Cannot use frontends with unreachable USBIP host on VBoxSVC cold start => fixed in SVN/next maintenance

[Max D]

If we try to use one of the frontends after having configured a USBIP host that is not reachable later and VBoxSVC is not yet running, we are greated with the following error:

error: Failed to create the VirtualBox object!
error: Creating the USB device source "" using backend "USBIP" failed with VERR_NET_HOST_UNREACHABLE
error: Details: code NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005), component USBProxyService, interface IHost

This happens in user frontends (tested with VirtualBox and VBoxManage) which prevents any re-configuration to remove the unreachable host.
This error also prevent ANY usage of VirtualBox (start/stop VMs included) which is a big showstopper.

Expected behaviour: don't stop the front-end from running, especially vboxmanage which is the only way to reconfigure.

[aeichner]

Thanks for the report, this will be fixed in the next maintenance release. The server must be reachable when the USB/IP source is added to prevent any typos in the address from the user. Connection errors are silently ignored when VBoxSVC loads the source from the config and a reconnect is attempted every 3 seconds either until the server becomes reachable or the user removes the USB device source again.

The next release also contains a fix to prevent writing the same USB/IP device source multiple times under into the config certain circumstances which prevents VBoxSVC from starting afterwards.

[Frank Mehnert]

Fix is part of VBox 5.1.16.