PXE network boot with ICH9 chipset fails => Fixed in SVN

[Peter]

When trying to network boot with chipset set to ICH9, boot fails with "Unknown Ethernet Controller" error.

Error occurs regardless of NIC type selected.

v4.1.0 extensions are installed.

If chipset is changed to PIIX3, PXE works normally.

[Peter]

VB Log of failed PXE boot

[Peter]

Screenshot of PXE boot failure

[Sean Pappalardo]

Same thing happens to me as well.

[Chris Taylor]

Confirmed. Meant to report this last week! Apparently this is due to ICH9 being under heavy development and incomplete.. Hopefully this'll be changed soon!

[gxyz]

Are there any news regarding this issue?

Unfortunately, for my purposes it's a show-stopper - after it was clear that this is a general problem with virtualbox 4.1, I reverted to 4.0 and occasionally checked this bug report. There has not been any update here, but I'm not sure whether this means that the problem still persists ...

[Joerg]

I can confirm what gxyz told. With Version 4.1.8 running under Gentoo Linux (64 Bit) this error can still be observed. For me it's really pain, since I rely on using ICH9 chipset allowing me to configure multiple SCSI controllers which is a must for my purposes while needing the ability to perform PXE network boots. Simply consider using Solaris OS, simulating SANs via multiple SCSI controllers in conjunction with Jumpstart installations ... I am therefore trapped too with lower version 4.0.12 where all this works fine. I would really appreciate to get a statement about the current status of this ticket since it is still not assigned to anybody. Thank you very much.

[Mace2442]

Problem remains with 4.1.8 on Windows Host. Have Oracle Extensions installed.

With ICH9 no network adapter works for PXE.

[Frank Mehnert]

Thanks for the report. This bug will be fixed in the next maintenance release. But please be aware that the ICH9 chipset is marked as experimental.