Thunderbolt Ethernet Not Working

[nritscherle]

I have been trying to run Ubuntu on Virtualbox from my Macbook, and I cannot get the internet to work in Virtualbox. My laptop is connected with a Thunderbolt ethernet adaptor, and internet is fine for my laptop. However, it won't run in Virtualbox. Here are the settings I have:

Enable Network Adaptor
Attached to: Bridged Adaptor
Name: en2 Thunderbolt 2 (I have the ethernet adaptor plugged into the second port)
Adaptor Type: Intel Pro/1000 MT Desktop (82540EM)
Promiscuous Mode: allow VMs

[socratis]

However, it won't run in Virtualbox.

Sure it will, I'm using a similar connection right now...

Name: en2 Thunderbolt 2 (I have the ethernet adaptor plugged into the second port)

I think you have selected the wrong option, you might need to select "en#: Thunderbolt Ethernet", that's the one that OSX is using. You can tell from the System Settings » Network.

Post the output (as text) of the following command from your Host:

• 
  VBoxManage list bridgedifs

[DallasBW]

Hi Socaratis, I think you are who i need to contact to sort the same issue on passthrough of the NIC on MacOS host to Windows 10 VM as nritscherie and also this forum thread-post here you answered 95134 . I am getting the same error on startup of the Win 10 VM that the adapter is not present. I am connecting through the Plugable TBT-3 Thunderbolt dock; ; that has the ethernet connection on the dock via the MacBook Pro Thunderbolt ports. I use a HP Thunderbolt dock at work and it implements the Ethernet via USB-C chipset than the Thunderbolt chipset and it sees the Ethernet adapter directly on USB redirect-passthrough. The Plugable dock though, the ethernet NIC is not passing through to bridge to the Win 10 VM guest. Any thoughts on ability to get the NIC to passthrough?
Unable to post the links above in full as not a member for a day and 1 post yet, so please put the relevant entry in front to access the links.
Many thanks for you efforts on the forum and time.

[scottgus1]

@DallasBW, It seems you are referring to this thread: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=95134

You might notice that in that thread, Junaidhk, the OP, posted screenshots and logs to help us figure out what was going on. I reckon you'll have to do the same thing somehow.

We may be able to skip the screenshots. Please post, as text in

Code: Select all

 tags, the output of this command:

[pre][color=#800040]vboxmanage list bridgedifs[/color][/pre]

Also, find the guest folder and zip & post the guest's .vbox file, using the forum's Upload Attachment tab.

[DallasBW]

Hi scottgus1, thank you very much for assisting. I have uploaded what i think is needed and will assist here. Please let me know if any other collateral will help.

[scottgus1]

Of the several network connections you have available, these two have active IP addresses:

Name: en7: Thunderbolt Ethernet Slot 1
GUID: 00376e65-0000-4000-8000-8cae4cf22caf
DHCP: Disabled
IPAddress: 192.168.1.94
NetworkMask: 255.255.255.0
IPV6Address:
IPV6NetworkMaskPrefixLength: 0
HardwareAddress: 8c:ae:4c:f2:2c:af
MediumType: Ethernet
Wireless: No
Status: Up
VBoxNetworkName: HostInterfaceNetworking-en7

Name: en0: Wi-Fi (Wireless)
GUID: 00306e65-0000-4000-8000-88e9fe7e64e2
DHCP: Disabled
IPAddress: 192.168.1.18
NetworkMask: 255.255.255.0
IPV6Address:
IPV6NetworkMaskPrefixLength: 0
HardwareAddress: 88:e9:fe:7e:64:e2
MediumType: Ethernet
Wireless: Yes
Status: Up
VBoxNetworkName: HostInterfaceNetworking-en0

It appears you have three network adapters in the guest, all attempting to bridge to en7:

