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macOS - An error has occurred while trying to create a virtualbox host-only network interface

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Note

From Genymotion Desktop 3.3.0 onward, it is possible to switch to QEMU hypervisor instead of VirtualBox. Also, QEMU utilizes Hypervisor which is installed by default on macOS, so we strongly recommend using QEMU instead of VirtualBox hypervisor when possible.

Important

VirtualBox hypervisor is not available on mac M.

Virtual machines, mac servers and macOS Cloud instances (AWS, GCP, Azure, ...)

Genymotion Desktop has been designed to run in a physical environment, not in a virtual machine. For this reason, Genymotion Desktop will not work if run in a macOS Virtual Machine, a mac server nor a macOS Cloud instance.

For more details, please refer to the following articles:

mac M series

Compatibility with mac M series has been added with Genymotion Desktop 3.4.0. If you tried to install and run Genymotion Desktop 3.3.3 or lower, you will need to purge it before installing Genymotion 3.4.0.

For more information, please refer to Apple Mac M series support.

macOS has just been upgraded

Upgrading macOS often breaks VirtualBox. If an error occurs after the upgrade, try re-installing or upgrading VirtualBox to the latest stable version.

macOS security blocked VirtualBox kernel installation

This issue may be due to security restrictions in macOS which blocks VirtualBox modules installation.

Method 1

  1. Go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General, and then click the Allow button:
    macos_security.png
  2. Reboot macOS

Method 2

If VirtualBox has already been installed and you don't see the message System software from developer "Oracle America, Inc." was blocked from loading, follow these steps:

  1. Uninstall VirtualBox and reinstall it.
  2. Go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General, and then click the Allow button:
    macos_security.png
  3. Reboot macOS

Method 3

If Method 2 fails, follow these steps:

  1. Uninstall VirtualBox (use the VirtualBox_uninstall.tool of the VirtualBox downloaded dmg from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads).
  2. Open a terminal and restore SIP to default:
    sudo csrutil clear
  3. Reboot macOS
  4. Clear staging:
    sudo kextcache --clear-staging
  5. Reboot macOS
  6. Re-install VirtualBox from VirtualBox.pkg and follow system prompt to allow Oracle. If you don't get the system prompt, go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General, and then click the Allow button:
    macos_security.png
  7. Reboot macOS

Issues with VPNs and/or firewalls

Please refer to these articles:

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