intnet / host-only vboxnet0 not working with openSUSE 10.02

[techiebiker]

I'm training for LPIC certification. The tests cover older material hence the old version of openSUSE.

My openSUSE 10.02 guests running on openSUSE 12.03 host with VB 4.2.12 won't get IP addresses when I use "intnet" or "Host-only adapter, 'vboxnet0'" as the network.

The NAT and bridged network choices work and eth0 gets a 10.x.x.x or 192.168.254.x address from NAT or bridged as expected.

I believe the DHCP server associated with intnet and vboxnet0 networks is running because VBoxManage list dhcpservers shows both, with expected address ranges and enabled.

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host:~$ VBoxManage list dhcpservers
NetworkName:    intnet
IP:             192.168.66.1
NetworkMask:    255.255.255.0
lowerIPAddress: 192.168.66.20
upperIPAddress: 192.168.66.29
Enabled:        Yes

NetworkName:    HostInterfaceNetworking-vboxnet0
IP:             192.168.222.1
NetworkMask:    255.255.255.0
lowerIPAddress: 192.168.222.100
upperIPAddress: 192.168.222.199
Enabled:        Yes

As far as I can tell the problem seems to be the DHCP daemon. grepping /var/log/NetworkManager consistently shows eth0 going through Device Prepare, Device Configure, IP Configure, IP Configure Timeout and IP Configure Commit stages and DHCP daemon states of 12, then 1, then 14 for the intnet and vboxnet0 configurations that end up with an autoconfigure IP address, eg. 169.254.x.x.

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guest:/var/log # grep -rs -i -e "dhcp daemon\|Stage [1-5] of 5" .
./NetworkManager:May 28 08:25:12 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) scheduled...
./NetworkManager:May 28 08:25:12 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) started...
./NetworkManager:May 28 08:25:12 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) scheduled...
./NetworkManager:May 28 08:25:12 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) complete.
./NetworkManager:May 28 08:25:12 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) starting...
./NetworkManager:May 28 08:25:12 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) successful.
./NetworkManager:May 28 08:25:12 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 3 of 5 (IP Configure Start) scheduled.
./NetworkManager:May 28 08:25:12 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) complete.
./NetworkManager:May 28 08:25:12 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 3 of 5 (IP Configure Start) started...
./NetworkManager:May 28 08:25:13 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 3 of 5 (IP Configure Start) complete.
./NetworkManager:May 28 08:25:13 linux NetworkManager: <info>  DHCP daemon state is now 12 (successfully started) for interface eth0
./NetworkManager:May 28 08:25:13 linux NetworkManager: <info>  DHCP daemon state is now 1 (starting) for interface eth0
./NetworkManager:May 28 08:25:59 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 4 of 5 (IP Configure Timeout) scheduled...
./NetworkManager:May 28 08:25:59 linux NetworkManager: <info>  DHCP daemon state is now 14 (normal exit) for interface eth0
./NetworkManager:May 28 08:25:59 linux NetworkManager: <info>  DHCP daemon state is now 14 (normal exit) for interface eth0
./NetworkManager:May 28 08:25:59 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 4 of 5 (IP Configure Timeout) started...
./NetworkManager:May 28 08:26:15 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 5 of 5 (IP Configure Commit) scheduled...
./NetworkManager:May 28 08:26:15 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 4 of 5 (IP Configure Timeout) complete.
./NetworkManager:May 28 08:26:15 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 5 of 5 (IP Configure Commit) started...
./NetworkManager:May 28 08:26:16 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 5 of 5 (IP Configure Commit) complete.

On the networks that eth0 gets the expected DHCP address grepping /var/log/NetworkManager consistently shows eth0 going through Device Prepare, Device Configure, IP Configure, IP Configure Get and IP Configure Commit stages and DHCP Daemon states of 12, then 1, then 2.

