Can't setup Host-Only Network Adapter on Windows 10 Client

[Diego Resendi]

Hi,

[How to reproduce it] From fresh installation, installation was ok, no errors, the problem began when I tried to setup the missing IP and network mask for the Host-Only Network Adapter, first thing I noticed is that upon setting up the values VBox was resetting the values every time and clean the values up.

-I'm using VirtualBox Version 5.1.30 also tried with 5.2.0 for Windows -I have Windows 10 Pro running on a Dell Precision, 16GB RAM, 64-bit, core i7 vPro -I'm trying to host a Linux VM that contains some web application, so I can access them via u.r.l. , this is a RedHat VM

After this I tried a lot of things to make the Host-Only adapter work

• I had 3 VM, I remove 2 of them and test 1 with one
• Remove every single VM and try to set the values

-Try to set the values using TCP/IP v4 properties in the actual Network device on Windows' Network connections

• Uninstall VBox, install a older version (VirtualBox-5.1.30)
• Reinstall VBox using Admin option
• Uninstall VBox, delete completely .VirtualBox folder, reboot the machine, then reinstall VBox as: user and admin
• Delete all the Devices using the GUI and create the device using VBoxManage hostonlyif create

[Socratis]

Related discussion in the forums: ​https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=85524

[Aleksey Ilyushin]

Could you run VBoxBugReport and send the resulting archive to aleksey dot ilyushin at oracle dot com? It is clear that Windows fails to bind IP protocol to the host-only adapter miniport, but it is not clear why. The tool will collect plenty of info on your host which may help to identify the issue.

[Diego Resendi]

Email sent

-Thanks

[Aleksey Ilyushin]

Thanks a lot for the provided files. There is nothing particularly suspicious about your configuration, except the fact that VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter does exist in the registry, but it is missing in the output of ipconfig /all. Could you post the output of VBoxManage list hostonlyifs? Are there any error messages related to host-only adapters in the system event log? Could you also try to uninstall 5.1.30 and install 5.2.2, and then run VBoxBugReport? I am interested in setupapi.dev.log, since the one contained in the previous report got cleaned up by Windows on December 12, or a bit earlier. The old file should still be in C:\Windows\inf, named something like setupapi.dev.<timestamp>.log. You can compress it and send it to me instead of going through uninstall/install/report sequence I asked above.

On the bright side, I was almost able to re-produce the problem locally. To be more precise, I was able to reproduce it only once, but all subsequent attempts to modify IP address were successful. Still it means that your issue is not specific to your host.

[Diego Resendi]

Hi,

Email sent with files.

-Thanks

[Aleksey Ilyushin]

Thanks again for the files. There is a hint in setupapi.dev.log that this issue may have been caused by permissions on the staged host-only adapter driver (access denied error message). But that driver has already been removed from the driver store when you uninstalled VirtualBox 5.1.30. Could you try create another host-only adapter from "Host Network Manager" in VirtualBox GUI and assign an IP address to it? And if it fails again, please do that bug-report/mail thing, so I get the latest setupapi.dev.log. Btw, do you get UAC confirmation prompts "Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?" when you press "Apply" button after changing the address?

[Socratis]

Replying to aleksey:

There is a hint in setupapi.dev.log that this issue may have been caused by permissions on the staged host-only adapter driver (access denied error message).

A technique that we've used in the forums that has solved a lot of headaches is:

• Uninstall VirtualBox. Your VMs are going to be untouched. Reboot.

• You may want to clean up your registry and/or filesystem at this point. CCleaner is a freeware utility that could help you. Mind the installation, it comes with "offers" from 3rd parties, known as "bundleware". Also, check out the ​Device Cleanup program that helps you to remove any unused devices from your computer.

• Download (if you haven't already) the latest VirtualBox and its matching ExtPack. Store them in a common location, i.e. not on "Desktop", or "Documents", but to "Public/Downloads" for example.

• Locate the downloaded file in Windows Explorer. Right-click on the installer and select "Run-as-Administrator", even if you are the administrator. At the end of the installation, choose to "Start Oracle VM VirtualBox". Do not worry if your VMs do not show up.

