I've configured my VirtualBox node to launch the slave agent via SSH.

If the VirtualBox is booted, the slave agent launches without problems.

If VirtualBox tries to start the slave agent while the guest is still booting, I see:

[VirtualBox] Starting stage 2 launcher (SSHLauncher)
[05/26/10 15:17:17] [SSH] Opening SSH connection to 172.16.63.206:22.
java.io.IOException: There was a problem while connecting to 172.16.63.206:22
at com.trilead.ssh2.Connection.connect(Connection.java:755)
at com.trilead.ssh2.Connection.connect(Connection.java:546)
at hudson.plugins.sshslaves.SSHLauncher.openConnection(SSHLauncher.java:470)
at hudson.plugins.sshslaves.SSHLauncher.launch(SSHLauncher.java:168)
at hudson.plugins.virtualbox.VirtualBoxComputerLauncher.delegateLaunch(VirtualBoxComputerLauncher.java:83)
at hudson.plugins.virtualbox.VirtualBoxComputerLauncher.launch(VirtualBoxComputerLauncher.java:67)
at hudson.slaves.SlaveComputer$1.call(SlaveComputer.java:183)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:334)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:166)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1110)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:603)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:636)
Caused by: java.net.NoRouteToHostException: No route to host
at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.socketConnect(Native Method)
at java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.doConnect(AbstractPlainSocketImpl.java:310)
at java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.connectToAddress(AbstractPlainSocketImpl.java:176)
at java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.connect(AbstractPlainSocketImpl.java:163)
at java.net.SocksSocketImpl.connect(SocksSocketImpl.java:384)
at java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:542)
at com.trilead.ssh2.transport.TransportManager.establishConnection(TransportManager.java:342)
at com.trilead.ssh2.transport.TransportManager.initialize(TransportManager.java:450)
at com.trilead.ssh2.Connection.connect(Connection.java:699)
... 11 more
[05/26/10 15:17:20] [SSH] Connection closed.
[VirtualBox] Stage 2 launcher completed

For some reason

getCore().launch(computer, listener);

in VirtualBoxComputerLauncher is not throwing an exception when SSH dies, causing true to be returned, which leads to the SSH connection not being retried.

I am running Hudson ver. 1.359 and the latest version of the plugin as of today.