VM with Host-Only Network Won't Start

[ESDFTW]

VirtualBox un-installed, host rebooted, verified networking adapters were removed in the process (see screenshot 316-318*). Re-installed VirtualBox, found that the host-only adapter was added as usual (See screenshot 319-321*). Examination of the VirtualBox settings in File --> Preferences --> Network shows two host-only networks (Screenshot 322). Details of both show one as the correctly configured (automatically upon initial installation) host-only network (Screenshot 323 & 324), and the other incorrectly configured host-only network (Screenshot 325 & 326) which is only visible from this menu, not from Windows network adapters view, or ipconfig. Manually removed the bad adapter, saved, and closed Preferences. Re-opened Preferences to verify the bad adapter was gone and found that both were gone. Attempted to manually re-add one, did not configure DHCP at this time, saved, and closed Preferences. Re-opened Preferences to verify that the changes had taken, found that the changes had taken, HOWEVER, the 0.0.0.0 configured magically appearing host-only adapter is now back in the Network preferences in VirtualBox.

*Some irrelevant data was redacted.

Screenshots available but I can't post (need to be a member for 1 day) & the zip is too large. They are hosted in my dropbox and I can PM the public shared file link if anyone needs to see them.

[Perryg]

Do you still see only one in on the Windows side?

Post your VirtualBox.xml control file (as an attachment) You will need to zip it or change the extension to txt

[ESDFTW]

Do you still see only one in on the Windows side?

Post your VirtualBox.xml control file (as an attachment) You will need to zip it or change the extension to txt

Still only one on the Windows side. VirtualBox.xml zipped and attached as requested.

[Perryg]

Yours

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<ExtraDataItem name="HostOnly/VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter/IPAddress" value="192.168.25.1"/>
      <ExtraDataItem name="HostOnly/VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter/IPNetMask" value="255.255.255.0"/>

<DHCPServer networkName="HostInterfaceNetworking-VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter" IPAddress="0.0.0.0" networkMask="0.0.0.0" lowerIP="0.0.0.0" upperIP="0.0.0.0" enabled="0"/>

Mine

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<ExtraDataItem name="HostOnly/vboxnet0/IPAddress" value="192.168.56.1"/>
      <ExtraDataItem name="HostOnly/vboxnet0/IPNetMask" value="255.255.255.0"/>
      <ExtraDataItem name="HostOnly/vboxnet0/IPV6NetMask" value="64"/>
 <DHCPServer networkName="HostInterfaceNetworking-vboxnet0" IPAddress="192.168.56.100" networkMask="255.255.255.0" lowerIP="192.168.56.101" upperIP="192.168.56.254" enabled="1"/>

The default values are what you see in my control file. If you look at your DHCP server you will see the configuration is incorrect but you have it disabled anyway. I have no clue why you see two in the preference section but I would set everything to default including the DHCP server settings and see if that helps. Other than that you would need to post a ticket at bugtracker and see what the DEVs have to say.

Edit: Also see chapter 12.6.6 Host-only networking adapters cannot be created in your VirtualBox user manual and see if that helps.

[ESDFTW]

I'm going to set mine in a manner similar to yours (including DHCP because I actually need it, was just avoiding configuring it before only to remove variables in the problem) and post back with the results and a copy of the modified VirtualBox control file.

[ESDFTW]

Checked manual, 12.6.6 does not apply (nothing logged for sun_VBoxNetAdp in setupapi.dev.log).

Completely uninstalled VirtualBox and removed the /user/.VirtualBox directory and all contents to ensure nothing remained to conflict with the new installation. Re-installed. Ensured VirtualBox control file was set correctly, VM failed with reason:

---
Failed to open a session for the virtual machine Xubuntu Researcher.

Failed to open/create the internal network 'HostInterfaceNetworking-VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter' (VERR_INTNET_FLT_IF_NOT_FOUND).

Failed to attach the network LUN (VERR_INTNET_FLT_IF_NOT_FOUND).

Result Code: E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component: Console
Interface: IConsole {db7ab4ca-2a3f-4183-9243-c1208da92392}
---

VirtualBox.xml zipped and attached for review.

[Perryg]

Did you read the suggestion I sent you to look at the users manual. See chapter chapter 12.6.6 Host-only networking adapters cannot be created.

[ESDFTW]

It was found that there is an open bug ticket for this exact issue (on a slightly earlier version, 4.2.8 I think) that has remained unresolved for several months with no activity on the ticket at all.

[ESDFTW]

Did you read the suggestion I sent you to look at the users manual. See chapter chapter 12.6.6 Host-only networking adapters cannot be created.

Read it, 12.6.6 does not apply as the log file does not contain entries (nothing logged for sun_VBoxNetAdp in setupapi.dev.log) that indicate trouble in creating a host-only adapter.

[Perryg]

If I had this issue I would still go through the motions, but that's just me. We know something is holding bad or corrupt data and you have eliminated VirtualBox so it must be something on the Windows side.

[ESDFTW]

I'm open to any workaround, so I'll go ahead and see what following through with 12.6.6 does. Will post back with results.

[ESDFTW]

Attempted workaround in 12.6.6, however, no INF cache file was found in %windir%\inf\. Did a file search from c:\ recursively through the entire disk and did not find the file. This was done on Win 8 Pro 64-bit, for the record.

[Perryg]

Well I'm all out of ideas. It might be due to Win-8 as I don't have nor want one of those as host. Looks like you need to get the DEVs involved.
I would raise a ticket at bugtracker

[ESDFTW]

***Issue Summary***
For anyone checking this thread, there has been a lot said; here's the summary:

Win 8 Pro host running Linux guests, unable to successfully launch a VM running a host-only network on the latest version of VirtualBox. Workarounds, such as re-installing, do not clear up the problem. There is an open ticket for a bug on this issue that is several months old with no activity on it.

[ESDFTW]

With the issue unresolved and no workaround in sight on a three month old bug ticket, I moved my VM to VMware and tried it there. The VM does launch with working host-only networking in VMware Player. Unfortunately, I can't wait another three months for the devs to work on this, my lab should have been up and running this morning. I'm taking this lab to VMware.