• If you're going to install the ExtPack, go to File » Preferences » Extensions. Click on the icon with the orange, down-pointing arrow on the right. Select the ExtPack from the previous steps.

• Quit VirtualBox. Re-start VirtualBox as you would normally, i.e. from the Desktop shortcut or the Start menu.

• Update the Guest Additions (GAs) in your guest(s), if the GAs are available for a specific guest.

[Aleksey Ilyushin]

Replying to socratis: I am more keen to find out the cause of the issue, than to fix this particular case, I must admit. That said, see my comments for each proposed step below.

A technique that we've used in the forums that has solved a lot of headaches is:

• Uninstall VirtualBox. Your VMs are going to be untouched. Reboot.

Totally makes sense.

• You may want to clean up your registry and/or filesystem at this point. CCleaner is a freeware utility that could help you. Mind the installation, it comes with "offers" from 3rd parties, known as "bundleware". Also, check out the ​Device Cleanup program that helps you to remove any unused devices from your computer.

Be careful as this may help or make things worse. This is a "last resort" measure in my opinion. I'd try to use Windows "Device Manager" and "pnputil" first. Nowadays VirtualBox installer removes driver packages from the driver store upon uninstallation. Search the output "pnputil -e" for "Oracle" to confirm that VirtualBox driver packages were removed for the driver store.

• Download (if you haven't already) the latest VirtualBox and its matching ExtPack. Store them in a common location, i.e. not on "Desktop", or "Documents", but to "Public/Downloads" for example.

Agree wholeheartedly. Using the lastest VirtualBox with its matching ExtPack is strongly encouraged.

• Locate the downloaded file in Windows Explorer. Right-click on the installer and select "Run-as-Administrator", even if you are the administrator. At the end of the installation, choose to "Start Oracle VM VirtualBox". Do not worry if your VMs do not show up.

This is the most controversial advice in my opinion. It may as well be the cause of permission issues like this one.

• If you're going to install the ExtPack, go to File » Preferences » Extensions. Click on the icon with the orange, down-pointing arrow on the right. Select the ExtPack from the previous steps.

Not relevant in this case, since the host-only adapter driver is not a part of ExtPack.

• Quit VirtualBox. Re-start VirtualBox as you would normally, i.e. from the Desktop shortcut or the Start menu.

This is required if VirtualBox was started "as Administrator", which is a bad practice in my opinion and should not have been done in the first place.

• Update the Guest Additions (GAs) in your guest(s), if the GAs are available for a specific guest.

Always good, but completely irrelevant in this case, as we do not even need to start any VMs.

Please do not take offense, I only meant to clarify my point of view. Thanks a lot for your time and effort!

[Socratis]

Offense? Not at all! On the contrary!!! This is a list that has been compiled from the collective experience on the forums, and we (mods, volunteers) have always wanted developer's feedback. Really glad to have one! :D

BTW, that's why there are things in the list that don't necessarily apply to this specific issue, I was simply copying/pasting the whole list. Too lazy... ;)

A couple of things:

• You say that the uninstaller removes the driver packages. That requires that someone actually runs the uninstaller. Not always happening, most of the users typically overwrite an existing installation, because most of the times it's simply an update. Have you seen the forums and how many "#2", "#3", etc host-adapter issues are there? Not the same problem as this one, but it goes to show you the typical practice.

• The "pnputil -e" was something that I was not aware of. Definitely a keeper! But I used it on a Win7 VM. Guess how many entries I found? 63!!! All the way back to 4.2.2! It seems that the GAs installer does not apply the same practice of removing old entries. Something to look at? There was an issue in the Linux GAs which was addressed a couple of versions back, maybe open a new ticket for the Windows GAs as well?

• The "Run-as-Administrator" advice; it has solved a lot of botched installations, it has hurt absolutely none. Why would you say it's controversial? The person that does the installation is asked about an admin's credentials in any event. The Run-As simply takes it to the highest possible level of security, which is something that you definitely want if you're installing kernel drivers and adding NICs to the system.

