Configuring VirtualBox host only networking: OSX host, Ubuntu guest
2013-09
Greg K
SOLVED: I got this working by reconfiguring the vbox network settings to 192.168.21.19 (in VirtualBox -> Preferences -> Network) and commenting the line specifying a gateway as it's not needed (no external access on the host only interface) as per this post.
I can then SSH to 192.168.21.20 from OSX and connect to Ubuntu. I changed my /etc/fstab mounts to point to //192.168.21.19/
I have a Ubuntu guest configured with two interfaces, eth0 is using NAT and works fine, I can access the net.
The second interface eth1 is set to host only networking and VirtualBox has created a vboxnet0 virtual adapter on the host.
I've configured vboxnet0 in VirtualBox adapter settings with the following:
ip 192.168.21.20
subnet 255.255.255.0
Once the VM guest is running, ifconfig on OSX has vboxnet0 setup as:
vboxnet0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether 0a:00:27:00:00:00
inet 192.168.21.20 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.21.255
In the guest, eth0 is set to use DHCP, I've statically assigned eth1 to 192.168.21.20 (this was a mistake and the IPs clash between host and guest):
auto eth1
iface eth1 inet static
address 192.168.21.20 (should be .19)
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.21.0
broadcast 192.168.21.255
gateway 192.168.21.1
There is no device on 192.168.21.1 - what should I set my gateway to? (turns out a gateway is not needed as it's a HOST only interface). Net access is provided by the NAT adapter.
In the guest the routes look like so:
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.21.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth1
10.0.2.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
default 10.0.2.2 0.0.0.0 UG 100 0 0 eth0
default 192.168.21.1 0.0.0.0 UG 100 0 0 eth1
Route table on OSX:
$ netstat -nr
Routing tables
Internet:
Destination Gateway Flags Refs Use Netif Expire
default 10.77.36.1 UGSc 28 0 en1
10.77.36/22 link#5 UCS 5 0 en1
10.77.39.38 127.0.0.1 UHS 1 2236 lo0
10.77.39.255 link#5 UHLWbI 1 66 en1
127 127.0.0.1 UCS 0 0 lo0
127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 UH 1 8642 lo0
169.254 link#5 UCS 0 0 en1
192.168.21 link#7 UC 2 0 vboxnet
192.168.21.20 a:0:27:0:0:0 UHLWI 0 4 lo0
192.168.21.255 link#7 UHLWbI 2 64 vboxnet
I can't SSH from the host to the guest (I used to be able to when the VM was configured with a bridged connection):
$ ssh 192.168.21.20
ssh: connect to host 192.168.21.20 port 22: Connection refused
What have I done wrong here? TIA
Greg K
I reconfigured the vboxnet0 virtual adapter IP on the host to 192.168.21.19 so it differs from the guests configuration of .20 - then they don't clash. See my updates in the post with more details about the solution.
Questioner
I'm trying to use CLEAR Motorola WiMax USB in Ubuntu as there is no support for Linux as yet. I've installed Windows XP as guest in Ubuntu and the version I'm using is 3.2.2. USB is connecting fine in Windows XP but I can't use internet in Ubuntu. Can you please tell me how to do it. Here is the configuration that could help you guys. Thanks in advance.
I'm using Two Network Adapters.
Network
Adapter 1:
PCnet-FAST III (NAT)
Adapter 2:
PCnet-FAST III (Host-only adapter, 'vboxnet0')
ipconfig [on Guest windowsXP]
Windows IP Configuration
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection: PCnet-FAST III (NAT)
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.2.15
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.2.2
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 3: PCnet-FAST III (Host-only adapter, 'vboxnet0')
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.56.101
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : CLEAR Motorola USB
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.168.242.33
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.192.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.168.192.2
IFCONFIG [on Host Ubuntu]
(Ethernet) eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:14:22:b9:9d:76
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
Interrupt:16
eth1 (Wireless) Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:13:ce:f0:9b:0d
inet6 addr: fe80::213:ceff:fef0:9b0d/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1 errors:0 dropped:5 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:84 (84.0 B)
Interrupt:17 Base address:0xe000 Memory:dfcff000-dfcfffff
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:2292 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2292 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:171952 (171.9 KB) TX bytes:171952 (171.9 KB)
vboxnet0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 0a:00:27:00:00:00
inet addr:192.168.56.1 Bcast:192.168.56.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::800:27ff:fe00:0/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:137 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:21174 (21.1 KB)
ta.speot.is
You should enable ICS on the Windows XP box and set the network adapter for vboxnet0 to DHCP.
The Windows XP guest has a DHCP server built-in for ICS. When your vboxnet0 adapter sends a DHCP request the guest should return the necessary configuration information (specifically default gateway) to allow Ubuntu to route traffic through it.
I don't know why you have two adapters for the guest.