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Victor O. Alvarez Torres
Victor O. Alvarez Torres

Posted on • Originally published at voalvarez.wordpress.com on

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Fedora linux, VirtualBox and secure-boot

Today after installing and trying to run Virtual Box on Fedora 25, I noticed that since secure-boot prevents unsigned kernel modules from running, it can be disabled as an easy solution to running VirtualBox on Fedora 25.

Two explanations from this fedora forum link :

Ok it won’t work, as I said above…

Then I had a look in the bios, and I saw that the Secure Boot is enable (there was Windows 8 on this computer before…) I disabled it just in case, and then it works

Yes, secure boot could have a definite impact if the virtualbox kernel module isn’t signed. That is exactly what secure boot is supposed to prevent.

With secure boot, your kernel and all kernel modules have to be signed.

Now this is where things get tricky or flat out painful.

You kernel is signed by Fedora using their key. Fedora isn’t going to sign the virtualbox drivers, especially since it goes against their FOSS policy. Oracle can’t sign virtualbox using Fedora’s key.

So, you are pretty much left with 2 options.

1: Disable secure boot

or

2: get your own key and sign everything yourself.

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