HOWTO: VirtualBox 3.2 "headless" on Lucid Lynx
So, we have to download the "free as in beer" version from the Oracle website, which is currently here
At the time of writing the current build for Lucid is virtualbox-3.2_3.2.4-62467~Ubuntu~lucid_i386.deb
Before we can install the deb, we will also need to install some dependencies.
sudo apt-get install libcurl3 dkms libqt4-network libqtgui4 libxslt1.1 libasound2 \
libdirectfb-1.2-0 libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-glx libqt4-opengl libsdl1.2debian \
libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsysfs2 libts-0.0-0 libxcursor1 linux-headers-`uname -r` \
libxdamage1 libxfixes3 libxmu6 libxxf86vm1 tsconf
Now we can install the virtualbox deb that we downloaded earlier.
sudo dpkg -i virtualbox-3.2_3.2.4-62467~Ubuntu~lucid_i386.deb
Next, add your user account to the vboxusers group
sudo adduser brettg vboxusers
Virtualbox machines that you create will by default go in your home directory
/home/brettg/.VirtualBox/
Ensure vboxusers have appropriate permissions to the kernel, create the file;
sudo vi /etc/udev/rules.d/40-permissions.rules
/etc/udev/rules.d/40-permissions.rules
KERNEL=="vboxdrv", GROUP="vboxusers", MODE="0660"
That's it, Virtualbox should be installed and ready to go.
Now we can move on to creating a virtual machine
Create a machine named "io"
VBoxManage createvm -name io --ostype Ubuntu -register
Configure it with a nic bridged to eth0, 256Mb RAM, enable acpi and set to boot from DVD
VBoxManage modifyvm io --memory 256 --pae on --acpi on --boot1 dvd --nic1 bridged --bridgeadapter1 eth0
Create a virtual IDE controller
VBoxManage storagectl io --name IDE0 --add ide
Create a virtual HDD
VBoxManage createvdi -filename ~/.VirtualBox/Machines/io/sda.vdi -size 48000 -register
Attach the virtual HDD
VBoxManage storageattach io --storagectl IDE0 --port 0 --device 0 --type hdd --medium ~/.VirtualBox/Machines/io/sda.vdi
Create and attach a virtual DVD drive to the controller and insert the DVD image
VBoxManage storageattach io --storagectl IDE0 --port 1 --device 0 --type dvddrive --medium /store/archive/ISO/ubuntu-10.04-server-i386.iso
The default vrdp port for machines is 3389, however, if you intend to run more than one guest then each one will need to listen on a different port. I use the 3xxx range with the xxx being the last octet of the machines IP address. For example, 192.168.0.1 would be 3001.
VBoxManage modifyvm io --vrdpport 3001
And thats it, your machine has been created. Time to start it up and give it a test drive!
Using the virtual machine
Start the machine
nohup VBoxHeadless -startvm io &
On a GUI workstation, establish a remote desktop connection to the machine. In my case, the host server is called "jupiter" so I type;
rdesktop -a 8 jupiter:3001
After you have installed the OS, you need to tell the machine to boot from the hdd.
VBoxManage modifyvm io --boot1 disk
You can also deregister the dvd image if you don't intend to use it again.
VBoxManage unregisterimage dvd /store/archive/ISO/ubuntu-10.04-server-i386.iso
Here are some other useful commands;
VBoxManage showvminfo io
VBoxManage list hdds
VBoxManage list runningvms
VBoxManage controlvm io poweroff
VBoxManage unregistervm io --delete
VBoxManage controlvm io savestate
VBoxManage closemedium disk UUID
VBoxManage modifyhd UUID --type immutable