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guest:/var/log # grep -rs -i -e "dhcp daemon\|Stage [1-5] of 5" .
./NetworkManager:May 28 14:42:47 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) scheduled...
./NetworkManager:May 28 14:42:47 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) started...
./NetworkManager:May 28 14:42:47 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) scheduled...
./NetworkManager:May 28 14:42:47 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) complete.
./NetworkManager:May 28 14:42:47 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) starting...
./NetworkManager:May 28 14:42:47 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) successful.
./NetworkManager:May 28 14:42:47 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 3 of 5 (IP Configure Start) scheduled.
./NetworkManager:May 28 14:42:47 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) complete.
./NetworkManager:May 28 14:42:47 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 3 of 5 (IP Configure Start) started...
./NetworkManager:May 28 14:42:48 linux NetworkManager: <info>  DHCP daemon state is now 12 (successfully started) for interface eth0
./NetworkManager:May 28 14:42:48 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 3 of 5 (IP Configure Start) complete.
./NetworkManager:May 28 14:42:49 linux NetworkManager: <info>  DHCP daemon state is now 1 (starting) for interface eth0
./NetworkManager:May 28 14:42:55 linux NetworkManager: <info>  DHCP daemon state is now 2 (bound) for interface eth0
./NetworkManager:May 28 14:42:55 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 4 of 5 (IP Configure Get) scheduled...
./NetworkManager:May 28 14:42:55 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 4 of 5 (IP Configure Get) started...
./NetworkManager:May 28 14:42:55 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Retrieved the following IP4 configuration from the DHCP daemon:
./NetworkManager:May 28 14:42:55 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 5 of 5 (IP Configure Commit) scheduled...
./NetworkManager:May 28 14:42:55 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 4 of 5 (IP Configure Get) complete.
./NetworkManager:May 28 14:42:55 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 5 of 5 (IP Configure Commit) started...
./NetworkManager:May 28 14:42:56 linux NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 5 of 5 (IP Configure Commit) complete.

It seems somehow the DHCP Daemon isn't able to broadcast an address request or the VBox DHCP server doesn't recognize/respond to the request when made from the openSUSE 10.02 guest. With openSUSE 11.3 guest this problem doesn't happen and the guest gets the expected IP address when connected to the intnet and vboxnet0 networks.

Again, because I'm studying for the LPIC, I'm in need of suggestions to make the openSUSE 10.02 guest work on either intnet or vboxnet0 networks.

Any suggestions to make the 10.02 guest work greatly appreciated.

NOTE: I have reinstalled VirtualBox, recreated the 10.02 guest, reinstalled the GuestAdditions.

[noteirak]

Wild guest : firewalling issue somewhere.

What is the output of :

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vboxmanage list hostonlyifs 

[techiebiker]

...well, you had me going, I thought firewall for sure.

First, to answer your question... the VBox GUI shows the hostonly network's DHCP server enabled. Checking status from the command line shows it's disabled. Enabling it from the command line doesn't change the status reported at the command line (or in the GUI for that matter, which still shows enabled).

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alan@host:~> vboxmanage list hostonlyifs
Name:            vboxnet1
GUID:            786f6276-656e-4174-8000-0a0027000001
DHCP:            Disabled
IPAddress:       192.168.57.1
NetworkMask:     255.255.255.0
HardwareAddress: 0a:00:27:00:00:01
MediumType:      Ethernet
Status:          Uplenovo-suse
VBoxNetworkName: HostInterfaceNetworking-vboxnet1

alan@host:~> vboxmanage dhcpserver modify --ifname vboxnet1 --enable

alan@host:~> vboxmanage list hostonlyifs
Name:            vboxnet1
GUID:            786f6276-656e-4174-8000-0a0027000001
DHCP:            Disabled

Following on your firewall idea I checked the host and guest firewalls. I'd disabled the guest firewall at installation so iptables -L there produced...

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guest:~ # iptables -L
Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination         

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination         

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination 

The host had a bunch of rules. Rather than try and interpret them I issued iptables -F, then did some quick iptables -P <chain> ACCEPT to set the default INPUT FORWARD and OUTPUT chain policies to ACCEPT.

Ended with the same policies on the host as shown above for the quest.

Because vboxmanage list dhcpservers showed my intnet DHCP server enabled (and I couldn't get vboxmanage list hostonlyifs to show DHCP enabled on the host only network) and the host and guest firewalls were now completely open I started the 10.02 guest with the NIC connected to the intnet interface.

Still no joy. The guest NIC got addressed on the autoconfigure IP not with an IP from the intnet DHCP server.

With vboxmanage list hostonlyifs still showing my vboxnet1 network having DHCP disabled I fired up the openSUSE 11.03 guest on the hostonly network. It got an IP in the correct range from the hostonly network's DHCP server even though running vboxmanage list hostonlyifs on the host while the 11.03 guest was still running continued to report the hostonly network's DHCP server as disabled.

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alan@host:~> vboxmanage list hostonlyifs
Name:            vboxnet1
GUID:            786f6276-656e-4174-8000-0a0027000001
DHCP:            Disabled
IPAddress:       192.168.57.1
NetworkMask:     255.255.255.0

It appears to be an issue with 10.02. With what I greped from the logs, shown in the first post, I think it may have something to do with the DHCP daemon on the 10.02 guest.

How to troubleshoot further to decide if that's where the problem lies and then what corrective actions to attempt are the suggestions I'm hoping for next.

