[vbox-dev] GNS3 Requirements brings "16 vNICs per VM" patch for VirtualBox

[Klaus Espenlaub]

On 27.04.2011 15:01, Alexey Eromenko wrote:
> Please review my 16 vNICs per VM patch. This is needed by GNS3.

That's easy to review: it doesn't work. Slot 20 is used by the LSILogic 
SCSI controller, 21 by the BusLogic SCSI controller, 22 by the LSILogic 
SAS controller. If any of those controllers would be enabled the VM 
wouldn't start any more.

There's a reason why we didn't go for so many NICs - it would exhaust 
the PCI slot space in the default chipset. Fixing your code to skip 
those already assigned slots would leave exactly one slot free. Not the 
kind of situation I consider desirable for a product which is nowhere 
near EOL.

Supporting so many NICs only makes sense with the "big iron" setup, 
using the ICH9 chipset, where PCI bridges allow much more devices.

> ----
> I also opened VirtualBox Bug #8772: Only first 4 out of 8 ethernet
> cards work with Windows XP guest.

Such problems are often caused by ACPI or MP table bugs in the BIOS.

Klaus