VM fails to start using VBoxManage, starts from VBoxHeadless

[harahauk]

First off: Hi all, I'm new to this forums and I love virtualbox<3
Maybe someone could help me with my testserver stalling?

My problem is that my virtual machine simply will not start using the VBoxManage command.
I try:

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harahauk@spiderpig:~$ VBoxManage startvm 4aebbea6-97a4-4163-bb8d-dc800fa954b3

Where that long string of numbers and chars is my VM uid, I've also tried using the name.

With result:

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VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 2.2.2
(C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

Waiting for the remote session to open...
ERROR: Virtual machine 'AXION' has terminated unexpectedly during startup
Details: code NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005), component Machine, interface IMachine, callee <NULL>

Hovever:

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harahauk@spiderpig:~$ VBoxHeadless -s "AXION"

Results in a VM i can remote desktop tom everything looks fine here, however it takes up one terminal and I really want to use the software as it was intended.

Should I post my .xml's?

I'm running VirtualBox 2.2 on Ubuntu Jaunty Server.
My hardware has no support for virtualization extentions.

[TerryE]

If you want to run a graphics based VM then you have two options: the first is to use the VBoxHeadless command and RDP as the transport. The second is to use the QT based interface, and this need X access. If you do a $ gedit & and this barfs then you haven't got the correct X authorisations set up. This isn't a VBox issue, so solve this for gedit using your OS forums for help before trying to get VBoxManage startvm to work.

I am also not sure how well the GA seamless desktop will work in this scenario. Not at all, I suspect.

[harahauk]

Thanks for your answer.
I dont really want to use any graphical features on the guest from the host.
All i want is the VM to start, the graphics can go to /dev/null, I just want to be able to use services running on the guest througn nat port forwarding.

I dont use a gui on my host, so I thought VBoxManage or VboxHeadless was my savior

[Sasquatch]

VBoxManage calls the GUI part, VBoxHeadless doesn't. So what you need, is run VBoxHeadless with an '&' at the end, so it will run as a background process.

[harahauk]

thanks, that solution will have to do =)

[TerryE]

$ VBoxHeadless -s "AXION" -- everything looks fine here, however it takes up one terminal and I really want to use the software as it was intended.

what you need, is run VBoxHeadless with an '&' at the end, so it will run as a background process.

Sometimes you forget just how litte users know about their OSs and miss the bleeding obvious

[harahauk]

Well thanks for pointing that out, real friendly.
Fact is I already knew how to do that, but it really was not what i wanted cause even though i can still type in that terminal the VM will die if its closed. Therefore I though maybe one of the friendly members of this community had encountered similar difficulties.
I really was hoping to run the VM through a deamon or something, not keep an terminal open that i risk closing by accident, thereby isnta-killing the VM.

I guess I'm kinda spoiled by VMware server.. If only it had the performance of VB..

[TerryE]

harahauk, sorry I wasn't trying to be sarcastic. I was just stating a truth, and it was really a side comment from me to a colleague sasquatch. What you missed was Linux 101 — that is novice Unix stuff. When you want to run a process in the background rather that the foreground then you let the shell know by sticking an & at the end of the command line. I've been in and out of Unix for 25 years and this has been the case all that time.

If you don't want the VM to die when your session drops use nohup or at now. Again basic Unix stuff.

The VBoxHeadless command is designed to be background friendly. You control the background VM with the VBoxManage controlvm command.

[slanbarn]

Hello!

What happs if you try VBoxManage startvm <name of vm> -type vrdp

does that dies when you close your terminal? Cant try right now my self, only do this via putty and terminal server client, and have a ssh tunnel usign putty, so closing putty, brings down my ssh tunnel, so the connection with ts-client dies to...

I would think tho that previous command would let you VM live if your terminal dies...

[TerryE]

What happens if you try VBoxManage startvm <name of vm> -type vrdp Does that die when you close your terminal?

Yes, you are correct. The VBoxManage child process is detached from the parent shell session, so you can log out of SSH. This is a simpler approach for none-experts. Thank-you.

[harahauk]

Hello!
What happs if you try VBoxManage startvm <name of vm> -type vrdp

Exellent! Thanks!
Terry I'm no *nix expert as of yet and your suggestion with nohup was also helpful.
This was exactly what I wanted, thanks again slanbarn =)

[slanbarn]

Glad to help:)