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So, I'm running Ubuntu in Virtualbox and when I tried to connect to WIFI through settings, it said that it can't detect any WIFI adapter. What do I do? I even tried disabling Virtualbox Host Only Adapter. I'm using Ubuntu 22.04. I want to use it to create fake WIFIs. Not for malicious purposes. For learning. :)

lunix
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    You can use the host connection. It makes no sense trying to use the guest for that. – Pilot6 Mar 12 '23 at 09:39
  • I want to use it to do something that requires WIFI – lunix Mar 12 '23 at 10:12
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    Then write exactly what you are trying to do in your question. There is no information now. You can use a USB adapter in VB if you pass it through, etc. – Pilot6 Mar 12 '23 at 10:15

2 Answers2

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You can't enable wifi in a virtual machine; the hardware does not support it, but it doesn't matter. Your virtual machine gets its internet connection from a standard ethernet "cable" connection. This should be ready and waiting for you due to your install of ubuntu in the VM. It may be that your host computer uses wifi, but it doesn't matter how your host connects to the internet; the guest just sees a virtual cable internet connection.

Comments suggest attaching a USB wifi adapter, which should work. This will not be the same as the host wifi connection, but it will be a real wifi connection.

Tim Richardson
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  • Actually I want to use WIFI for a purpose. – lunix Mar 12 '23 at 10:07
  • If you have a USB WiFi device, you can connect that USB device directly to the guest machine. – FedKad Mar 12 '23 at 20:26
  • ah. Perhaps you want an emulated wifi NIC. I have no experience with this, but I think you may be better off with more powerful emulation such as qemu, assuming linux is your host as well, here is perhaps a hint: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/199221/is-there-a-way-to-emulate-a-wireless-card-in-qemu-kvm – Tim Richardson Mar 12 '23 at 20:28
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The onboard WiFi adapter will only work as described in @Tim_Richardson's answer.

However, if you have a separate USB WiFi dongle (adapter) that is not used by the host operating system, you may able to use it in the guest machine.

I haven't tried, but in theory the following steps should work:

  • Ensure that your guest machine has an appropriate USB 2.0 or 3.0 controller defined in VirtualBox Settings for that machine.
  • Start your guest machine and go to the VirtualBox menu item Devices → USB for this machine and select the USB WiFi dongle device.
  • This device will be disconnected from the host and will be presented to guest for exclusive use.
  • Assuming your Ubuntu guest supports your USB dongle, you should be able to configure it as a WiFi network device.
FedKad
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