Error with pre-create check: VBoxManage not found. Make sure VirtualBox is installed and VBoxManage is in the path

I’m running Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS

I’ve installed VirtualBox 5.2. VBoxManage is in my path and I can run it no problem. But I get the above error message when I try to create a machine:

> sudo docker-machine create -d virtualbox ubuntu1
Running pre-create checks...
Error with pre-create check: "VBoxManage not found. Make sure VirtualBox is installed and VBoxManage is in the path"


> vboxmanage
Oracle VM VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 5.2.18
(C) 2005-2018 Oracle Corporation
All rights reserved.

Usage: ...

I ran it in debug mode. here’s the log. Not a whole lot in terms of additional information:

Docker Machine Version:  0.15.0, build b48dc28
Found binary path at /snap/docker/321/bin/docker-machine
Launching plugin server for driver virtualbox
Plugin server listening at address 127.0.0.1:33913
() Calling .GetVersion
Using API Version  1
() Calling .SetConfigRaw
() Calling .GetMachineName
(flag-lookup) Calling .GetMachineName
(flag-lookup) Calling .DriverName
(flag-lookup) Calling .GetCreateFlags
Found binary path at /snap/docker/321/bin/docker-machine
Launching plugin server for driver virtualbox
Plugin server listening at address 127.0.0.1:37421
() Calling .GetVersion
Using API Version  1
() Calling .SetConfigRaw
() Calling .GetMachineName
(default) Calling .GetMachineName
(default) Calling .DriverName
(default) Calling .GetCreateFlags
(default) Calling .SetConfigFromFlags
Reading certificate data from /home/pete/snap/docker/321/.docker/machine/certs/ca.pem
Decoding PEM data...
Parsing certificate...
Reading certificate data from /home/pete/snap/docker/321/.docker/machine/certs/cert.pem
Decoding PEM data...
Parsing certificate...
Running pre-create checks...
(default) Calling .PreCreateCheck
(default) DBG | COMMAND: VBoxManage --version
(default) DBG | STDOUT:
(default) DBG | {
(default) DBG | }
(default) DBG | STDERR:
(default) DBG | {
(default) DBG | }
Error with pre-create check: "VBoxManage not found. Make sure VirtualBox is installed and VBoxManage is in the path"
open /home/pete/snap/docker/321/.docker/machine/machines/default/default/Logs/VBox.log: no such file or directory
notifying bugsnag: [Error with pre-create check: "VBoxManage not found. Make sure VirtualBox is installed and VBoxManage is in the path"]

Of course, I can run Vboxmanage --version no problem. It tells me: 5.2.18r124319

vboxmanage is in /usr/bin

running sudo cat /proc/979/environ | tr '\0' '\n' (979 is the dockerd pid) shows that the path is:

PATH=/snap/docker/321/usr/sbin:/snap/docker/321/usr/bin:/snap/docker/321/sbin:/snap/docker/321/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games

So /usr/bin is there. Why can’t docker find it?

1 Like

Not exactly an answer to your question, but why do you need VirtualBox for docker on linux? Isn’t containerisation natively supported on linux?

It is my problem too. Please solve it!

SOLVED!
I just execute export PATH=PATH:(which vboxmanage) before createing machine!!

Doesn’t work for me either:

$ docker-machine create --driver virtualbox myvm1
Running pre-create checks...
Error with pre-create check: "VBoxManage not found. Make sure VirtualBox is installed and VBoxManage is in the path"
$ VBoxManage --version
5.2.18_Ubuntur123745
$ export PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin/vboxmanage
$ VBoxManage --version
5.2.18_Ubuntur123745
$ docker-machine create --driver virtualbox myvm1
Running pre-create checks...
Error with pre-create check: "VBoxManage not found. Make sure VirtualBox is installed and VBoxManage is in the path"

I have the same problem. @dockerid20192019. did you figure out the error.

1 Like

We can solve this problem by using below command

For Mac :
brew cask install virtualbox;

For Linux :
sudo apt-get install virtualbox