Ubuntu – Permission denied when accessing su

There is no /var/log/vbox-install.log, it was not created. The error when you tried to install the kernel module states that it couldn't create that file because it lacked permissions.

Please to run a program as root use sudo, in your case you need to type:

sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

If there is any problem with it you can read the log with the command:

gedit /var/log/vbox-install.log

No need to be root just to read it.

Remove sudo, just do:

ssh nameofvminstance

then enter the password.

If you do sudo ssh nameofvminstance, then you are basically trying to log in to the host nameofvminstance as root, if thats the case then at first you need to enter the password of your account in the host computer to get the sudo access and then the password of the root account of nameofvminstance.

Now if you do ssh nameofvminstance, its basically a short form of ssh username@nameofvminstance where the username in the remote computer is the same as the currently logged in user of the host machine i.e. you can use this format if both usernames are same otherwise you need to mention the username as ssh username@nameofvminstance.