linux-headers-4.15.0-29-generic

There were problems setting up VirtualBox.  To re-start the set-up process, run
  /sbin/vboxconfig
as root.  If your system is using EFI Secure Boot you may need to sign the
kernel modules (vboxdrv, vboxnetflt, vboxnetadp, vboxpci) before you can load
them. Please see your Linux system's documentation for more information.

I tried to run sudo apt install linux-headers-generic linux-headers-4.15.0-29-generic but got the following error:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Package linux-headers-4.15.0-29-generic is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source


E: Package 'linux-headers-4.15.0-29-generic' has no installation candidate

Update: This is the output of running sudo apt install virtualbox-dkms dkms

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
dkms is already the newest version (2.3-3ubuntu9).
dkms set to manually installed.
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  kbuild libsdl-ttf2.0-0 module-assistant
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following additional packages will be installed:
  virtualbox virtualbox-qt
Suggested packages:
  vde2 virtualbox-guest-additions-iso
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  virtualbox-5.1
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  virtualbox virtualbox-dkms virtualbox-qt
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 1 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/26.3 MB of archives.
After this operation, 51.0 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
(Reading database ... 429944 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing virtualbox-5.1 (5.1.38-122592~Ubuntu~bionic) ...
Selecting previously unselected package virtualbox-dkms.
(Reading database ... 429153 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../virtualbox-dkms_5.2.10-dfsg-6_all.deb ...
Unpacking virtualbox-dkms (5.2.10-dfsg-6) ...
Selecting previously unselected package virtualbox.
Preparing to unpack .../virtualbox_5.2.10-dfsg-6_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking virtualbox (5.2.10-dfsg-6) ...
Selecting previously unselected package virtualbox-qt.
Preparing to unpack .../virtualbox-qt_5.2.10-dfsg-6_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking virtualbox-qt (5.2.10-dfsg-6) ...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.60ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-20) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.23-1ubuntu3.18.04.1) ...
Setting up virtualbox-dkms (5.2.10-dfsg-6) ...
Loading new virtualbox-5.2.10 DKMS files...
Building for 4.15.0-29-generic
Module build for kernel 4.15.0-29-generic was skipped since the
kernel headers for this kernel does not seem to be installed.
Setting up virtualbox (5.2.10-dfsg-6) ...
vboxweb.service is a disabled or a static unit, not starting it.
Job for virtualbox.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See "systemctl status virtualbox.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.
invoke-rc.d: initscript virtualbox, action "restart" failed.
● virtualbox.service - LSB: VirtualBox Linux kernel module
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/virtualbox; generated)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sun 2021-01-24 13:24:20 IST; 10ms ago
     Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
  Process: 17173 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/virtualbox start (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Jan 24 13:24:19 Tux systemd[1]: Starting LSB: VirtualBox Linux kernel module...
Jan 24 13:24:19 Tux virtualbox[17173]:  * Loading VirtualBox kernel modules...
Jan 24 13:24:20 Tux virtualbox[17173]:  * No suitable module for running kernel found
Jan 24 13:24:20 Tux virtualbox[17173]:    ...fail!
Jan 24 13:24:20 Tux systemd[1]: virtualbox.service: Control process exited, code=exited status=1
Jan 24 13:24:20 Tux systemd[1]: virtualbox.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Jan 24 13:24:20 Tux systemd[1]: Failed to start LSB: VirtualBox Linux kernel module.
Processing triggers for bamfdaemon (0.5.3+18.04.20180207.2-0ubuntu1) ...
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf-2.index...
Processing triggers for systemd (237-3ubuntu10) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.8.3-2) ...
Processing triggers for shared-mime-info (1.9-2) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.13.3-11ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.17-2) ...
Setting up virtualbox-qt (5.2.10-dfsg-6) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-20) ...

I have turned secure boot off and turned on virtualisation in bios. I have also tried to install .deb package from virutalbox wesite but still getting this erro. A clean install of 20.04 is the only thing I have not done yet.

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65844093/e-package-linux-headers-4-15-0-29-generic-has-no-installation-candidate

Answer 1

The issue was resolved after I installed Ubuntu 20.04.