Ah-ha! I suspect it's recent changes to the initramfs that continues to reduce the modules-needed-for-boot, which left out "tun". I was able to solve this by just "sudo modprobe tun" before attempting to start an interface. Hint found at:
http://www.gasid.org.uk/2009/02/kvm-virt-install-failed-to-add-tap-interface/
Ah-ha! I suspect it's recent changes to the initramfs that continues to reduce the modules- needed- for-boot, which left out "tun". I was able to solve this by just "sudo modprobe tun" before attempting to start an interface. Hint found at:
http:// www.gasid. org.uk/ 2009/02/ kvm-virt- install- failed- to-add- tap-interface/