<Network>
<Adapter slot="0" enabled="true" MACAddress="080027BD8E49" cable="true" type="virtio">
<DisabledModes>
<InternalNetwork name="intnet"/>
<HostOnlyInterface name="vboxnet0"/>
<NATNetwork name="NatNetwork"/>
</DisabledModes>
<BridgedInterface name="en7: Thunderbolt Ethernet Slot 1"/>
</Adapter>
<Adapter slot="1" enabled="true" MACAddress="080027007E08" cable="true" type="82545EM">
<DisabledModes>
<InternalNetwork name="intnet"/>
<HostOnlyInterface name="vboxnet0"/>
<NATNetwork name="NatNetwork"/>
</DisabledModes>
<BridgedInterface name="en7: Thunderbolt Ethernet Slot 1"/>
</Adapter>
<Adapter slot="2" enabled="true" MACAddress="0800273E6382" cable="true" type="Am79C973">
<DisabledModes>
<InternalNetwork name="intnet"/>
<NATNetwork name="NatNetwork"/>
</DisabledModes>
<BridgedInterface name="en7: Thunderbolt Ethernet Slot 1"/>
</Adapter>
</Network>

I'd kill off adapters 2 & 3, leave just the first adapter.

Now this is a Mac host, and the last Mac I touched was my dad's Mac Plus in 1989. So we'll have to wait for a Mac guru to help out. But if this were Windows I would check if the Virtualbox Bridged driver installed and was bound to the network card correctly. Does Mac have a place to see the bindings on a network card?

[DallasBW]

Hey thanks scottgus1, i disabled all the other adapters and confirmed same result. I enabled the others with the varying properties in the hope that the guest would search form one to the next and one would have the correct settings, but sadly it is in the hardware passing to the guest that looks to be the issue. in terms of bindings, I am not sure there really, but the network utility and adapter settings show that it is configured to the local LAN and all protocols working at the host level. There is already a bridge in place on the host on all the Thunderbolt ports to make them act as one so no matter what port is plugged into, they are all seen as Thunderbolt 1 with Ethernet 1 running on it.
bit confounded at the moment, it seems to be a Thunderbolt to ethernet issue as USB to ethernet passes through fine.

[scottgus1]

There is already a bridge in place on the host on all the Thunderbolt ports to make them act as one so no matter what port is plugged into,

Now this might be the problem! When a host OS bridge is in place, the adapters under that bridge do look like one adapter to the host OS. (I think, it's been a long time since I tried an OS bridge.)

Either figure out what the 'bridge' calls itself and Bridge to that in the guest settings, or try taking the host OS bridge off so each adapter runs independently, then see if you can Bridge to the active Ethernet adapter.

[Stooxie]

I have this same problem and I've logged a bug about it. It's not user error. I've had my ethernet plugged into my Thunderbolt dock for years now and every version of Virtual box has recognized it just fine until 6.1.0. The Thunderbolt bridge in the network control panel has nothing to do with this.

[fth0]

In a macOS Terminal, you can list all interfaces - including the bridge interfaces - with the ifconfig command. If you then look at the output for bridge0 for example, you'll see the bridge's member interfaces.

If an interface is a member of a bridge interface, the IP address is usually assigned to the latter, not to the former, and you'll have to attach to the bridge interface inside your VM's configuration.

[Stooxie]

Bug number is 19231

Something else has gone totally haywire with this update, I have a Windows VM and Linux VM both of which have been running for years and are now totally broken, they won't even boot. I hope they aren't corrupted. I'll find a better place for that discussion.

[DallasBW]

Hey thanks all for updates. Stooxie, thanks for confirming that it is a bug and you have logged it, i guess we will wait for progress. Would you be able to update back here as well if any resolution in time. Many thanks

[DallasBW]

Hi all, I have just installed the latest 6.1.4 and the extensions pack and still no resolution for this issue.

[lykinsbd]

Hello, I can confirm this issue persists with 6.1.8 and extensions installed as well.

[DallasBW]

Hi there, I can confirm that the issue is unchanged through 6.1.4, 6.1.6 and now 6.1.8 also.
Could not start the machine Windows 10 Pro because the following physical network interfaces were not found:

en7: Thunderbolt Ethernet Slot 1 (adapter 1)

You can either change the machine's network settings or stop the machine.