• For some reason or another (which I haven't still figured out), you guys are fighting the Run-As method. I honestly don't have a clue why. I even submitted a very simple and innocent patch to modify the installer, so that it wouldn't even require the Run-As method, see: "Patch for running the Windows installer with elevated privileges" from the vbox-dev list archives. I even asked for a test build (I don't have a Win build environment) to try/test it out. Нет... :(

So, if you could shed some light on the "controversial" aspect of this, I'm all ears ;)

[Aleksey Ilyushin]

Replying to socratis:

Offense? Not at all! On the contrary!!! This is a list that has been compiled from the collective experience on the forums, and we (mods, volunteers) have always wanted developer's feedback. Really glad to have one! :D

I am glad we are on the same page about this.

• You say that the uninstaller removes the driver packages. That requires that someone actually runs the uninstaller. Not always happening, most of the users typically overwrite an existing installation, because most of the times it's simply an update. Have you seen the forums and how many "#2", "#3", etc host-adapter issues are there? Not the same problem as this one, but it goes to show you the typical practice.

Agree. I, personally, tend to underestimate how often upgrade is used. Since uninstall was mentioned in the first step, I assumed we have "uninstall" case here, which may not have been the case in the past installations.

• The "pnputil -e" was something that I was not aware of. Definitely a keeper! But I used it on a Win7 VM. Guess how many entries I found? 63!!! All the way back to 4.2.2! It seems that the GAs installer does not apply the same practice of removing old entries. Something to look at? There was an issue in the Linux GAs which was addressed a couple of versions back, maybe open a new ticket for the Windows GAs as well?

I need to clarify here that I meant VirtualBox installer, not Guest Additions installer. These are different beasts. Once again, this is Windows only ofc.

• The "Run-as-Administrator" advice; it has solved a lot of botched installations, it has hurt absolutely none. Why would you say it's controversial? The person that does the installation is asked about an admin's credentials in any event. The Run-As simply takes it to the highest possible level of security, which is something that you definitely want if you're installing kernel drivers and adding NICs to the system.

The installer will elevate privileges and you'll get UAC prompt, that's right. This is normal and it doesn't require "run as". But when the installation is complete, the installer will try to start VirtualBox (if allowed by the user) and that instance of VirtualBox will run under Administrator account (that's why user VMs won't be in VM list), potentially (but not necessarily) creating some files that won't be accessible when VirtualBox runs under normal user account. VirtualBox does elevate privileges for certain tasks later and some files may have already been created when VirtualBox ran under normal user account so they won't get Administrator as the owner, but I hope you can see now how this practice may add headache for us, developers.

• For some reason or another (which I haven't still figured out), you guys are fighting the Run-As method. I honestly don't have a clue why. I even submitted a very simple and innocent patch to modify the installer, so that it wouldn't even require the Run-As method, see: "Patch for running the Windows installer with elevated privileges" from the vbox-dev list archives. I even asked for a test build (I don't have a Win build environment) to try/test it out. Нет... :(

So, if you could shed some light on the "controversial" aspect of this, I'm all ears ;)

And I haven't touched the "security" aspect of this thing, which I won't.

[Diego Resendi]

Replying to aleksey:

Thanks again for the files. There is a hint in setupapi.dev.log that this issue may have been caused by permissions on the staged host-only adapter driver (access denied error message). But that driver has already been removed from the driver store when you uninstalled VirtualBox 5.1.30. Could you try create another host-only adapter from "Host Network Manager" in VirtualBox GUI and assign an IP address to it? And if it fails again, please do that bug-report/mail thing, so I get the latest setupapi.dev.log. Btw, do you get UAC confirmation prompts "Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?" when you press "Apply" button after changing the address?

Hi Aleksey,

I was away due the holiday season. I just sent you the email. no prompt is shown upon creating the new network device and no message as "Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?" is shown.

[Diego Resendi]

Thanks socratis for your comments, I would like to wait for Aleksey to see the files and have his feedback before proceeding with something else.

