no network in Android x86 on VirtualBox 4.1.2

For me the solution of user1330614 worked very well. Another nice writeup for the problem can be found here: http://davematthew.blogspot.de/2012/04/android-x86-ics-on-virtualbox.html

try this one

VBoxManage modifyvm "Your Android VB name" --natpf1 adb,tcp,*,5555,*,5555

Update: If Android x86 does not work well for you, you might want to look at AndroVM. I run it in VirtualBox and have had no hardware related issues.

Real Answer:

Somewhat of a follow-up answer since I can't add comments yet. I think getting this setup is highly dependent on your host hardware. I am not using hardware that perfectly fits any of the current ISOs. So I tested all of them with all Ethernet settings to see what would work.

On a Dell Latitude D820 here is what I got:

• eeepc - Bridged Adapter with PCnet-PCI II
• tegav2 - NAT adapter with PCnet-PCI III
• amd_brazos - No CPU support
• asus_laptop - No eth0 option for any Ethernet adapter setting
• s104t - Would not boot

For the two ISOs that would work for me (eeepc and tegav2), I added the following two lines to /etc/init.sh (as per the other answer)

netcfg eth0 dhcp
setprop net.dns1 8.8.8.8

The following works very good for me

sudo vi /etc/init.sh

add 4 lines below to init.sh

netcfg eth0 dhcp
echo nameserver <ip> > /etc/resolv.conf
dnsmasq 
setprop net.dns1 8.8.8.8

on virtualbox set the network interface to bridged (PCnet Fast III) and that's all.