Unable to get Webmin or Vboxdrv to auto start on boot

Question

Ever since installing Ubuntu 10.04 I've had issues getting things to auto-start.

I have installed webmin and VirtualBox but every time I reboot I have to manually run:

sudo /etc/init.d/webmin start
sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv start

I have run:

sudo update-rc.d -f webmin remove

and then

hodge@hodge-fs:~$ sudo update-rc.d webmin defaults
update-rc.d: warning: webmin start runlevel arguments (2 3 4 5) do not match LSB Default-Start values (2 3 5)
 Adding system startup for /etc/init.d/webmin ...
   /etc/rc0.d/K20webmin -> ../init.d/webmin
   /etc/rc1.d/K20webmin -> ../init.d/webmin
   /etc/rc6.d/K20webmin -> ../init.d/webmin
   /etc/rc2.d/S20webmin -> ../init.d/webmin
   /etc/rc3.d/S20webmin -> ../init.d/webmin
   /etc/rc4.d/S20webmin -> ../init.d/webmin
   /etc/rc5.d/S20webmin -> ../init.d/webmin

But it they still refuse to start on boot. Any ideas?

Answer 1

In /etc/init/rc-sysinit.conf change

start on filesystem and net-device-up IFACE=lo

to

start on filesystem and net-device-up IFACE=eth0

This will fix your 'runlevel' from coming up as unknown. I can't explain it, but I've been wrestling with the same issue. I found the workaround here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=9213567&postcount=7

As a result your init scripts will work again. For me it was affecting virtualbox-ose, mysql, and cups.

Answer 2

Find out what your current runlevel is, enter 'runlevel' at the command line'. Then check that links to the webmin and vboxdrv init files are present in the relevant rc directory, and they begin with an S. e.g.

runlevel
> N 2
ls /etc/rc.2/ -l
> S20vboxdrv -> ../init.d/vboxdrv

If they are present and on restarting nothing happens, checkout /var/log/messages to see if anything useful is listed. If nothing stands out, you could try enabling your bootlog: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=49925

If all else fails you can add the relevant commands to /etc/rc.local

I have VirtualBox and Webmin running fine on Ubuntu 10.04 on startup, so this isn't a compatibility issue. However, you may want to check that you are running current versions of both software packages.