Start VBoxHeadless VM at startup

THIS is what finally worked!

1) Create the startup script file

in /etc/init.d - sudo nano /etc/init.d/StartVM.

Copy Paste the following in the file and replace "My VM Name" for your vm name:

#! /bin/sh
# /etc/init.d/StartVM
#

#Edit these variables!
VMUSER=spode
VMNAME="My VM Name"

case "$1" in
  start)
    echo "Starting VirtualBox VM..."
    sudo -H -b -u $VMUSER /usr/bin/VBoxVRDP -s "$VMNAME"
    ;;
  stop)
    echo "Saving state of Virtualbox VM..."
    sudo -H -u  $VMUSER /usr/bin/VBoxManage controlvm "$VMNAME" savestate
    ;;
  *)
    echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/StartVM {start|stop}"
    exit 1
    ;;
esac

exit 0

2) Give the script executable permission

with sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/StartVM.

3) Tell script to run at startup.

tell the script be the first to shutdown and the last to startup.

sudo update-rc.d StartVM defaults 99 01


FYI, This works on Opensuse without nohup.

VBoxHeadless -s "OpenSuSE 11.4 64bit" &

This is working ok with Ubuntu server 12.04 and VirtualBox 4.2.20.

#! /bin/sh
# /etc/init.d/StartVM
#
#Edit these variables!
VMUSER=username
case "$1" in
  start)
    echo "Starting VirtualBox VM SMARTHOST ..."
    sudo -u $VMUSER VBoxManage startvm SMARTHOST --type headless
    echo "Starting VirtualBox VM wxp-acceso ..."
    sudo -u $VMUSER VBoxManage startvm wxp-acceso --type headless
    echo "Starting VirtualBox VM wmmaq_edi ..."
    sudo -u $VMUSER VBoxManage startvm vmmaq_edi --type headless
    ;;
  stop)
    echo "Saving state of Virtualbox VM SMARTHOST ..."
    sudo -u $VMUSER VBoxManage controlvm SMARTHOST savestate
    echo "Saving state of Virtualbox VM wxp-acceso ..."
    sudo -u $VMUSER VBoxManage controlvm wxp-acceso savestate
    echo "Saving state of Virtualbox VM vmmaq_edi ..."
    sudo -u $VMUSER VBoxManage controlvm vmmaq_edi savestate
    ;;
  *)
    echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/StartVM {start|stop}"
    exit 1
    ;;
esac

exit 0

And

sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/StartVM

and 

sudo update-rc.d StartVM defaults 99 01

as indicated at a previous answer.

Tags:

Virtualbox

Startup

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