VB cannot start machine, vboxnet0 not found

[OZ]

Hey folks,

I am running VB v5.1.18r14002 on a Windows 10 computer. I've imported an appliance and keep seeing the following error when I attempt to start the machine:

Code: Select all

Could not start the machine GNS3 VM because the following physical network interfaces were not found:
vboxnet0 (adapter 1)
You can either change the machine's network settings or stop the machine.

I have done some research on this and tried a couple of suggestions from this forum and elsewhere, but have not able to been able to get this work on my setup.

On my Network Connections settings page, I have a VirtualBox Host-Only Network Adapter. I have tried disabling and enabling this as well as verifying that "VirtualBox NDIS6 Bridged Networking Driver" is checked within the Adapter's properties.

In VirtualBox network settings, I also see this adapter within the Host-only Networks page and can be viewed from the CLI as well.

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C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>vboxmanage list hostonlyifs
Name:            VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter
GUID:            4a397aeb-e228-4130-9023-c9782a4ebc6f
DHCP:            Disabled
IPAddress:       192.168.56.1
NetworkMask:     255.255.255.0
IPV6Address:     fe80:0000:0000:0000:0d91:add6:0b85:8938
IPV6NetworkMaskPrefixLength: 64
HardwareAddress: 0a:00:27:00:00:1f
MediumType:      Ethernet
Status:          Up
VBoxNetworkName: HostInterfaceNetworking-VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter

C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>

Any suggestions that would help fix this, would be most appreciated.

Thanks in advance

[BillG]

Why are you looking at the host machine's network settings? The error you see is complaining about a lack of an adapter in the virtual machine.

What adapters are configured in the vm?

[OZ]

Hi Bill,

Here are the relevant adapter configuration as seen in the OVA file.

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    <VirtualHardwareSection>
      // Some items here
      <Item>
        <rasd:AutomaticAllocation>true</rasd:AutomaticAllocation>
        <rasd:Caption>Ethernet adapter on 'HostOnly'</rasd:Caption>
        <rasd:Connection>HostOnly</rasd:Connection>
        <rasd:ElementName>Ethernet adapter on 'HostOnly'</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>8</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:ResourceSubType>E1000</rasd:ResourceSubType>
        <rasd:ResourceType>10</rasd:ResourceType>
      </Item>
      <Item>
        <rasd:AutomaticAllocation>true</rasd:AutomaticAllocation>
        <rasd:Caption>Ethernet adapter on 'NAT'</rasd:Caption>
        <rasd:Connection>NAT</rasd:Connection>
        <rasd:ElementName>Ethernet adapter on 'NAT'</rasd:ElementName>
        <rasd:InstanceID>9</rasd:InstanceID>
        <rasd:ResourceSubType>E1000</rasd:ResourceSubType>
        <rasd:ResourceType>10</rasd:ResourceType>
      </Item>
    </VirtualHardwareSection>
// More settings here
       <Network>
          <Adapter slot="0" enabled="true" MACAddress="080027E2D123" cable="true" speed="0" type="82540EM">
            <DisabledModes>
              <NAT>
                <DNS pass-domain="true" use-proxy="false" use-host-resolver="false"/>
                <Alias logging="false" proxy-only="false" use-same-ports="false"/>
              </NAT>
              <InternalNetwork name="intnet"/>
              <NATNetwork name="NatNetwork"/>
            </DisabledModes>
            <HostOnlyInterface name="vboxnet0"/>
          </Adapter>
         <Adapter slot="1" enabled="true" MACAddress="080027B509A9" cable="true" speed="0" type="82540EM">
            <DisabledModes>
              <InternalNetwork name="intnet"/>
              <NATNetwork name="NatNetwork"/>
            </DisabledModes>
            <NAT>
              <DNS pass-domain="true" use-proxy="false" use-host-resolver="false"/>
              <Alias logging="false" proxy-only="false" use-same-ports="false"/>
            </NAT>
          </Adapter>
          <Adapter slot="2" enabled="false" MACAddress="080027111DB4" cable="true" speed="0" type="82540EM">
            <DisabledModes>
              <NAT>
                <DNS pass-domain="true" use-proxy="false" use-host-resolver="false"/>
                <Alias logging="false" proxy-only="false" use-same-ports="false"/>
              </NAT>
            </DisabledModes>
          </Adapter>
          // Adapters 3-7 defined here, mirroring slot 2 above
       </Network>

Pls let me know if anything is amiss or if more info is required.

