Virtualbox mini-howto

Virtualbox has three types of network: nat (default), a virtual 
network between vm and bridged networking.

The first and the second works out of the box so let's explain 
the third.

Bridged networking uses the tun/tap interface, so the first 
requirement is the tun module loaded at startup (in slackware 
modify rc.modules).

Then you have to change the rc.vboxbridge in rc.local to match 
the number of machines and the username of the virtualbox user 
(sh /etc/rc.d/rc.vboxbridge start 2 user).
The last step is ``chmod 755 /etc/rc.d/rc.vboxbridge'' and ``
/etc/rc.d/rc.vboxbridge start 2 user'' as above and voila, 
bridged networking is up and running.

A last note, for bridged networking to work you need at least a 
network interface (i.e. eth0) configured with an ip address. The 
rc script retrieves the eth0 ip address automatically but I 
haven't yet tested it with aliases, so if you have net aliases 
and bridging isn't working or your network configuration screws 
up you are on your own. I take no responsibility for any damage 
to your O.S./pc/network/wife/dog (so as we tell in Italy ``Uomo 
avvisato mezzo salvato'', who knows italian let's translate).

Feel free to correct this text (my english is poor, I already 
know that), but, please, send me a copy so I can change it in the 
next release.

Update (31/05/2008):
if you run into trouble with network in linux guests (i.e. the 
network is not responding), add something like that in your 
rc.local or other local start file based on your distribution 
(sorry, that won't work with other than Slackware):

ping -c1 <host ip>
TEST=$?
while [ $TEST -eq 1 ];
do
/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 stop && /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 start
ping -c1 <host ip>
TEST=$?
done

This check if network is up and restart until it comes up.