Host-only network adapter issues

[hix3r]

Hello,

I ran into an issue regarding the host-only network adapter on a Windows 8.1 host.
Host information: Windows 8.1 Enterprise x64, VirtualBox 4.3.24r98716

The problem is not related to any particular guest system.

What I am trying to do:
Configure and set up host-only networking in VirtualBox.

The problem:
The host-only adapter receives an APIPA address, in my case 169.254.152.144 which can't be changed.
Under VirtualBox Network settings I can't modify the IPv4 address of the host-only adapter. Whenever I change the settings and hit OK at the window, if I go back to check, it just changes back to the APIPA value.

In the Device Manager (with "Show hidden devices" enabled) the VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter is installed without errors.

In Windows under Network Connections there is a "VirtualBox Host-Only Network" connection. I have tried going into Properties and changing the IPv4 address there, however I can't get to the IPv4 properties page as Windows throws an error: "In order to configure TCP/IP, you must install and enable a network adapter card."

However as I have mentioned I have the VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter installed in the Device Manager.

Here is a paste of ipconfig /all:

Code: Select all

Windows IP Configuration

   Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : hix3r-PC
   Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
   Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
   IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
   WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
   DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : lan

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : lan
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 6C-F0-49-55-3F-72
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : fd58:ce90:8ba4::e91(Preferred)
   Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 10 March 2015 19:38:53
   Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 11 March 2015 19:38:53
   IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : fd58:ce90:8ba4:0:1c96:54c8:77aa:604c(Preferred)
   Temporary IPv6 Address. . . . . . : fd58:ce90:8ba4:0:9578:691a:73f0:42ad(Preferred)
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::1c96:54c8:77aa:604c%31(Preferred)
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.1.2(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 10 March 2015 19:38:51
   Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 11 March 2015 07:38:51
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.1.1
   DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.1.1
   DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 544010313
   DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1B-37-A3-5A-6C-F0-49-55-3F-72
   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : fd58:ce90:8ba4::1
                                       10.0.1.1
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix Search List :
                                       lan

Ethernet adapter VirtualBox Host-Only Network:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 08-00-27-00-40-35
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::f1d9:53f3:d003:9890%34(Preferred)
   Autoconfiguration IPv4 Address. . : 169.254.152.144(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
   DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 570949671
   DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1B-37-A3-5A-6C-F0-49-55-3F-72
   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : fec0:0:0:ffff::1%1
                                       fec0:0:0:ffff::2%1
                                       fec0:0:0:ffff::3%1
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:0:5ef5:79fb:cc0:7bd:f5ff:fefd(Preferred)
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::cc0:7bd:f5ff:fefd%33(Preferred)
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
   DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 721420288
   DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1B-37-A3-5A-6C-F0-49-55-3F-72
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

Tunnel adapter isatap.lan:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : lan
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #2
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter isatap.{F0162822-2ACD-43F7-AE8F-16EB8E095B7E}:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #3
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Any guest OS using the host-only network adapter can't be reached and can't reach anything on this interface.

What I have tried so far:
- Creating multiple new Host-Only adapters in VirtualBox to see if any of them work -> none of them work.
- Doing a VirtualBox repair installation, then rebooting -> no change.
- Uninstalling VirtualBox, rebooting, reinstalling. -> no change.
- Uninstalling all network interface devices and their drivers, rebooting, let Windows find all devices, drivers, then reinstalling VirtualBox. -> no change.

What I have found regarding this kind of error (would provide links, but can't post urls yet):
- VirtualBox bugtracker ticket #8796 which is a 4 year old ticket with the latest update 8 months ago.
- A forum topic from 1 year ago where the problem solved itself eventually forum ID 6, topic ID 59924, title "Can't change IP of host-only network adapter" by Hawkeye83
- a github issue ticket almost 2 years old at the "vagrant" repository which states VirtualBox on Windows frequently has a problem with creating new adapters and when it fails to create one it uses the APIPA address. (ticket #1733)

Thank you for any assistance regarding this.

[BillG]

I would be more interested in seeing the ipconfig of the host OS. Does it have a host only interface? What is the ipconfig of that?

The guest will usually receive an IP from DHCP on the host via the host's host only interface. If it is getting an APIPA address, I suspect that the host only interface on the host is not there or not configured properly.

[hix3r]

The one I posted is the "ipconfig /all" of the the host OS. I have a host Windows 8.1 x64. It has an active connection on the "Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller" interface (my integrated network controller) and a "VirtualBox Host-Only Network" which is the host-only interface installed by VirtualBox.
I didn't post an ipconfig result of a Windows guest OS, although I could if you want.

It seems to the system as if the interface is not there even though it is present and reported working in the Device Manager.

[BillG]

Then something in wrong. The host only adapter on the host should not be trying to get an IP from DHCP so it should not get an APIPA address. It should have a static IP of 192.168.56.1 , which is set up when the VirtualBox is installed.

If I was in your shoes, I would uninstall VirtualBox, then reinstall it. I would make sure that any vms were shut down before I started.

[hix3r]

I have uninstalled, rebooted computer, reinstalled VirtualBox many times. The problem persists unfortunately. I have tried to remove the host-only adapter and reinstalling just that, and I have noticed an error in the setupapi.app and setupapi.dev logs. However I don't know how significant this is.

Code: Select all

     sig: 15:36:50.112                {_VERIFY_FILE_SIGNATURE}
     sig: 15:36:50.112                     Key      = VBoxNetAdp.sys
     sig: 15:36:50.113                     FilePath = C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\VBoxNetAdp.sys
     sig: 15:36:50.113                     Catalog  = c:\windows\system32\driverstore\filerepository\vboxnetadp.inf_amd64_137747185deafd61\vboxnetadp.cat
!    sig: 15:36:50.146                     Verifying file against specific (valid) catalog failed! (0x800b0109)
!    sig: 15:36:50.146                     Error 0x800b0109: A certificate chain processed, but terminated in a root certificate which is not trusted by the trust provider.
     sig: 15:36:50.146                {_VERIFY_FILE_SIGNATURE exit(0x800b0109)}

There are no apparent errors with the installed adapter except the TCP/IP settings seems to be non-existent.

[sez]

Thank you @hix3r - this is the first time I read someone describing my problem. I have the exact same behaviour of my host-only network adapter.

No matter how often I uninstall VirtualBox, manually delete the VBox-related drivers from c:\windows\system32\drivers or even deleting all remaining VBox-related entries in the Windows registry after uninstalling it: every time VirtualBox creates a new host-only network adapter it is already hung up.

As I am not able to change the ipv4 adapter settings manually via Network Connections (changing the settings via VirtualBox settings fails, too), the adapter configuration is fixed to a non-existing DHCP server. For that reason it receives the APIPA address over and over. I tried to fix that via netsh.exe command but with no success.

I use VirtualBox with Vagrant and in the Vagrant config file I set up a fixed ip address for the network adapter. So on every startup VirtualBox tries to create a new host-only network adapter with the correct ip address but any attempt fails (which results in a new network connection every time).

The last time I had this trouble I had to reinstall my Windows machine - after days of fruitless troubleshooting. Hopefully there will be a solution this time...

Kind regards
sez