cannot get access to virtualbox VM with Host-Only adapter via WSL with 'mirrored' networkMode

[rez23]

Windows Version

Microsoft Windows [Versione 10.0.22631.3593]

WSL Version

2.2.4.0

Are you using WSL 1 or WSL 2?

• WSL 2
• WSL 1

Kernel Version

5.15.153.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2

Distro Version

No response

Other Software

VirtualBox Versione 7.0.8 r156879

Repro Steps

Attempt to ping a VirtualBox guest with a host-only network setup from a WSL2 instance with a mirrored network configuration to verify that it is unreachable.

Expected Behavior

You can access the VBox guest machine using the host-only adapter IP address from WSL2 instances with ping or another connection utility.

Actual Behavior

You cannot connect to a VBox guest machine using the host-only adapter IP address from WSL2 instances with ping or any other connection utility.

Diagnostic Logs

No response

[github-actions]

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View similar issues

Please view the issues below to see if they solve your problem, and if the issue describes your problem please consider closing this one and thumbs upping the other issue to help us prioritize it!

Open similar issues:

• Unable to access VPN from WSL2 when networking mode set to mirrored (#11072), similarity score: 0.77
• Cannot connect WSL2 vEth interfaces in Mirrored mode even hostAddressLoopback is true. (#10731), similarity score: 0.75
• Cannot connect Hyper-V VMs(Default Switch) from wsl2 (#11494), similarity score: 0.74
• Virtual network card and mirror network are incompatible (#10914), similarity score: 0.73

Closed similar issues:

• WSL vEthernet adapter not working as expected (#7125), similarity score: 0.81

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[petersaints]

I also notice this behavior. The VirtualBox Host Only Adapter is Mirrored (as eth2 in my case) and I am able to bring it up, give it an IP in the same 192.168.56.x range and than I'm able to connect to a VM using the correct IP.

However, if I'm on Windows I can just ping it using the VMs hostname (it resolves the IP by itself). With WSL2 in NAT Mode it also works well.

I would expect that the Mirrored mode would just "copy" the "VirtualBox Host Only Adapter" to the WSL2 guest allowing it to behave very similarly to the Windows host.

The problem seems to be that, unlike my main physical Ethernet connection that gets copied correctly, this virtual adapter is present but remains inactive whereas it should just have the same IP as it has on the host system, right?

[CherryDT]

The VirtualBox Host Only Adapter is Mirrored (as eth2 in my case) and I am able to bring it up, give it an IP in the same 192.168.56.x range and than I'm able to connect to a VM using the correct IP.

How? I tried the same but I always just get destination host unreachable or no response at all.

[CherryDT]

My solution:

Create a network bridge in Windows between the "vEthernet (Default Switch)" adapter and the VirtualBox Host-Only adapter.

As admin, run netsh bridge show adapter. Find the IDs for the two adapters. Then run netsh bridge create <ID1> <ID2>.

[rchavp]

My solution:

Create a network bridge in Windows between the "vEthernet (Default Switch)" adapter and the VirtualBox Host-Only adapter.

As admin, run netsh bridge show adapter. Find the IDs for the two adapters. Then run netsh bridge create <ID1> <ID2>.

Wouldn't this defeat the purpose of a Host Only Network in the first place?