[Aleksey Ilyushin]

Replying to dresendi:

Hi Diego,

I had some holidays as well. Thanks for the new files. I think that "access denied" was a false lead. I can see only two things that are different between our hosts: you've got "Symantec Endpoint Protection" and "Microsoft Wake-up Proxy Driver" enabled on your host. Can you try to disable "Endpoint Protection" temporarily to see if makes any difference? I am not quite sure how to disable "Wake-up proxy". I guess you would have to use "System Center Configuration Manager" for that. If disabling both does not help, please run VBoxBugReport again (with "Endpoint" and "Wake-up proxy" disabled), so I could check if their filters are indeed removed from the network stack.

Btw, did you have properly working VirtualBox 5.x on this host previously? It is not clear from your initial description if "Host-only" adapters were ever assigned IP addresses successfully.

[Diego Resendi]

Hi Aleksey,

I followed the steps you mentioned. I actually go to msconfig and disable most of the services including the Symantec one and expecting to disable the Wake-up driver. Upon restarting I tried to create my ethernet host and fail again. Here you go the logs.

By the way, since I got this computer and start working with Oracle VirtualBox (October 2017) I haven’t created a single host-only ethernet device. Not even once. I hope that respond your question, and I tried only 5.x versions.

I came up with this idea. I have one workmate that join the company pretty much at the same time I did, back in 2017, we got the very same laptop model, same OS (Win 10) and we were tasked to use VirtualBox, fortunately for him he can work fine with Oracle VirtualBox and he can create Host-Only adapters, I asked him to execute the VBoxBugReport.exe to hope find some answers by comparing files.

---

Failing(Myself): DIEGO_RESENDI_2018-01-04-17-59-36-bugreport.tgz

Working fine: ROGELIO_2018-01-11-17-41-04-bugreport.tgz

---

Anything else you need please let me know.

[Socratis]

Try to uninstall the antivirus completely. Simply disabling it usually does nothing of importance...

[Diego Resendi]

Replying to socratis:

Try to uninstall the antivirus completely. Simply disabling it usually does nothing of importance...

Hi socratis,

Unfortunately I can't do that due company policies. I already asked

[Socratis]

Well, ask the antivirus vendors if there's anything you can do about it. I mean if you have something so restrictive that doesn't allow you to install a driver, and that something is unremovable, there's not that much that the driver can do about it, can it?

[Diego Resendi]

Replying to socratis:

Well, ask the antivirus vendors if there's anything you can do about it. I mean if you have something so restrictive that doesn't allow you to install a driver, and that something is unremovable, there's not that much that the driver can do about it, can it?

I would definetely try that, however as I stated in my frist comment today,I have one workmate with the same laptop model, same configuration, same symantec client, and he has VrtualBox, and he can create as many host-only adapters as he wants. so I'm not 100% sure if uninstalling the software will be a good idea that lead us to something new.

[Aleksey Ilyushin]

Hi Diego,

I went through both sets of logs and I found only three places where they are different:

1. Rogelio's host has one more filter driver "Juniper Network Service". Since your host does not have it (anymore) it is highly unlikely that it may have anything to do with the issue.
2. Your host used to have older NDIS 5.1 bridged driver VBoxNetFlt, but it is, again, not likely to cause such issue.
3. Rogelio's driver key in Windows registry contains some extra parameters (PortAuthReceiveAuthorizationState, for example), but these have no meaning for VirtualBox host-only adapters, so these are probably leftovers from earlier drivers that used to occupy the same driver key in the past.

I guess it is time to bring out the big guns. Let's start with something least invasive. Could you download ​Process Monitor and run it on both hosts while creating new host-only adapters (one on each host)? The tool captures both registry and file accesses by all processes and produces tons of output. Make sure you start the capture right before you trigger creation of host-only adapter and stop the capture as soon as the adapter is created (you can use Ctrl-E in procmon window to start or stop the capture). It does not matter if you create an adapter via VirtualBox GUI or VBoxManage. Save the captured events in native (PML) format, put the files into an archive and mail it to me as usual. Thanks a lot in advance!