Cheers

[socratis]

Please attach the whole definition file, parts of it are not useful. Zip it first. Or tell us where to find it.

[OZ]

Hi Socratis - Here's the zipped copy of the file I imported into my hypervisor running VirtualBox v5.1.18r14002 (Qt 5.6.2)

https://github.com/GNS3/gns3-gui/releas ... .1.5.3.zip

I haven't made any changes to the ova file and the checksum matched just fine

Thanks in advance.

[socratis]

Could not start the machine GNS3 VM because the following physical network interfaces were not found:
vboxnet0 (adapter 1)
You can either change the machine's network settings or stop the machine.

Name:            VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter

VM Settings » Network » Adapter 1 » Name: » click on the "Name" and select "VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter".

[OZ]

Hey Socratis,

"VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter" is the currently selected (and in my case, the only available option) for Adapter1 name (settings are attached). Are there any other things that could be wrong?

[OZ]

Hi all,

So, after my last post, I took another look at my machine and after attempting a few seemingly unrelated steps, the VM now works!

Summarily and for the benefit of anyone who may encounter this, there was an invalid settings warning in the VM settings dialog page, which essentially was a warning to increase the video memory in Display settings. I did this and saw another warning related to the remote display function needing the installation of the extension pack.

I installed the VB extension pack, restarted my VB, powered up the machine and it worked! So, without rebooting my computer or making any network changes which the initial error implied, this issue seems to have been fixed.

It is not clear to me what exactly did the trick - extension pack or virtual memory expansion. Perhaps someone can chime in and shed some light on what the real error was and why the error indicating a missing network adapter did not really have anything to do with my network settings.

Thanks all. Happy to provide more information, if needed.

[BillG]

Very curious. I just imported that ova. It did give me the same message. I had a look at the vm and adapter 1 is assigned to host only (which I don't have) but adapter 2 is assigned to NAT (but not enabled). I disabled adapter 1 and enabled adapter 2 and everything was fine.

The warnings are just warnings. More graphic memory is a good idea, but you only need the extension pack if you plan to access the vm remotely.

[OZ]

That's interesting. I actually need the host-only adapter for the VM and didn't consider disabling it. In fact, I have both adapters enabled and the VM works fine.

[socratis]

It's all explainable...

First of all, what BillG said about warnings: the vRAM (and the total RAM that I also got) are just warnings, not fatal. Assigning however a non-existent network adapter to your HostOnly adapter's "Name", is fatal. Hence the error message that OZ got, with an option to fix it.

Second, when you open the settings for a VM, and there is a non-existing "Name" for the HostOnly adapter, VirtualBox will automagically try and correct it. Which it did ^[1]. Press "OK" in the settings dialog and the automatic changes are registered ^[2]. Which is what happened when OZ fixed the other two warnings; it fixed the network adapter problem. BillG on the other hand disabled the adapter completely, eliminating the problem at its roots.

---

^[1]: BTW, the same thing would happen if you imported a VM which had a NIC attached to a non-existing adapter in Bridged mode.

^[2]: Re-import the VM. Look at the Network section in VirtualBox Manager and it says "Host-only Adapter, 'vboxnet0'". Open the VM Settings in the Network section. The "Name" has changed (♫ do you believe in magic? ♫). If you press "Cancel" you'll end up again with 'vboxnet0', but if you press "OK", it will be 'VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter'.

[OZ]

Ah, that explains it. Cheers y'all.

[wakatana]

Guys how did you managed to work it? I have similar problem. Thanks.