[WorksForMe] Can't get VBoxManage guestcontrol to connect

[JamesNJ]

Hello all, trying to learn VBoxManage here and having some trouble. MacOS 10.14.5 Host, Virtualbox 6.0.8.

I have installed very basic/minimal Ubuntu 18.04 guests, and I think I have guest editions installed correctly:

# cat /proc/modules | fgrep vbox
vboxguest 303104 0 - Live 0xffffffffc034d000

Guest OS seems to run fine, but I can't seem to do anything useful with VBoxManage guestcontrol. I'm trying just to get a simple example working:

VBoxManage guestcontrol "Ubuntu 18.04" run --username 'user' --password 'password' --exe /bin/ls

All I ever get is:

Creating guest session as user 'user'...
Waiting for guest session to start...
VBoxManage: error: The guest execution service is not ready (yet)
VBoxManage: error: Details: code VBOX_E_IPRT_ERROR (0x80bb0005), component GuestSessionWrap, interface IGuestSession, callee nsISupports
VBoxManage: error: Context: "WaitForArray(ComSafeArrayAsInParam(aSessionWaitFlags), 30 * 1000, &enmWaitResult)" at line 879 of file VBoxManageGuestCtrl.cpp

Guest is booted and running for some time ... maybe 10min or more. I can't tell if VBoxManage can't connect for some reason, or there is a problem with guest editions, etc.

Any suggestions on how to troubleshoot?

Thanks

[socratis]

I think I have guest editions installed correctly

Instead of/in addition to seeing if a VirtualBox process is running, try as well (from within the guest):

• 
  VBoxControl -version

Please tell me the complete output if you reply to this.

I'm trying just to get a simple example working:

I did:

• 
  VBoxManage guestcontrol "<VM>" run --exe "/bin/ls" --username socratis --password password[/i]

and it worked just fine.

[JamesNJ]

Thank you ... completely my fault here ... guest additions was not running properly. I got it all installed correctly and rebooted guest .... everything works great now.

Thanks for the quick response!

[socratis]

Glad you figured it out. Marking as [WorksForMe].