VirtualBox 4.3 autostart on Debian wheezy
Since VirtualBox 4.2 there is autostart script which helps you start your virtual machines during boot. Here is a howto for VirtualBox 4.3 autostart on Debian wheezy.
Before this autostart script the virtual machines ware started usually from rc.local, now you can do it with VirtualBox autostart config. Do the following to enable the autostart service:
As root:
vi /etc/default/virtualbox
add this lines:
VBOXAUTOSTART_DB=/etc/vbox VBOXAUTOSTART_CONFIG=/etc/vbox/autostart.conf
Now change the permissions to the folder for vboxusers
chgrp vboxusers /etc/vbox chmod 1775 /etc/vbox
Create the /etc/vbox/autostart.conf and add this users that you want autostart to be enabled, my users for running the virtual machines is vbox
vi /etc/vbox/autostart.conf
# Default policy is to deny starting a VM, the other option is "allow". default_policy = deny
# user vbox is allowed to start virtual machines but starting them
# will be delayed for 10 seconds
vbox = {
allow = true
startup_delay = 10
}Now login as vbox and enable autostart on the machines you want to start automatically, i will do it for two machines called VirtualMachine1 and VirtualMachine2
VBoxManage setproperty autostartdbpath /etc/vbox VBoxManage modifyvm VirtualMachine1 --autostart-enabled on VBoxManage modifyvm VirtualMachine2 --autostart-enabled on
Now, as root run this command, or reboot your server:
/etc/init.d/vboxautostart-service start
Note: vboxautostart-service uses only start and stop
More:
Starting virtual machines during system boot
I’m not seeing the *.start or *.stop scripts getting created under /etc/vbox. Made sure permissions are set (and the vboxusers group is the group of /etc/vbox and the user is a member of vboxusers). Any ideas?
Running ubuntu server 12.04-4 (64bit) and VirtualBox 4.3.8.
Just installed VirtualBox 4.3.8 on Debian 7 and enabled autostart using this tutorial. Check the tutorial once again maybe you have missed some of the steps.
I don`t not why the files .stop and .start are not created but: I created manually the file “/etc/vbox/vbox.start” with the content “1” (without quotes), and “/etc/vbox/vbox.stop” with the same content (“1”). After many, many hours now I can start and stop the machine: “/etc/init.d/vboxautostart-service start” and “/etc/init.d/vboxautostart-service stop”… and is auto-started after reboot.
vbox user doesn’t exist
as the tutorial explains vbox is the user i run my virtual machines. you need to adjust it with the user you run your machines.
Thanks, got it working now.
VBoxManage: error: The machine is not mutable (state is Saved)
VBoxManage: error: Details: code VBOX_E_INVALID_VM_STATE (0x80bb0002), component SessionMachine, interface IMachine, callee nsISupports
VBoxManage: error: Context: “COMSETTER(AutostartEnabled)(ValueUnion.f)” at line 2616 of file VBoxManageModifyVM.cpp
your virtual machines need to be shut down not running or in saved state.
Do you know what means this error? The .start file is not created
Starting VirtualBox VMs configured for autostartls: cannot access /etc/vbox/*.start: No such file or directory
thanks
Alright, VM will start on boot, but how I can shutdown the VM gracefully while shutting down my host?
Depends what you wanna do.
Usually when i shutdown my server i shutdown machines one by one.
You can create a script if you want using VBoxManage controlvm
Here is a link: http://askubuntu.com/questions/42482/how-to-safely-shutdown-guest-os-in-virtualbox-using-command-line
Regards,
Nikola