Unattended Guest OS Install - vbox-unattended

[Technologov]

Introducing Automated-guest-installs for VirtualBox !

vbox-unattended.
This is an unofficial addon patch on top of Oracle VirtualBox.
It allows fully-automatic installs of virtual machines in VirtualBox and provides tight integration with each supported OS. Very fast !

Why I write 'vbox-unattended' ?

Because:
Installing Windows XP by coffee-drinking people takes about 30 min
Installing Windows XP by active geek, clicking instantly takes about 15 min
Installing Windows XP by Unattended Install, takes about 10 min,
letting people to drink coffee in first place.
(on standard Core2-class hardware with HDD)

In addition to Windows (2000+), it also supports Red Hat (3/4/5/6/7), SUSE (11.3) and Debian 6+7 guests auto-install.

You're welcome to test it:
1.a. Grab the VirtualBox-5.0.0 (BETA2) sources, then apply my
patch; vbox-unattended-v0.9. in this forum.

-or-
1.b. For the lazy among you, I provide a binary installer of
VirtualBox_TE [1] for Linux-x64/amd64. (based on unattended-beta5)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bycgk ... authuser=0

2. install new dependencies: 7-zip and mtools
3. copy unattended scripts to /opt/VirtualBox/vbox-unattended/
Scripts can be found inside patch, or separate install from here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BycgkM ... sp=sharing

4. [optional] copy Oracle's guest additions (link) to
/opt/VirtualBox/additions/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso
5. grab yourself a supported OS installation DVD media (either 32-bit or 64-bit PC).

Enjoy !

[1] VirtualBox_TE, stands for Technologov's Edition, as per my nick-name.

Archive:
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=46798&p=211187#p211187
--
-Alexey Eromenko "Technologov", 06.May.2015.

[Technologov]

Summary of v0.9-beta5: (compared to v0.8 series)

- ported to VirtualBox 5.0 ! (mostly COM interface changes)
- added support for Windows 8, Windows 10 and Debian Linux 7 guests.
- added support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and 7 guests. (including CentOS)
- fixed support for 64-bit Windows 7 and Vista guests.
- added ISO image file picker

minor changes:
- handled a few common dependency errors. (if user forgot to install dependencies such as unattended scripts, mtools or 7-zip)
- few GUI bugs fixed
- disabled unattended mode (auto-install), if guest OS type is incompatible.
- disabled first-time wizard, if in unattended mode.
- AutoCompletion names during new VM creation: RHEL.
- enabled drag-n-drop and shared clipboard by default for new VMs
- GUI/New VM wizard: skip "unattended" section if not used.
- added option to disable Guest Additions install.
- GUI: added description to auto-install new VM wizard.
- several optimizations for Debian guests, leading to smaller debian_boot.iso images.

Summary of v0.9-beta5: (compared to v0.9-beta4)
- added support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and 7 guests.

0.9-beta6. (11.May.2015)
-fixed ability to load VM configuration, with unknown OS type.
-fixed Windows NT5 auto-logon
-fixed key accelerators
-fixed VBox debug build

0.9-beta7. (06.Jul.2015)
-fixed Windows 2000
-fixed one more key accelerator
-rebased on VirtualBox 5.0-RC3 (previous was for BETA2/BETA4)

TODO:
-write documentation.
-[FIXED by Klaus in 5.0-RC3] [Critical] fix VBoxSVC VM cloning. (?); Thanks him !
-fix timezones
-[WONTFIX; no docs] fix Windows NT5 user creation
-[FIXED in BETA7] test Windows 2000

[Technologov]

beta7.

[Johannes@EIK]

Great job Technologov! A lot of work has been put into this!

Looks like all of the links are down. Would it be possible to re-upload them and do you have a binary for beta-7 as well?

Also is it possible to use the unattended from CLI with the latest version? I.e. I use vboxmanage to create a virtual machine and let the unattended continue so the whole virtual machine installation is automated without a user input? I understand it's possible with the Python version but the Virutalbox I can use is upwards of 4.3 and the first unattended ported to 4.3 was 0.8.x which is in C++?

[Technologov]

1. VirtualBox 5.0 BETA4 + TE unattended patch BETA6 binary for Linux x64.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bycgk ... 3dSd0puZFU
No binary with BETA7. (but changes are small there)
1.a. BETA6 scrips: (must be copied to /opt/VirtualBox/vbox-unattended/ )
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BycgkM ... sp=sharing

2. Right now my API is a bit ugly, and does only half-the-job.
I.e. it starts the VM in unattended mode, but VM creation process (selection of hardware and controllers) is done in the GUI part of VirtualBox code, therefore Unattended patch works in GUI for now. I believe I can fix it. Thanks for interest.

>I understand it's possible with the Python version but the Virutalbox I can use is upwards of 4.3 and the first unattended ported to 4.3 was 0.8.x which is in C++?
You understand correctly. I supported CLI in python version of unattended (it runs on unpatched VirtualBox v4.1.x).
My patch v0.8.x for VirtualBox 4.3 is very unstable, do I recommend not using it.
The recent v0.9.x-BETA5+ is fairly stable with VirtualBox v5.0.

[bug-in-the-machine]

Great work Technologov!

I only hope this feature will make it into an official release soon.

[Technologov]

bug-in-the-machine:

I only hope this feature will make it into an official release soon.

It is not so simple. My technology right now works only on Linux hosts (and other UNIX hosts), and porting it to Windows hosts is theoretically possible, but not-so-simple. With VirtualBox being a cross-platform product, I'm not sure it will be included.

But you should try it and see how it goes.