Thunderbolt 3 Docks, VirtualBox needs new behavior model

[J.R.]

My specific hardware.

• HP zBook 15 G3 Laptop
  • NIC: Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260
  • NIC: Intel Ethernet connection I219-LM
• HP Elite Thunderbolt 3 Dock
  • NIC: Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet
• Host: Windows 7 Enterprise
  • Selected Bridged Adapter Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop
• Guest: CentOS 7

Situation

• Thunderbolt 3 docking stations extend the PCIe such that new devices may appear when docked and disappear when undocked.
• One specific issue is with the NIC. While docked I use the NIC provided by the docking station.
• When undocked I use the Wireless NIC or the NIC on the motherboard.

Issue

• VirtualBox is unable to cope went the NIC in the dock completely disappears after undocking.
  • In Windows Device Manager the NIC does not appear
• It is also does not seem to hand gracefully when a Wireless NIC is disconnected from any network.
  • VirtualBox has no wireless bridge adapter option.

I hope this description is through enough.

[Frank Mehnert]

To make it clear, you are talking about bridged networking. I don't expect to see such problems with NAT.

[J.R.]

Yes I am referring to bridged networking. I haven't tried NAT.

However since PCI devices can now disconnect and connect dynamically this is likely a more general issue that does not only apply to NIC devices.

[roscoe]

I am running into this issue as well with a Dell Precision 5530. As it still appears to be open, does anyone know of a workaround to get the networking back up after this happens? I've tried everything I can think of without any luck. Thanks for any help.

[TomA]

Same issue. Windows 7 host, ubuntu guest. using NAT adapter. Switching from wired ethernet on thunderbolt dock to built in wifi requires a laptop reboot to make the networking functional again. Restarting VM does not help.

[keoni]

I believe I may also be experiencing this issue. I am on a Dell Precision 5530 laptop and a Dell TB16 dock.

Ubuntu VM running NAT networking on VirtualBox 5.2.22.

When I undock with the VM running, it hands off to the wifi adapter without issue. When I get back to my desk and plug the dock into the thunderbolt port, the Wifi shuts off, but the dock's wired ethernet port does not appear. The USB peripherals also do not come back online.

For previous commenter roscoe, I do appear to have a way to regain the dock's ethernet and USB peripherals without completely rebooting.

Shut down or put the VM into a saved state. Next, exit out of the VirtualBox Manager. When I do these things, the ethernet and USB ports come back online after a slight delay as they become visible to the machine again.

This is still rather inconvenient to deal with every time I re-dock since I have many meetings that I need to have my laptop with me, and I bring it home with me every night. At least I no longer need to do a full-reboot to regain functionality on things hanging off the thunderbolt dock.

Hope this is helpful to anyone else experiencing this behavior.

[j.arsenault]

I'm also experiencing the same as keoni above, only with virtualbox 6.0.4.

Has there been any update on resolving this?

[t$]

This is the same problem as https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/16382

It still exists in VirtualBox 6.0.6 with the very latest versions of Windows 10 and latest Intel TB drivers.

[omar93]

This still isn't working right in Version 6.1. I found that when I use a dock with my Dell 7410, that the wired network adapter stops working whenever I undock and re-dock. But thankfully the workaround mentioned in a comment 2 years ago still works. Shutting down my vm, and closing the virtualbox manager and then starting it again does get the network adapter working again. at least I have a work around, this was really driving me nuts.