VB 2.0 and 2.1 - Networking supposed to be easier, but...

[leo128]

Hi All!

I've been using VB for personal use in the last couple years. It has proven to be a stable and elegant solution.

Since version 2.1 I have some nasty problems with host interface networking... I show you my panorama:

1) I use Windows XP SP2 Host OS.

2) I use Windows XP SP2 as Guest OS Too.

Now, Up to VB2.0.6, we had the "VirtualBox Host Interface" and it's TAP adapter automatically installed in our Host, we eventually bridged it with some other "Real" interface on the Host, and it almost surely worked fine... Okay, there were some limitations with way complex network setup, but the overall solution worked fine...

While I initially appreciated the changes introduced in 2.1, I soon had the following troubles (here is the full history):

1) Installed VB 2.0.6 and configured some VMs to use Host Networking via the VirtualBox TAP Device. Thus, the VirtualBox GUI showed the VirtualBox Host Interface 01, 02, 03 ... in the famous listbox in the VM configuration form.

2) Upgraded to VB 2.1, it converted all my machines to the new format, but none of them could start.

3) Read the manual and changelog, got the good news, reconfigured the VMs to use "directly" the "real" host adapter (an nVidia nForce Networking Controller), and lived happy with it for a week.

4) For some reasons, I temporarily needed to bridge my nVidia nForce Networking Controller and a Realtek RTL8187 Wifi togheter, So windows XP created the bridge and everything went fine... then, short after that, I removed the bridge and everything came back like it used to be... except that VirtualBox could not find my Network Interfaces anymore.

The GUI showed an empty listbox. I tried reinstalling, but nothing done.
Even tried removing and readding network cards in the host os, to see if the new detection solved the issue... but nothing done.

The same scenario happens if, for example, you add a new network card (say a wireless dongle) in the host os, then connect a vm to that new interface, and then after shutting down the vm, you remove the dongle, you place it back in, and you try to restart the VM. It will mess up things a bit in VBOX GUI, and the vm will not be able to start, unless disabling "Host Networking".
The problem presented itself in different occasions, in some circumstances I found that vbox listing of host interfaces was not empty, but seemed to be inconsistent, none of the available interfaces allowed me to attach and start a machine.
Finally, I'm not sure, but I think the same mess happens if you simply rename an host interface.

Then I said: okay, a minor problem that will be fixed in 2.1.2 I guess... now, let's come back to 2.0.6... but obviously, who knows wheter vms will work after VBOX downgrade??? actually they didn't work, I had to rebuild them from scratch and fortunately the previous hard disk image worked fine.

So the problem is:

How can we "reset" VirtualBox so that it is forced to rebuild the list of available host interfaces, thus allowing vms to start with minimal manual tweaking???

and an additional question is:

In Windows XP, can I use VB 2.1 and still use TAP Networking??? I mean, can I manually install a VBOX Host Interface from 2.0.6 and have it listed in 2.1 GUI? I tried installing OpenVPN's TAP Device, which worked with QEMU, but it did not show up in VBOX Gui's famous listbox!!!
I'd like my VBOX setup to be easily portable from one host to another, that's difficult if two hosts have different network cards! Also, I'd like to replace a broken network card on the host, without having to downgrade VBox to 2.0.6!!!

I browse the forum and the web before posting, couldn't find a solution... but actually could not find any other user having exactly the same problem... maybe I miss some very basic thing, please show me!!!

Thank you for your attention!

[Sasquatch]

Open the properties of the interface and make sure that the VB driver is ticked. It's possible that after the bridging of your LAN and WLAN it got unchecked.

See the VirtualBox FAQ for how to be able to use the old method in 2.1.x.