VirtualBox: vboxnetflt related problems

[David Bruce Naylor]

Hi,

Thanks for porting VirtualBox, it has proven most useful (no more slow RDC).  

I've found some problems relating to VirtualBox's bridged networking:

1) loader doesn't pull in all the dependencies for vboxnetflt (kldload
does) [missing dependencies: ng_ether]

2) even with the dependencies specified in loader.conf vboxnetflt fails to
initialise on boot [module_register_init: MOD_LOAD (ng_vboxnetflt, 0xc0f44fd9,
0xc19bd6a0) error 22]

3) bridging doesn't work when connecting to bridge0 or tap0:
# netstat -w1 -I tap0
            input         (tap0)           output
   packets  errs      bytes    packets  errs      bytes colls
         0     0          0          0     0          0     0
         0     0          0          0     2        151     0
...
This happen with and without giving tap0 an IP address.  


This is using version virtualbox-3.0.51.r22902_2 from ports (recompiled
today).

Regards,

David

P.S. please CC me as I am not subscribed to mailing list

[Fredrik Lindberg-2]

David Naylor wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Thanks for porting VirtualBox, it has proven most useful (no more slow RDC).  
>
> I've found some problems relating to VirtualBox's bridged networking:
>
> 1) loader doesn't pull in all the dependencies for vboxnetflt (kldload
> does) [missing dependencies: ng_ether]

I couldn't figure out how properly depend on ng_ether, a simple
MODULE_DEPEND does not work.  I guess it's because ng_ether doesn't
declare MODULE_VERSION.  ng_ether *should* be loaded by the
explicit kern_kldload, does this not happen on your system?

>
> 2) even with the dependencies specified in loader.conf vboxnetflt fails to
> initialise on boot [module_register_init: MOD_LOAD (ng_vboxnetflt, 0xc0f44fd9,
> 0xc19bd6a0) error 22]

There is a known issue where the vboxdrv module (and thus VirtualBox)
sometimes fail to see that vboxnetflt is loaded - is this what you're
seeing? or does vboxnetflt simply not load at all?

vnoxnetflt should load fine even without ng_ether loaded.

>
> 3) bridging doesn't work when connecting to bridge0 or tap0:
> # netstat -w1 -I tap0
>             input         (tap0)           output
>    packets  errs      bytes    packets  errs      bytes colls
>          0     0          0          0     0          0     0
>          0     0          0          0     2        151     0
> ...
> This happen with and without giving tap0 an IP address.  

This is because vboxnetflt uses ng_ether and the interaction between
ng_ether/bridge/tap/vboxnetflt doesn't work.

Fredrik

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[David Bruce Naylor]

On Sunday, 18 October 2009 19:33:14 Fredrik Lindberg wrote:

> David Naylor wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Thanks for porting VirtualBox, it has proven most useful (no more slow
> > RDC).
> >
> > I've found some problems relating to VirtualBox's bridged networking:
> >
> > 1) loader doesn't pull in all the dependencies for vboxnetflt (kldload
> > does) [missing dependencies: ng_ether]
>
> I couldn't figure out how properly depend on ng_ether, a simple
> MODULE_DEPEND does not work.  I guess it's because ng_ether doesn't
> declare MODULE_VERSION.  ng_ether *should* be loaded by the
> explicit kern_kldload, does this not happen on your system?

I assume you mean kldload after the system boots.  Yes it does.  

> > 2) even with the dependencies specified in loader.conf vboxnetflt fails
> > to initialise on boot [module_register_init: MOD_LOAD (ng_vboxnetflt,
> > 0xc0f44fd9, 0xc19bd6a0) error 22]
>
> There is a known issue where the vboxdrv module (and thus VirtualBox)
> sometimes fail to see that vboxnetflt is loaded - is this what you're
> seeing? or does vboxnetflt simply not load at all?

The module fails to register.  As per the message I quoted above:
module_register_init: MOD_LOAD (ng_vboxnetflt, 0xc0f44fd9, 0xc19bd6a0) error
22

This only happens if loader loads the module.  I've never had a problem the
kldload loading the module.  

> vnoxnetflt should load fine even without ng_ether loaded.

The above error message occurs irrespective of ng_ether being loaded.  

