host-only adapter stays down

[RichardR]

On a new Linux host, (kernel 4-16.13) running VirtualBox-5.2.12, the host-only virtual network adapter is not working. (On an older Linux box, with same version of VirtualBox it works without issue.) All of the following is on the Linux host, not any guest:

I have set an ip and netmask in VirtualBox's Host Netwrok Manager using "Configure Adapter Manually" Then "ip addr" shows:

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10: vboxnet0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 0a:00:27:00:00:00 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.15.1/24 brd 192.168.15.255 scope global vboxnet0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

Which is correct.
I can run "ip link set dev vboxnet0 up" and not receive any error, but "ip addr" still shows the link as being DOWN, see above.

In /var/log/messages, sometimes (but not consistently) I receive the following message:

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kernel: IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): vboxnet0: link is not ready

But in the Host Network Manager I left the IPv6 Address blank and the IPv6 Prefix Length is 0

Any ideas on getting host-only networking working ?

[socratis]

All of the following is on the Linux host, not any guest

Are you trying to bring the HostOnly up for what exact purpose, if you don't have any guests running? What are you trying to do? And why?