VirtualBox 2.6.26 Kernel Support

With Debian Lenny you can update to the 2.6.26 kernel, but in VirtualBox support for this version is not ready. A kernel panic will not allow the system to boot into a stable state, therefore for the time being users must retain use of 2.6.24. One major drawback is that there are no headers for the 2.6.24 kernel in Lenny. This forces VirtualBox users to wait to install guest additions, thus slightly decreasing stability because of the timing benifits associated with the VirtualBox kernel modules.

Overall because of this it is most likely best to still use Etch until Lenny progresses a bit further, specifically including some needed kernel headers or VirtualBox provides an update for better support of the 2.6.26 kernel.

Compiling Source on Debian Etch

On all Linux systems the header files, and possibly the kernel source, is required to compile a program. To install the kernel headers, and kernel source, on Debian Etch, type the following:

uname -r

See what your kernel version is. Everything after the “-” is not required in the following line. For instance my “uname -r” results in:

2.6.18-5-486

And to install the appropriate kernel headers I used the following:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Or you can just type it manually:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-2.6.18-5-486

As described above, do not write what is striked.

Then, for shits and giggles, as it most likely will never be required, you can install your kernel source code with:

sudo apt-get install linux-source-2.6.18:)