virtualbox.org

I want to boot directly into my vbox installation of ubuntu using an XP host. I want to do this to totally enjoy the experience of Ubuntu and still be able to use a couple of pieces of hardware that only have windows drivers. Can you help?

Hi. There is a sticky topic at the top of this forum which covers this subject.

You can also use the vboxmanage command line tool for this task.

Use "vboxmange list vms" in a command prompt* to show all your vms, and find the UUID of the VM you want to start up.

Then you can put the command line:

"<full path to virtualbox folder>\vboxmanage.exe" startvm <UUID>"

into a startup location on disk or in the registry to have it run on startup. The easiest way is to make a shortcut with that as the target, and place it in your Start Menu\Programs\Startup folder.

* - Sorry but if you don't know how to use the command prompt I am not going to explain it. It is not "user friendly" like other Windows components and it is usually only used by experienced users. If you do not already know how to use the command prompt it is likely looking for a different solution will be quicker than learning it.

The MAZZTer wrote:Then you can put the command line ... vboxmanage.exe" startvm <UUID> into a startup location on disk or in the registry to have it run on startup. The easiest way is to make a shortcut with that as the target, and place it in your Start Menu\Programs\Startup folder.

What this does is to start the VM when you log in rather than when you start your system. This is the easiest way because after you've logged in user context including access to the display is established. Of course if you then log out, your VM is terminated.

Host is XP Pro SP3
Guest is Ubuntu 8.10 2.26.24-24-virtual (yes, I started with JeOS and loaded the gui because I'm new at this)
Guest additions is installed. Cut and paste works, the screen resizes fine and all of that.
What I am trying to do now is launch the vm automatically, have the vm come up and resume where it was and I would like to disable most or all of the virtual box menu items.

vboxmanage startvm (vmachinename) works to launch, however three problems:
1. Even though I told the machine to hibernate from within ubuntu, it came up as a restart.
2. I'm getting errors once in a while on shutdown and on launch saying "Virtualbox has encountered a problem and needs to close."
3. I haven't be able to find a way to constrain the "Machine" and "Devices" drop down menus.

By the way, what I'm trying to do probably has already been done much more simply: I want a Firefox 3.0 browsing environment with cut and paste between the host and the guest. That's all. This is to provide browsing safe from malware. If something gets picked up, it can't transfer to the windows machine or to the network.

-Bob