After installation of 6.0.8, I now have TWO Virtualbox Host Only adapters

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Rootman
Posts: 251
Joined: 1. Oct 2012, 18:29

After installation of 6.0.8, I now have TWO Virtualbox Host Only adapters

Post by Rootman »

After installation of 6.0.8, I somehow now have TWO Virtualbox Host Only adapters. I've gone to the Device Manager and deleted one, it came back. I deleted BOTH, They BOTH came back.

Before I go through the uninstallation and reinstallation of VB itself, is there a quick and dirty way to get rid of one of the adapters?

I had issues installing 6.0.8 and had a few failed installation attempts as per this post: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=93135#p448630. I suspect that is the reason, perhaps it's because the way I succeeded in getting 6.0.8 to install on this laptop was to run the installation with the actual local administrators accounts credentials, whereas previous installations were done with MY AD credentials, I AM in the local administrators group BTW.

Host: Windows 10 64 bit Enterprise on an AD domain.
Rootman
Posts: 251
Joined: 1. Oct 2012, 18:29

Re: After installation of 6.0.8, I now have TWO Virtualbox Host Only adapters

Post by Rootman »

OK, my GoogleFu must have been off last Friday when I searched this. Today it yielded a result that worked. I used this command - TWICE - to remove both instances. I removed both just so that after the next upgrade there wouldn't be a chance of it duplicating the issue again. I don't happen to ever use the host only adapter.

The interface must be enabled in the host active in order to be removed.

vboxmanage hostonlyif remove "VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter"
BillG
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Re: After installation of 6.0.8, I now have TWO Virtualbox Host Only adapters

Post by BillG »

If you never use it, why install it? There is are options in the installer so you need not install items you do not use.

I never install the host only adapter, USB support or Python because I have no use for them.
Bill
socratis
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Re: After installation of 6.0.8, I now have TWO Virtualbox Host Only adapters

Post by socratis »

I think there's some slight confusion here...

The first thing is that enabling the installation of the HostOnly adapters during installation, installs the low level drivers. For some Windows users that creates a 2nd or N-th instance of a single network adapter, mostly by name, such as "VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #N". Nobody but Windows know why. I've personally installed and reinstalled VirtualBox on my 3 Win hosts a gazillion times and I've never had that.

The second thing is:
Rootman wrote:After installation of 6.0.8, I somehow now have TWO Virtualbox Host Only adapters.
Where do you have that? In the Network Connections? In the Device Manager? In VirtualBox? In theory the correct answer is "All of the above".

The proper way to remove a "VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #N" is from within VirtualBox, Tools » Network, because it's stored in the VirtualBox.xml global preferences. I'm not sure what happens if you delete them from the DeviceManager, but I guess that's why you were seeing them again.
 Edit: Update 
You can't delete the "VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #N" from either the Device Manager or the Network Connections, you can only disable them. So I guess the only place you can actually delete it, is from within VirtualBox.
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Rootman
Posts: 251
Joined: 1. Oct 2012, 18:29

Re: After installation of 6.0.8, I now have TWO Virtualbox Host Only adapters

Post by Rootman »

Answers to questions:
BOTH were named 'VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter' with no following number.

As to where? Twice In the list of network NICs on the host and twice in te hosts device manager.

Why install it? Because I HAVE used it in the past, so the word NEVER in my original post is not totally accurate. I might use it again, but doubt it, so I always install it just for the heck of it.

No idea why it installed TWICE. As to if it was actually the same device I am unsure, it did appear twice in the hosts device manager list, so I suspect not. I know that after running the 'vboxmanage hostonlyif remove "VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter"' command it only removed ONE instance, running it again removed the second. Regardless if never happened to you, it happened to me, and may to someone else. Should it, hopefully they will find this thread and be able to remove it as I did.

I first tried the 'VirtualBox, Tools » Network' (actually VirtualBox, Tools » Preferences » Network) and removed it there, both devices were still listed in the host. Even after a reboot.

So, it was an oddball. I will likely not select it when installing again. It's never been an issue and really wasn't this time either as I just disabled them and ignored them. I was just curious how to get rid of it and didn't want to take a possible chance of it adding a third device after the next VB update.
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