VirtualBox built-in DHCP server does not respond for host-only interface

[Vsevolod]

I created virtual machine with 2 interfaces, first is NAT (eth0), second is host-only (eth1). Host-only interface eth1 is configured to use DHCP to obtain it's IP address. When I start the guest, only eth0 gets IP address from dhcp server, eth1 is unable to receive it's IP address. This is an excerpt from guest syslog:

Mar 23 09:29:21 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 kernel: [   17.917469] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth1: link is not ready
Mar 23 09:29:21 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 kernel: [   17.918347] e1000: eth1 NIC Link is Up 1000 Mbps Full Duplex, Flow Control: RX
Mar 23 09:29:21 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 kernel: [   17.918715] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth1: link becomes ready
Mar 23 09:29:21 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: Listening on LPF/eth1/08:00:27:e1:d3:44
Mar 23 09:29:21 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: Sending on   LPF/eth1/08:00:27:e1:d3:44
Mar 23 09:29:21 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: Sending on   Socket/fallback
Mar 23 09:29:21 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 3 (xid=0xd467f16c)
Mar 23 09:29:24 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 6 (xid=0xd467f16c)
Mar 23 09:29:30 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11 (xid=0xd467f16c)
Mar 23 09:29:41 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 20 (xid=0xd467f16c)
Mar 23 09:30:01 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8 (xid=0xd467f16c)
Mar 23 09:30:09 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 14 (xid=0xd467f16c)
Mar 23 09:30:23 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 19 (xid=0xd467f16c)
Mar 23 09:30:42 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8 (xid=0xd467f16c)
Mar 23 09:30:50 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 15 (xid=0xd467f16c)
Mar 23 09:31:05 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 14 (xid=0xd467f16c)
Mar 23 09:31:19 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 12 (xid=0xd467f16c)
Mar 23 09:31:31 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 12 (xid=0xd467f16c)
Mar 23 09:31:43 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7 (xid=0xd467f16c)
Mar 23 09:31:50 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7 (xid=0xd467f16c)
Mar 23 09:31:57 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 12 (xid=0xd467f16c)
Mar 23 09:32:09 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 12 (xid=0xd467f16c)
Mar 23 09:32:21 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 16 (xid=0xd467f16c)
Mar 23 09:32:37 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7 (xid=0xd467f16c)
Mar 23 09:32:45 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7 (xid=0xd467f16c)
Mar 23 09:32:53 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 12 (xid=0xd467f16c)
Mar 23 09:33:05 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 16 (xid=0xd467f16c)
Mar 23 09:33:21 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 15 (xid=0xd467f16c)
Mar 23 09:33:36 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 15 (xid=0xd467f16c)
Mar 23 09:33:51 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 18 (xid=0xd467f16c)
Mar 23 09:34:09 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 13 (xid=0xd467f16c)
Mar 23 09:34:22 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: No DHCPOFFERS received.
Mar 23 09:34:22 vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64 dhclient: No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.

Host OS is Debian 8.7 64 bit, guest OS is ubuntu 14.04 64 bit. I am using vagrant to create and start this guest.

This issue appeared randomly and rarely for same time on two different linux hosts (debian and ubuntu 14.04). Now, I am unable to start the guest at all.

[Vsevolod]

Starting VM using vagrant, with full vagrant log

[Vsevolod]

Output of VBoxManage showvminfo

[Vsevolod]

Output of VBoxManage list dhcpservers

[Vsevolod]

Output of ifconfig on guest

[Vsevolod]

Contents of /etc/network/interfaces on guest

[Vsevolod]

Guest syslog

[Vsevolod]

Output of VBoxManage list hostonlyifs

[Vsevolod]

Output of VBoxManage list hostinfo

[Vsevolod]

VirtualBox guest log of second start

[Vsevolod]

VirtualBox guest log of first start

[Vsevolod]

VirtualBox virtual machine xml config

[Vsevolod]

Vagrantfile used to start the guest

[Vsevolod]

nictrace1 - network trace of eth0 for second start

[Vsevolod]

nictrace2 - network trace of eth1 for second start

[Vsevolod]

Output of ifconfig on host

[Vsevolod]

Output of VBoxManage list systemproperties

[Vsevolod]

uname -a on host:

Linux spin 3.16.0-4-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.16.39-1 (2016-12-30) x86_64 GNU/Linux

uname -a on guest:

Linux box-1 3.13.0-112-generic #159-Ubuntu SMP Fri Mar 3 15:26:07 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[Vsevolod]

(Temporary?) fix for the issue is to reload VirtualBox kernel modules:

$ rmmod vboxnetadp vboxnetflt vboxpci vboxdrv
$ modprobe vboxnetadp
$ modprobe vboxnetflt
$ modprobe vboxpci
$ modprobe vboxdrv

[Frank Mehnert]

I'm sorry but VBox 4.3.x is no longer supported. Are you able to reproduce this problem with VBox 5.1.18?