Running BT4 in Virtualbox

[skiamakhe]

I realize this is probably more of a Virtualbox problem than a BT4 problem, but I've been trying to solve this for 3 or 4 days now with no luck. Here's the setup:

Host: XP pro
Guest: BT4 (pre) Final, installed to 20GB virtual hd
Sun Virtualbox 3.0.4
Two virtual nics:
adapter 0 = eth0, bridged mode
adapter 1 = eth1, NAT mode (for testing)

Ok, so I start up both nics with ifconfig, then use dhclient on eth1. No problem, it pulls an IP from the internal DHCP server of virtualbox. So, my BT4 installation is able to process a DHCP offer packet.

I try the same on eth0, and it continues to send out the DHCP discover packets, but doesn't get a response. I ran wireshark on both the host and the guest and confirmed that the dhcp discover packet is leaving from the guest, through the host nic, out to the network, and the network dhcp server is returning a DHCP offer. My host wireshark can see it, but the guest wireshark cannot.

Firewall on the host shouldn't be a problem cause I can already see the packets come back via wireshark. I turned it off just in case with no luck. I verified that ufw on the BT4 guest is not running, but it never sees the DHCP offer packets. Somewhere, it is getting lost.

This is not a huge deal as I can manually set up the networking, but I'd like to figure out why this isn't working. Thoughts?

[lupin]

I realize this is probably more of a Virtualbox problem than a BT4 problem, but I've been trying to solve this for 3 or 4 days now with no luck. Here's the setup:

Host: XP pro
Guest: BT4 (pre) Final, installed to 20GB virtual hd
Sun Virtualbox 3.0.4
Two virtual nics:
adapter 0 = eth0, bridged mode
adapter 1 = eth1, NAT mode (for testing)

Ok, so I start up both nics with ifconfig, then use dhclient on eth1. No problem, it pulls an IP from the internal DHCP server of virtualbox. So, my BT4 installation is able to process a DHCP offer packet.

I try the same on eth0, and it continues to send out the DHCP discover packets, but doesn't get a response. I ran wireshark on both the host and the guest and confirmed that the dhcp discover packet is leaving from the guest, through the host nic, out to the network, and the network dhcp server is returning a DHCP offer. My host wireshark can see it, but the guest wireshark cannot.

Firewall on the host shouldn't be a problem cause I can already see the packets come back via wireshark. I turned it off just in case with no luck. I verified that ufw on the BT4 guest is not running, but it never sees the DHCP offer packets. Somewhere, it is getting lost.
adcast
This is not a huge deal as I can manually set up the networking, but I'd like to figure out why this isn't working. Thoughts?

So the DHCP Offer from the DHCP server is getting lost somewhere in the host system (it reaches the host but doesnt get forwarded to the guest interface)? This is on a bridged virtual interface?

Have you confirmed that the DHCP offer frame is sent to the broadcast MAC address?

Does the guest system see other frames that are sent to the broadcast MAC address? (Try sending one from an external machine, and also try one from the host itself).

Maybe the host isnt correctly passing broadcast frames to the bridged interface? It could be a problem in the bridging code.

Also, what type of physical interface is eth0 on the guest bridged to? A wired Ethernet connection or a wireless interface? From what I recall I don't think bridging with wireless interfaces is particularly mature as yet.

[skiamakhe]

Those are some good ideas. I haven't had a chance to try them yet, but I can tell you this: Yes, the offer packet was sent to the broadcast address (255.255.255.255), and my host interface is a wired nic, no wireless involved. I'll let you know what the broadcast packet test turns up.

[lupin]

Those are some good ideas. I haven't had a chance to try them yet, but I can tell you this: Yes, the offer packet was sent to the broadcast address (255.255.255.255), and my host interface is a wired nic, no wireless involved. I'll let you know what the broadcast packet test turns up.

Is it sent to the broadcast MAC address (FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF) as well as the broadcast IP address? There might be some issue with the bridging code or configuration thats preventing broadcasts at the Ethernet layer (as opposed to the IP layer) from being forwarded. Of course it could be an issue at the IP layer too.

[A Student]

Don't know if this is solved or not, but you might look at VBoxmanager, it should be in your /program files/sun/VBox or where ever you installed to, but run that from cmd. It sounds like the host machine isn't forwarding the packets back to the guest one the DHCP server sends back the ACK, although mine worked fine "out of the box" I did have to use it to set up SSH forwarding so i could get to it while i was in my OS class. Hope this helps