[Diego Resendi]

Replying to aleksey:

Hi Diego,

I went through both sets of logs and I found only three places where they are different:

1. Rogelio's host has one more filter driver "Juniper Network Service". Since your host does not have it (anymore) it is highly unlikely that it may have anything to do with the issue.
2. Your host used to have older NDIS 5.1 bridged driver VBoxNetFlt, but it is, again, not likely to cause such issue.
3. Rogelio's driver key in Windows registry contains some extra parameters (PortAuthReceiveAuthorizationState, for example), but these have no meaning for VirtualBox host-only adapters, so these are probably leftovers from earlier drivers that used to occupy the same driver key in the past.

I guess it is time to bring out the big guns. Let's start with something least invasive. Could you download ​Process Monitor and run it on both hosts while creating new host-only adapters (one on each host)? The tool captures both registry and file accesses by all processes and produces tons of output. Make sure you start the capture right before you trigger creation of host-only adapter and stop the capture as soon as the adapter is created (you can use Ctrl-E in procmon window to start or stop the capture). It does not matter if you create an adapter via VirtualBox GUI or VBoxManage. Save the captured events in native (PML) format, put the files into an archive and mail it to me as usual. Thanks a lot in advance!

Email sent with the drive folder

[Diego Resendi]

Hi Aleksey,

Did you have any luck?

let me know if you need something.

[Diego Resendi]

Hi,

The issue is resolved. Turns out that the Symantec antivirus was the cause of the issue, IT guys from my company noticed that the setup of the software was corrupt and we proceed to uninstall and reinstall it. After that I tried to create a host-only adapter from scratch and all the IP/mask values were auto-populated in the first attempt the device and drivers were installed with success and now I can host a service within one of my VMs.

Thanks for all your effort, appreciate all the troubleshooting you did

-Diego

[Socratis]

Turns out that the Symantec antivirus

Another antivirus issue. I wish at some point they get it right. One can only hope...

Thanks for updating the ticket and the forums! I'll mark the topic in the forums as "WorksForMe".

[vctls]

Same issue for us here with Trend Micro Office Scan. We had to disable the antivirus, do a clean Virtualbox install, and re-enable it. For some reason, it started happening just after the 1709 update.

[VincenzoS]

I've just updated to Windows 10 1803 and the issue related to "Querying NetCfgInstanceId failed (0x00000002)" appears again

I'm unable to create host only adapter in any way. I've disabled my Firewall/Antivirus (ZoneAlarm) uninstalled and reinstalled VirtualBox but the issue is not resolved

I appreciate an help

-Vincenzo

[Socratis]

Replying to VincenzoS:

I've disabled my Firewall/Antivirus (ZoneAlarm) ...

VincenzoS, as it has been mentioned several times so far, disabling the antivirus is usually not enough. You have *got* to uninstall it completely and reboot your host.

[VincenzoS]

Replying to socratis:

Replying to VincenzoS:

I've disabled my Firewall/Antivirus (ZoneAlarm) ...

VincenzoS, as it has been mentioned several times so far, disabling the antivirus is usually not enough. You have *got* to uninstall it completely and reboot your host.

I've done the following steps:

• Unistall the VirtualBox 5.8
• Reboot
• Disable Firewall/Antivirus (ZoneAlarm)
• Run VirtualBox 5.2.12 As administrator
• Create Hostonly network from GUI

But the error remains

[Socratis]

There is some miscommunication here...

I say "Uninstall and reboot", you say "Disable". Can you see the difference?

If you can't get it to work, re-install Windows and install nothing else, except VirtualBox. I bet you anything that it's going to work.

[GandiQamshlo]

I had the same problem but I installed VirtualBox version 4.3 and then updated the version

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Download_Old_Builds_4_3

[Socratis]

@GandiQamshlo

<joking>

You could also install Windows 3.1 or DOS. Or use an abacus! That would also solve the problem! :D

</joking>

Seriously now, you're not solving the problem by going that far back. You're closing your eyes to the problem and you're downgrading to a version that had no checks at all, i.e. you're vulnerable!!!

Try to address the problem correctly, don't hide it under the rug...

[bramsi]

In my case, after uninstall antivirus, I have to uninstall Endpoint Security VPN from Check Point too, then host only interface created.

Hope that help.