1

I've installed the latest version of Kali Linux using virtualbox but I can't install guest additions, I found this question.

After uname -r command I have in my terminal:

4.15.0-kali2-amd64

And when I try to install linux-headers executing apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r) command I have the following errors:

Unable to locate package linux-headers-4.15.0-kali2-amd64
Couldn't find any package by global 'linux-headers-4.15.0-kali2-amd64'
Couldn't find any package by regex 'linux-headers-4.15.0-kali2-amd64'

For comparison I've installed Ubuntu on Virtualbox and it is working fine.

Please tell me what can I do in this case?

GAD3R
  • 63,407
  • 31
  • 131
  • 192
Uladz Kha
  • 179
  • 3
  • 9
  • 2
    Kudos on that edit @Rui, I much prefer that over linking to the usual Q&A ;-) – Stephen Kitt Aug 26 '18 at 09:21
  • @StephenKitt I have my honest doubts this question seen from a broader angle has not been asked before. However, it is a waste to close a well written question with a good answer. – Rui F Ribeiro Aug 26 '18 at 09:24

2 Answers2

4

Your kernel is out-of-date, and the corresponding kernel header packages are no longer available. You need to upgrade your system:

apt update
apt upgrade

then reboot your VM. This should give you the current kernel, 4.17.0-kali3 as I write this, and allow you to install the corresponding header packages.

To install the guest additions then, run the following command:

apt install virtualbox-guest-dkms virtualbox-guest-x11 linux-headers-$(uname -r)
Stephen Kitt
  • 411,918
  • 54
  • 1,065
  • 1,164
  • I don't know how and why but my /etc/apt/sources.list file was empty i just added "Couldn't find any package by regex 'linux-headers-4.15.0-kali2-amd64'" into this file and followed your steps in your answer and it is working fine for me. Thanks for your help! – Uladz Kha Aug 26 '18 at 09:42
  • 1
    Stephen, We are having multiple instances of people having the `sources.list` empty. It might be more than clueless users, or a statistic anomaly, something is wrong. Which in turns makes that duplicatte having more sense where applicable. – Rui F Ribeiro Aug 26 '18 at 09:46
  • Yes, I think there are several (real) dupes for this question... – Stephen Kitt Aug 26 '18 at 10:52
0

When you run apt update and the kernel getting updated to a newer version. The command uname -r may takes the current older kernel version.

This mismatches between the updated kernel version and the old version the reason why it fails.

So to test: Do not update

  1. apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
  2. do not install the new headers
  3. run update and upgrade
  4. rerun apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
  5. error
  6. reboot
  7. rerun apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
  8. works..
herpyderp
  • 11
  • Welcome, The question is how to install the guest addition, not the `linux-headers`. – GAD3R Sep 21 '18 at 14:38
  • 1
    It does seem like the *title* of the question is aimed at installing the guest additions, but the question (confusingly) lands at asking how to get past the "unable to locate ... linux-headers..." issue. – Jeff Schaller Sep 21 '18 at 15:07
  • 1
    @JeffSchaller Already mentioned on the accepted answer , upgrading the package , rebooting , installing the kernel headers and the guest additions. – GAD3R Sep 22 '18 at 10:13
  • That it does and I was providing feedback on why it fails. Sure it was the accepted answer but I wanted to provide additional information on WHY it actually fails. Don't understand the downvoting tbh. – herpyderp Sep 28 '18 at 13:24