> > 3) bridging doesn't work when connecting to bridge0 or tap0:
> > # netstat -w1 -I tap0
> >             input         (tap0)           output
> >    packets  errs      bytes    packets  errs      bytes colls
> >          0     0          0          0     0          0     0
> >          0     0          0          0     2        151     0
> > ...
> > This happen with and without giving tap0 an IP address.
>
> This is because vboxnetflt uses ng_ether and the interaction between
> ng_ether/bridge/tap/vboxnetflt doesn't work.

Good to know :-).  Is there anyway to communicate directly with the host using
a bridged connection?  This is not much of a concern for me since I need to
bounce my files through a server (to accommodate windows) but it might be a
concern for others.  

David

[Juergen Lock-2]

In article <4ADB515A.4050309@...> you write:

>David Naylor wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Thanks for porting VirtualBox, it has proven most useful (no more slow RDC).  
>>
>> I've found some problems relating to VirtualBox's bridged networking:
>>
>> 1) loader doesn't pull in all the dependencies for vboxnetflt (kldload
>> does) [missing dependencies: ng_ether]
>
>I couldn't figure out how properly depend on ng_ether, a simple
>MODULE_DEPEND does not work.  I guess it's because ng_ether doesn't
>declare MODULE_VERSION.  ng_ether *should* be loaded by the
>explicit kern_kldload, does this not happen on your system?
>
>>
>> 2) even with the dependencies specified in loader.conf vboxnetflt fails to
>> initialise on boot [module_register_init: MOD_LOAD (ng_vboxnetflt, 0xc0f44fd9,
>> 0xc19bd6a0) error 22]
>
>There is a known issue where the vboxdrv module (and thus VirtualBox)
>sometimes fail to see that vboxnetflt is loaded - is this what you're
>seeing? or does vboxnetflt simply not load at all?
>
>vnoxnetflt should load fine even without ng_ether loaded.
>
>>
>> 3) bridging doesn't work when connecting to bridge0 or tap0:
>> # netstat -w1 -I tap0
>>             input         (tap0)           output
>>    packets  errs      bytes    packets  errs      bytes colls
>>          0     0          0          0     0          0     0
>>          0     0          0          0     2        151     0
>> ...
>> This happen with and without giving tap0 an IP address.  
>
>This is because vboxnetflt uses ng_ether and the interaction between
>ng_ether/bridge/tap/vboxnetflt doesn't work.

Hmm, would it make sense to add back the tuntap code as a special
case for when someone selects a tap interface for `bridged'
networking?

 I haven't looked if thats even doable easily enough with all the
conditional compilation going on tho. (VBOX_WITH_NETFLT...)

 Cheers,
        Juergen
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[Fredrik Lindberg-2]

On Sun, 18 Oct 2009 23:03:06 +0200 (CEST), Juergen Lock
<nox@...> wrote:

> In article <4ADB515A.4050309@...> you write:
>>David Naylor wrote:
>>>
>>> 3) bridging doesn't work when connecting to bridge0 or tap0:
>>> # netstat -w1 -I tap0
>>>             input         (tap0)           output
>>>    packets  errs      bytes    packets  errs      bytes colls
>>>          0     0          0          0     0          0     0
>>>          0     0          0          0     2        151     0
>>> ...
>>> This happen with and without giving tap0 an IP address.  
>>
>>This is because vboxnetflt uses ng_ether and the interaction between
>>ng_ether/bridge/tap/vboxnetflt doesn't work.
>
> Hmm, would it make sense to add back the tuntap code as a special
> case for when someone selects a tap interface for `bridged'
> networking?
>
>  I haven't looked if thats even doable easily enough with all the
> conditional compilation going on tho. (VBOX_WITH_NETFLT...)
>

Yes, the tuntap stuff and the vboxnetflt stuff seemed to both be
controlled by VBOX_WITH_NETFLT which makes life difficult :)

I think the bridge case might be fixable, there are explicit calls to the
bridge code inside ng_ether, but somewhere, something goes wrong.

Briefly looking at if_tap.c, I see that it calls ether_attach so
ng_ether *should* pick up frames from it - I need to look at this
further.

Fredrik
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