gabbarelli.it

minikube start fails with weird network issue

some context

  • OS: Windows 10
  • minikube: 1.32.0
  • VirtualBox: 7.0.14 (same failure happened with 6.??)

The error looks like...

! StartHost failed, but will try again: creating host: create: creating: Unable to start the VM: C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe startvm minikube --type headless failed:
VBoxManage.exe: error: Failed to open/create the internal network 'HostInterfaceNetworking-VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #2' (VERR_INTNET_FLT_IF_NOT_FOUND).
VBoxManage.exe: error: Failed to attach the network LUN (VERR_INTNET_FLT_IF_NOT_FOUND)
VBoxManage.exe: error: Details: code E_FAIL (0x80004005), component ConsoleWrap, interface IConsole

the fix (that worked for me)

  • uninstall VirtualBox (I may have done that 2 or 3 times!)
  • remove the .virtualbox folder under my user root folder
  • re-installed VirtualBox
  • in VirtualBox:
    • File > Tools > Network Manager
    • Remove the VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter
  • in Powershell: minikube start (add --driver=virtualbox if needed)

what was happening to me

minikube start on a "fresh" environment would create a second network adapter called VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #2, and the minikube vm would be set to use that adapter. I suspect that minikube isn't happy with IPs that are not in the 192.168.59.1/24 space.

what didn't work

I tried to set the network adapter of the minikube vm to the original host-only. This would let me boot the VM from virtualbox. Trying to minikube start would then reset the network to the #2 adapter...thus causing the failure.

Hey, I hope this unblocked you and got your minikube up and running: this was the blog post I wish I had found when I first hit this problem. If you found this useful, please feel free to follow me on linkedin.