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VirtualBox on Ubuntu Network issues

Hello,

I installed Ubuntu 9.10 on my laptop, then installed VirtualBox 3.12 and have a guest OS > Windows XP Pro.

Everything was great for about a month, then my WindowsXP VM can't get an IP address all of a sudden. I can't recall doing anything to cause that, perhaps Ubuntu auto-updates messed something up?

I can use Virtual Box's NAT setting - that works fine, but I want XP to get its IP address form the regular LAN pool so that it appears just like a regular PC on the same subnet. I was able to achieve that by selecting "Bridged" network adapter in Vbox, using WLAN0 (my wireless NIC - the one that laptop is using for Internet). But that stopped working now. :(

Like I said.. it was working all fine, XP VM was getting an IP address from my router, but not anymore - just (Limited or NO Connectivity) in XP.

I even tried re-installing XP VM, but without any success. I don't know much about Linux networking, but suspect that something broke in that area...

Could anybody please point me the right direction, or suggest troubleshooting method?

Thank You!

Kerem ERSOY

Hi,

It had happened to me once I'll suggest you:
- Change to change the NIC criver in XP guest and try to get IP with it.
- If it does not work I'll suggest you to uninstall viertualbox and then reinstall using ubutu package manager.

Cheers,
K:

Kaptain1

ASKER

I tried changing Virtual NIC adapters from PCNetPCII to PCIII and also tried uninstalling VirtualBox and re-installing it but that didn't solve the problem.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks

hemmi

1. Can you show us the virtualbox logfile?
2. Just to make sure (I do not expect this so solve your problem):

sudo /etc/init.d/vboxnet stop
sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv stop
sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv start
sudo /etc/init.d/vboxnet start

3. The updates do not happen in the background. You would have been asked your password. Has any such update happened just before bridged networking stopped working?

Kaptain1

ASKER

I tried entering these commands that you've posted, but the first one (vboxnet stop) could not be found, so I skipped it. Other ones completed fine except the last one (vboxnet start) could not be found.

Vbox log is attached.

I wasn't paying attention which updates are installed and usually approved all of them, and approved more updates after Vbox didn't work anymore. So don't know anymore :/

Thank You,

Anything else I can try?

Kaptain1

ASKER

Sorry, Vbox log fine is attached now...
WinXP-2009-12-30-00-11-27.log

hemmi

With administrator cmd shell on xp, what does
ipconfig /all say
route print

Kerem ERSOY

Hi,

It had happened to me in the past. But it was related to a bug which was later addressed by the VB guys.. Will you tell me what version of VirtaulBox are you using? How do you install it? Through Ap-t-get or directly form the site?

Will you also post your host systems unmae -a output ?

Cheers,
K.

Kaptain1

ASKER

Hello,

I've installed Vbox from their site directly (the packaged download that installs automatically :) Latest version: 3.1.2 r56127

XP output attached.

unmae - a output:

serge@serge-linux:~$ host systems unmae -a
Using domain server:
Name: 192.168.32.253
Address: 192.168.32.253#53
Aliases:

systems has address 208.67.x.x
Host systems not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)

Thanks.

XP CMD Output:

Windows IP Configuration

        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : xp-vbox
        Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
        Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 3:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : AMD PCNET Family PCI Ethernet Adapt
r #2
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 08-00-27-CB-6C-81
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
        Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 169.254.10.149
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

C:\Documents and Settings\Serge>route print
===========================================================================
Interface List
0x1 ........................... MS TCP Loopback interface
0x2 ...08 00 27 cb 6c 81 ...... AMD PCNET Family PCI Ethernet Adapter #2 - Pack
t Scheduler Miniport
===========================================================================
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination        Netmask          Gateway       Interface  Metric
        127.0.0.0        255.0.0.0        127.0.0.1       127.0.0.1       1
      169.254.0.0      255.255.0.0   169.254.10.149  169.254.10.149       30
   169.254.10.149  255.255.255.255        127.0.0.1       127.0.0.1       30
  169.254.255.255  255.255.255.255   169.254.10.149  169.254.10.149       30
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0   169.254.10.149  169.254.10.149       30
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255   169.254.10.149  169.254.10.149       1
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
  None