[noteirak]

Well I never use openSUSE so I wouldn't know how to troubleshoot this precisly on that distro. But what I would definitly too is search on linux/SUSE boards on Internet for people having a similar issue.
Especially if a newer version it does work.

[techiebiker]

I'll be doing that and see what I get. It is starting to look like something related to the guest OS.

Still hoping someone here might have experienced issues with the "Internal Network" or "Host-only Adapter" network connections and have discovered some fixes for a guest that doesn't want to work with them. Been thinking I might try and upgrade the DHCP daemon on the 10.02 guest if I can figure out how to do only that.

Haven't figured how to sniff the network traffic from the guest to the virtual network and back or I'd take a look at DHCP traffic on the NAT connection and on one of the problem network connections to see the normal/successful DHCP request process and the failed request process to see which side isn't getting the expected inquiry/response that would allow the IP assignment to continue/complete.

[noteirak]

If you want to sniff network, tcpdump is a very easy tool to use, and you directly see what's going on. And it's in the repos of 99% of the linux out there.
If you run it in both the host & guest, you can see exactly what's going on with the host-only per example.

[techiebiker]

Thank you for pointing out the tool, I have only passing awareness of it and wouldn't have thought of it. It is on my host and guests.

I'm not sure where to start though. DHCP assignment on the guest or failure to autoassigned address happens before I have access to tcpdump on the guest.

ifconfig on the host lists eth0, lo, and wlan0 as the interfaces. None of those interfaces are on the NAT, Internal Network, or Host-only Network used but the VBox guests. Pointing tcpdump at them wouldn't show the traffic I'm looking for.

I'm expect VBox must have a way to monitor the traffic on its virtual networks. Will dig a bit and see how to let tcpdump see that traffic.

[noteirak]

As long as you're not using NAT or Internal, tcpdump will see the traffic. As for the guest, simply connect via the console.

[techiebiker]

Okay, so seems first step is tcpdump from host when guest is on "Host-only network". Will see what I get.

Regarding "As for the guest, simply connect via the console." I don't follow. To connect to the guest via console or any other means doesn't the guest need to be on the network? There's no physical console. Doesn't that mean need a vt to get a guest console? And the vt requires a network connection.

The packets to capture to learn what's going on with DHCP are exchanged between guest and whatever network its on before its possible to logon to guest. So I don't understand how getting to the guest via console is intended to help.

I'm thinking on the guest maybe more logging on the network activation process, specifically the DHCP address request, during boot may put more useful info in the logs. Also perhaps using one of the guests that does make the connection to the Internal Network or Host-only Network (good-guest) can be used. Run tcpdump on good-guest with its NIC promiscuous to see if any DHCP request traffic appears when the guest that doesn't work is booting.

[Perryg]

From the hosts terminal type VBoxManage showvminfo <VM Name> --details and post here. Replace <VM Name> with the actual name of the VM. Use " " if the name has a space in it.

Probably need to see the VirtualBox.xml file as well (zipped)

I see information in the posts above that are contradictory. vboxnet0 and vboxnet1, addresses that don't really make sense, Etc.. Only way to tell if this is a configuration issue with VirtualBox is to see what all the settings are.

[techiebiker]

Hi Perry, you're right about vboxnet0 and vboxnet1. I first encountered the problems using the "Host-only Network" vboxnet0, the default. The thread subject and first post listings were produced while using vboxnet0.

After mucking around trying to get things working I decided to create a new "Host-only Network" so that none of what I had been trying in the VBox GUI or through the host command line or in the guests could have had any effect on it. That's when I created vboxnet1 and deleted vboxnet0.

All posts after the first used vboxnet1 if the "Host-only Network" was being used. And I experienced the same problems on vboxnet1 as I did on vboxnet0.

Here's the output from vboxmanage showvminfo "openSUSE 10.02 intnet svr" --details. As requested VirtualBox.xml is attached.

