virtualbox.org

This one is really annoying. I am experiencing the same issue over and over again - every-time cutting my WiFi connection.
Especially in times of home-office this is bad as it always also cuts the VPN connection or video-conference.
My "solution" is to uninstall VBox as long as I don't need to use it and re-install it for a temporary time if I need to use it.
I tried many suggestions:
- Remove binding on the network adapter (WLAN adapter only)
- Remove binding on all network adapters
- Remove all other bindings
- Remove IPv6
- Completely fresh install (incl. Windows!)
...and basically they all failed.

Is there anything I can do about? Did anyone trace the bug down to the source code level?

I split this from the old overly-long-because-no-one-reads-it-and-applies-its-solution original topic, now locked because new posters don't read it and apply its solution.

The event 12 error is not the cause of the problem. It refers to something else: I have these errors on my perfectly-working Virtualbox host all the time.

We will need exact specifics regarding your Virtualbox setup and what is happening when your Wi-Fi connection is cut, what VMs were running and what Virtualbox network types were being used. We will also need zipped vbox.logs and .vbox files for each VM running at the time of the cut, and what each VM was doing.

For the vbox.logs and .vbox files:

Start the VM from full normal shutdown, not save-state. Run until you see the problem happen, then shut down the VM from within the VM's OS if possible. If not possible, close the Virtualbox window for the VM with the Power Off option set.

Right-click the VM in the main Virtualbox window's VM list, choose Show Log. Save the far left tab's log, zip it, and post the zip file, using the forum's Upload Attachment tab.

Also, right-click the VM in the main Virtualbox window's VM list, choose Show in Explorer/Finder/File Manager. Zip the VM's .vbox file (not the .vbox-prev file), and post the zip file, using the forum's Upload Attachment tab. (Configure your host OS to show all extensions if the folder that opens does not show a .vbox file.)

Slimfast wrote:Did anyone trace the bug down to the source code level?

Yes, in the thread you originally posted to: ID Event 12 for VBoxNetLwf (Source Code Ref). And you'd probably not get the Windows Event Log entry any more if you'd used the workaround described in ID Event 12 for VBoxNetLwf (Mitigation). I don't expect that it will solve your problem, though.

PS: Cross reference to your ticket in the Bugtracker: 20462.

I am am sorry for answering late but I did not get notified about a change neither here in the forums nor in the ticket system.

I understand your question but I doubt it is related to any VM. The reason is that this happens even if I am not running VirtualBox at all. So basically "out-of-nowhere" this event occurs and kicks my WiFi connection. It recovers after 1-2 minutes. This happens several times a day, if VirtualBox is just installed (not necessarily used).

Also: If I completely un-install VirtualBox this issue is completely gone and my WiFi is stable. It took me some time to find that out, I can tell. That's why I suspect this event and therefore VBoxNetLwf.

While the vast majority of Virtualbox users don't have problems with this error, it could be possible there is a bug somewhere in your computer that causes the interaction you see.

If you uninstall Virtualbox then reinstall with Bridged capabilities disabled, does the same problem happen?

To make it better understandable for other readers of this thread (my fault ):

In ticket 20462, Slimfast wrote:Randomly, the VBoxNetLwf driver crashes and causes an event log entry with ID 12. Unfortunately this also causes the WiFi connection to disconnect and it takes some time until Windows recovers internet connection.

In ticket 20462, fth0 wrote:What makes you think that the VBoxNetLwf driver crashes?

I asked that question, because when the VBoxNetLwf driver creates this Windows Event Log entry, it does not terminate itself. This entry is rather ubiquitous in many VirtualBox installations having no problems at all. So the question remains, if you saw any (other) indication of a crash of the VBoxNetLwf driver, because this information could be important.

Other than that, I think I understand your problem description. The VBoxNetLwf driver being installed suffices to reproduce your problem. It is not necessary that a VM is running at the time of the problem. Is it necessary that a VM has been run since the previous start of your host system?

What happens if you use the known mitigation and disconnect the VBoxNetLwf driver from all network adapters, including the WiFi adapter? Does the problem still occur?

scottgus1 wrote:If you uninstall Virtualbox then reinstall with Bridged capabilities disabled, does the same problem happen?

I'm afraid don't know how to do that. The options I can choose during the installation do not include such an option.
What would I need to do?

fth0 wrote:Is it necessary that a VM has been run since the previous start of your host system?

I tried that and no: As soon as I install VirtualBox - and Not running it - these type of issues appear.

fth0 wrote:What happens if you use the known mitigation and disconnect the VBoxNetLwf driver from all network adapters, including the WiFi adapter? Does the problem still occur?

Of course I tried that also several times during the past few version updates. It has no effect. Also, disabling other stuff from the adapters (that was another proposal somewhere) did not make it go away.

What I can say though is that if affects only the WiFi adapter. I am running VirtualBox on other machines connected trough Ethernet cable (and no WiFi adapter) and I don't have such issues at all. I usually install the same software on all of my PC's (well - two PC's and a laptop). So I would say except of maybe drivers due to another chipset, graphics card the installed software is more or less the same. I am truly stuck and ran out of ideas. Thats why I started this post. Unfortunate for me: The most important PC is the one with the WiFi only connection.

fth0 wrote:

Slimfast wrote:Did anyone trace the bug down to the source code level?

Yes, in the thread you originally posted to: ID Event 12 for VBoxNetLwf (Source Code Ref).

Good one! I missed that. But after inspecting: I think it doesn't really help to find out whats going on... as you said.

I understand now that the problem also occurs when the VBoxNetLwf driver is not connected to the WiFi Adapter, and that you have no indication that the VBoxNetLwf driver crashed. What's left then is the idea from scottgus1:

Slimfast wrote:

scottgus1 wrote:If you uninstall Virtualbox then reinstall with Bridged capabilities disabled, does the same problem happen?

I'm afraid don't know how to do that. The options I can choose during the installation do not include such an option.
What would I need to do?

In the German language version of VirtualBox 6.1.26, after deselecting the VirtualBox Bridged Networking the setup dialog would look as follows:

fth0 wrote:

scottgus1 wrote:If you uninstall Virtualbox then reinstall with Bridged capabilities disabled, does the same problem happen?

OK - I tried that now with exactly that version. I tested it a few days and times under different conditions:

The event is gone! But the error remains. WiFi connectivity drops from time to time.

So I agree: The Event is just a side-effect but has nothing to do with the root cause. The root cause seems still unknown to me. Disabling both adapter in the setup dialog makes no sense because I need a network card on most VM's. I could still test it though - would that be of interest? For now I stick with installing VirtualBox if needed and un-installing it after use. :-/

Let me know if I can help any further somehow!

Slimfast wrote:Disabling both adapter in the setup dialog makes no sense because I need a network card on most VM's.

I don't understand your reasoning. The other driver (VBoxNetAdp) is for the Host-only networking mode only. If you'd use one of the NAT or NAT Network networking modes, you wouldn't need any VirtualBox network driver at all. I'd recommend to try the NAT networking mode for a test.