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hemmi

It seems you've found a bug in the bridged networking part of VirtualBox.
I'll soon test your situation: Ubuntu 9.10 host, XP guest Vbox 3.12 with bridged networking.
However, since it seems to be a bug, your problem is better addressed at the virtualbox site:
Create a ticket with the virtualbox bugtracker here (you will have to register and login before you can file a ticket):
http://www.virtualbox.org/newticket

P.S.: As administrator on XP have you tested to manually (statically) assign a (free) ip address from your local area network range? Can you ping a machine on your lan afterwards?

Kaptain1

ASKER

Ok, i'll try posting at Vbox forums. Thanks for the tip.

If I set a static IP on the XP guest, I can ping other LAN computers, and even browse around web-sites for about 10 seconds, after which it gives me Page Cannot Be Dispayed error message. Nor can I ping any other web-sites, or public IP's... really weird. Like there's a limit on how much I can surf, and then it's blocking me.

hemmi

In case of a statically assigned (not used by any other on the lan!) lan address: Can you ping the lan's host address after the network refuses to work?

Kaptain1

ASKER

I can ping the other host on the LAN at all times, even when the Internet connectivity stops working... but i can't ping the Linksys router from XP guest, it's only pingable when Internet Connectivity is working (for 5-10 seconds...)

hemmi

But "the other host" you mean the ubuntu system which acts a host for the xp virtualbox guest?
Just make sure there is no ip address clash on your lan. Can you do a trace on your hosts lan network interface?

hemmi

In the meantime I've tested this setup:
Host Ubuntu karmic 32-bit Intel, patched to the latest updates,
Virtualbox 3.12
Xp pro, SP3 guest with bridged networking

Everything works fine.
Bad news...I would have started virtualbox with the debugger otherwise. But I can't see your issue.
Have you submitted a ticket at virtualbox.org?

Kaptain1

ASKER

Yes, by the 'other host' i mean the Ubuntu (Vbox host) silly me. The XP Guest can ping Ubuntu host at all times, but other computers on LAN and Internet can only successfully ping for 5-10 seconds after which it's not working.

If i do a tracert from XP to another LAN workstation, it's very intermittent. It would first work, but then after a few seconds it won't work...very intermittent and unpredictable.

I did submitted a bug on Vbox site, but I don't think it's a Vbox's bug. I 'feel' that because of Ubuntu updates, something related to Ubuntu networking got overwritten and because of that it screwed up Vbox's networking which was connected to it. I'm a complete newbie at Linux, and don't know how Linux networking works...

Thanks.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

hemmi

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Kaptain1

ASKER

I see. I checked the IPs on my lan and there's no overlapping. I did played with Wireshark on Windows before, but not that great at it... especially on Linux, and would rather not use it unless I really have to :).

I really appreciate your help and commitment to helping me solve this issue. I think though that I may as well just reinstall Ubuntu now because the amount of effort it takes to troubleshoot this may be just as much... and we don't even know what might of caused it. :-(

hemmi

It sounded like your ubuntu setup was pretty much standard, patched up to the most recent state...
However there might be some history that I don't know of. Reinstalling is usually a windows and not a unix solution...
If you feel like it, go reinstall ubuntu karmic, and report the results here.
In case your problem remains as it was, we'll do a network dump and have a closer look at it.

Kaptain1

ASKER

I'm pretty sure that reinstalling Ubuntu would help - it did work when you tried the same configuration. There was a guy who posted under my thread at the Vbox bug submission who's had the same problem on FreeBSD, and after analyzing the dump/logs he disabled some services or something... and got it to barely function somehow. The whole thing is over my head, and I'm just playing with Linux now and don't want to spend a lot of time/effort troubleshooting a small problem like that on my bedroom laptop. :)

Thanks