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dninja

Member

From: Sheffield, UK

Registered: 2006-04-29

Posts: 374

Website

virtualbox doesn't detect second NIC

I've just upgraded to virtualbox 2.1 binary version with its new host interface work and have found two problems.

The first is that because it no longer uses virtual network interfaces non of my saved machines will start, they all complain about not being able to find the network device. As I needed to start one of the machines I just did a discard then changed the settings to use a physical device, it worked but I don't know what work I lost in doing the discard.

The second problem is that I have a USB NIC that I want to use for all my virtual machines. It is plugged in, connected to the network and running fine on the host. But, the interface doesn't show up in the list of available interfaces when selecting host interface mode in the virtualbox gui, all I get is eth0 when I think I should get eth1 as well. Has anyone else noticed this or know a way I can use eth1?

Super Jamie

Member

From: Brisbane, AU

Registered: 2008-12-15

Posts: 79

Website

Re: virtualbox doesn't detect second NIC

VirtualBox virtual machine files are just XML, have a look around in ~/.VirtualBox/Machines with a text editor. You could probably just remove everything between <Network> and </Network> to start anew. When I upgraded, it actually prompted me to upgrade the code of my Virtual Machine files.

VirtualBox now loads a module at boot time (so it's in /etc/rc.conf) which supplies Host Networking to the hypervisor. I suspect you need your USB NIC loaded first, so the VirtualBox driver recognises eth1.

You could maybe do this by starting your PC normally, plugging in the USB NIC, then doing a modprobe -r vboxnetflt and modprobe vboxnetflt (as root) to unload and reload the VirtualBox Host Networking module.

Good luck!

dninja

Member

From: Sheffield, UK

Registered: 2006-04-29

Posts: 374

Website

Re: virtualbox doesn't detect second NIC

I got the upgrade prompt and said yes, it did whatever it did very quickly so I doubt it did much, I couldn't see any differences.

I did try removing the module and reloading it, that didn't work however I've just rebooted and it does now see eth1 so not sure what changed. I like the idea about usb coming in after the module, I'll have a look at that, see if I can work out how to make sure usb is first.