VBoxManage: error: Failed to create the host-only adapter

Question

I am running vagrant 1.4 and virtual box 4.3 on fedora 17 machine. When I do "vagrant up", I get this error:

Bringing machine 'default' up with 'virtualbox' provider...                                                                            


[default] Clearing any previously set forwarded ports...                                                                                                                
[default] Clearing any previously set network interfaces...                                                                                                             
There was an error while executing `VBoxManage`, a CLI used by Vagrant                                                                                                  
for controlling VirtualBox. The command and stderr is shown below.                                                                                                      

Command: ["hostonlyif", "create"]                                                                                                                                       

Stderr: 0%...
Progress state: NS_ERROR_FAILURE
VBoxManage: error: Failed to create the host-only adapter
VBoxManage: error: VBoxNetAdpCtl: Error while adding new interface: VBoxNetAdpCtl: ioctl failed for /dev/vboxnetctl: Inappropriate ioctl for devic
VBoxManage: error: Details: code NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005), component HostNetworkInterface, interface IHostNetworkInterface
VBoxManage: error: Context: "int handleCreate(HandlerArg*, int, int*)" at line 66 of file VBoxManageHostonly.cpp

Answer 1

I had the same problem today. The reason was that I had another VM running in VirtualBox.

Solution:

1. Open VirtualBox and shut down every VM running
2. Restart VirtualBox

sudo "/Library/Application Support/VirtualBox/LaunchDaemons/VirtualBoxStartup.sh" restart

You should now be able to run vagrant up or vagrant reload and have your new host configured.

As mentioned in this answer, recent versions of macOS can block VirtualBox.

Solution:

Go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy Then hit the "Allow" button to let Oracle (VirtualBox) load.

(thanks to @pazhyn & @lsimonetti for clarifications)