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alan@host:~> vboxmanage showvminfo "openSUSE 10.02 intnet svr" --details
Name:            openSUSE 10.02 intnet svr
Groups:          /
Guest OS:        openSUSE
UUID:            acee4e31-ffca-468d-b4b1-3948be6a9668
Config file:     /home/alan/VirtualBox VMs/openSUSE 10.02 intnet svr/openSUSE 10.02 intnet svr.vbox
Snapshot folder: /home/alan/VirtualBox VMs/openSUSE 10.02 intnet svr/Snapshots
Log folder:      /home/alan/VirtualBox VMs/openSUSE 10.02 intnet svr/Logs
Hardware UUID:   acee4e31-ffca-468d-b4b1-3948be6a9668
Memory size:     768MB
Page Fusion:     off
VRAM size:       12MB
CPU exec cap:    100%
HPET:            off
Chipset:         piix3
Firmware:        BIOS
Number of CPUs:  1
Synthetic Cpu:   off
CPUID overrides: None
Boot menu mode:  message and menu
Boot Device (1): HardDisk
Boot Device (2): DVD
Boot Device (3): Not Assigned
Boot Device (4): Not Assigned
ACPI:            on
IOAPIC:          off
PAE:             off
Time offset:     0ms
RTC:             UTC
Hardw. virt.ext: on
Hardw. virt.ext exclusive: on
Nested Paging:   on
Large Pages:     off
VT-x VPID:       on
State:           powered off (since 2013-05-29T13:29:07.000000000)
Monitor count:   1
3D Acceleration: off
2D Video Acceleration: off
Teleporter Enabled: off
Teleporter Port: 0
Teleporter Address: 
Teleporter Password: 
Tracing Enabled: off
Allow Tracing to Access VM: off
Tracing Configuration: 
Autostart Enabled: off
Autostart Delay: 0
Storage Controller Name (0):            IDE
Storage Controller Type (0):            PIIX4
Storage Controller Instance Number (0): 0
Storage Controller Max Port Count (0):  2
Storage Controller Port Count (0):      2
Storage Controller Bootable (0):        on
Storage Controller Name (1):            SATA
Storage Controller Type (1):            IntelAhci
Storage Controller Instance Number (1): 0
Storage Controller Max Port Count (1):  30
Storage Controller Port Count (1):      1
Storage Controller Bootable (1):        on
IDE (1, 0): Empty
SATA (0, 0): /home/alan/VirtualBox VMs/openSUSE 10.02 intnet svr/openSUSE 10.02 intnet svr.vdi (UUID: 611c2094-149c-4fbb-b04c-bc779516e37e)
NIC 1:           MAC: 080027930FB3, Attachment: Host-only Interface 'vboxnet1', Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type: 82540EM, Reported speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0, Promisc Policy: deny, Bandwidth group: none
NIC 2:           disabled
NIC 3:           disabled
NIC 4:           disabled
NIC 5:           disabled
NIC 6:           disabled
NIC 7:           disabled
NIC 8:           disabled
Pointing Device: USB Tablet
Keyboard Device: PS/2 Keyboard
UART 1:          disabled
UART 2:          disabled
LPT 1:           disabled
LPT 2:           disabled
Audio:           enabled (Driver: PulseAudio, Controller: AC97)
Clipboard Mode:  Bidirectional
Drag'n'drop Mode:  disabled
VRDE:            disabled
USB:             enabled
EHCI:            enabled

USB Device Filters:

<none>

Available remote USB devices:

<none>

Currently Attached USB Devices:

<none>

Bandwidth groups:  <none>

Shared folders:  <none>

VRDE Connection:    not active
Clients so far:     0

Guest:

Configured memory balloon size:      0 MB

[Perryg]

Can you actually ping 192.168.57.1 from the host?

openSUSE 10.* is really old and I don't remember if it is supported but what does dhclient say if anything?

Also post the results of lspci from the guest.

As far as I can tell with the new information everything VBox side is happy. If you can ping the host-only address of the host then it will be a guest issue. Especially since you have a different guest that works.

[techiebiker]

solution: In guest "openSUSE 10.02 intnet svr" edit /etc/dhclient.conf as follows...

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changed line from:  require subnet-mask, domain-name-servers;
               to:  require subnet-mask;

Yes can ping 192.168.57.1 from host terminal.

Perry, it seemed you wanted to know output of dhclient when run on the guest that doesn't get a vboxnet1 IP, "openSUSE 10.02 intnet svr." That listing clued me to the solution. The client was getting and rejecting offers.

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guest:~ # dhclient -1
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.5
Copyright 2004-2006 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/eth0/08:00:27:93:0f:b3
Sending on   LPF/eth0/08:00:27:93:0f:b3
Sending on   Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5
DHCPOFFER from 192.168.57.100: no domain-name-servers option.
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 6I
DHCPOFFER from 192.168.57.100: no domain-name-servers option.
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 6
DHCPOFFER from 192.168.57.100: no domain-name-servers option.
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 14
DHCPOFFER from 192.168.57.100: no domain-name-servers option.
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 17
DHCPOFFER from 192.168.57.100: no domain-name-servers option.
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 10
DHCPOFFER from 192.168.57.100: no domain-name-servers option.
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 3
DHCPOFFER from 192.168.57.100: no domain-name-servers option.
No DHCPOFFERS received.
Unable to obtain a lease on first try.  Exiting.

Thanks Perry and everyone for help finding the solution.