VirtualBox failing to start

Failed to acquire the VirtualBox COM object.

The application will now terminate.

Document is empty.

Location: '/home/dave/.config/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml', line 1 (0), column 1.

Please can anybody help me? I've uninstalled VirtualBox from command line and cleared it out of Synaptic, but still getting this error message...what does it mean? I've been using it for a while, and I've got Win11, Mint, MX and Kali in it

/build/virtualbox-a8SPVq/virtualbox-7.0.10-dfsg/src/VBox/Main/src-server/VirtualBoxImpl.cpp[830] (nsresult VirtualBox::init()).

Result Code: NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0X80004005)
Component: VirtualBoxWrap
Interface: IVirtualBox {7682d5eb-f00e-44f1-8ca2-99d08b1cd607}
Callee: IVirtualBoxClient {d2937a8e-cb8d-4382-90ba-b7da78a74573}
The Virtualbox.xml file is damaged.

Reboot the host so no Virtualbox processes are running.
Go to /Users/mainuser/Library/VirtualBox (note the period in the folder name)
Rename "Virtualbox.xml" to "Virtualbox.xml-bad"
Rename "Virtualbox.xml-prev" to "Virtualbox.xml"
Try Virtualbox again.

found it in ... Unable to Acquire the Virtual Box COM Object - virtualbox.org

1 Like

Thank you Pavios, i'll give that a try in a shake and will let you know how i get on