virtualbox.org

Greetings

Have been running vbox for a number of years and have developed some habits that, hopefully, make things easier for me.

Trying to setup on a server running Debian stretch (9.0) on a server with lots of ram and huge hdd space.

What I want - - - I want a folder (I'm calling it VMs) that's in a directory of my choice and in that are the folders for the various vms.
On a previous machine I have over 25 different vms but rarely am using more than a few at a time. The various vms are for experimenting and trying things (that way its harder to bork the main system!).

In trying to setup my copy of 5.1.22 there is no way to have a storage folder like I want it.
The installation insists on having a meta directory (#1) and then in it is directory with the machine name (#2), inside of that is ANOTHER directory with that machine name (#3), inside this second directory is where machine components are stored.
Further confusing things is when a second vm is setup the directory with the machine name is created (by me) (#2) but that first level of machine directory (#2) is placed some place else (its in a different machine (#2) directory) even though its a different machine - - - - and I'm left with WTF. This doesn't make any sense and is very illogical. Is there any way to 'fix' this misbehavior? Does it take finding another vm system? (Looking up bugs and issues it seems like Oracle has been working real hard on alienating at least 'Debian' users.) Do I have to run an older version - - - what's recommended if that's true.

Recommendations please?

The storage structure for the virtual machine can be set by you. You set this in the main manager preference -> general ( location must already exist and you must have read-write permission ). If you want to save the snapshots to a different place ( strongly advise against this by the way ) it is done in the guest settings -> general.

You can also set a storage location to a different place when you create a new guest.

Perryg wrote:The storage structure for the virtual machine can be set by you. You set this in the main manager preference -> general ( location must already exist and you must have read-write permission ). If you want to save the snapshots to a different place ( strongly advise against this by the way ) it is done in the guest settings -> general.

You can also set a storage location to a different place when you create a new guest.

In theory you are correct - - - - but - - - - -
I spent a number of hours today trying to do this and was stymied most every time.
Also tried to get a debian buster client running and it just didn't want to boot up correctly. I could get into it but in a really weird way.
Reading other places it seems that Debian users that want to use virtualbox are going to be sol for at least a period of time (suggestions are from a year to possibly even 2).
I have learnt to count on my vms for trying things so I'm thinking its time to look across the fence.
Doesn't seem like the management at Oracle gets open source very well - - - oh well.

Don't know what to tell you. I do not have these issues you are describing and I know for a fact that Debian is not being overlooked. If you want to try something else then by all means go for it.