Extranet Tecnologie Informatiche Guest

The steps are not too difficult but I did have to find a few places for information. Search on the forum turn up nothing on this subject so hopefully this HOWTO would be helpful to someone out there.

Note: This is not using the OSE version.

Background:
VirtualBox has a very good GUI running on the host to manage guest OS. However when running a server, we typically do not want to run X on it. Fortunately VirtualBox has commandline tools to manage guest systems. It also provides the VirtualBox Remote Desktop Protocol (VRDP) to allow connection to the guest remotely.

Clarification of terms used:
Host – refers to the machine we are trying to install VirtualBox.
Guest – the VirtualBox guest system that is setup on the host.
Remote – the PC that we are working on to connect to the host via SSH.

This setup was done on a fresh install of Ubuntu Server 8.10 with openssh-server installed.

All the following steps are done by SSH into the host from a remote (I’m using Windows for now).

 

1. Get required packages
Download the Ubuntu package for VirtualBox from http://www.sun.com/software/products/virtualbox/get.jsp

wget “download link here” -O virtualbox-2.0_2.0.4-38406_Ubuntu_intrepid_i386.deb

We are using the non-OSE version here.

The manual from http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads is also very useful.

2. Installation

sudo dpkg -i virtualbox-2.0_2.0.4-38406_Ubuntu_intrepid_i386.deb

This will generate a bunch of dependencies. Fix them with

sudo apt-get -f upgrade

3. Decide on user, disk files location

First decide which user you want to run VirtualBox. Add this user to the vboxusers group.

sudo usermod -a -G vboxusers vboxuser

By default VirtualBox creates the directory .VirtualBox on the user home directory and put all the config and disk file there. In my setup, I put the disk files in /var/vbox as I had created a large partition for this purpose.

4. Install a guest OS

You will need an iso for the guest OS install CD. Copy or download it to the host. We will  use windowsxp.iso

-create a vm

VBoxManage createvm -name winxp -register

-config vm

VBoxManage modifyvm winxp -memory “256MB” -acpi on -boot1 dvd -nic1 nat

-create a disk

VBoxManage createvdi -filename “/var/vbox/winxp.vdi” -size 5000 -register

-add disk to vm

VBoxManage modifyvm winxp -hda “/var/vbox/winxp.vdi”

-register an install iso

VBoxManage registerimage dvd /var/vbox/windows.iso

-mount iso on vm

VBoxManage modifyvm ubuntu -dvd /var/vbox/windows.iso

-start the vm with port

VBoxHeadless -startvm winxp -p 3389 &

If you are running just 1 guest, the -p 3389 is optional. For more than 1 guest, it has to listen to different port.

5. Connect from remote

Since my desktop is still Windows, I use Remote Desktop Connection. (On XP, Start>All Programs>Accessories>Communications)

For Mac, use http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/remote-desktop/
For Ubuntu, look at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=824710

Just fill in the IP of your host (or IP:port if not the default) and you should see the Windows installation waiting for you.

Other useful commands:

VBoxManage controlvm winxp poweroff
VBoxManage controlvm winxp reset

6. Install the Guest additions

You will need the  latest ‘VBoxGuestAdditions.iso that is located here:

wget http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/2.0.4/VBoxGuestAdditions_2.0.4.iso –O VBoxGuestAdditions.iso

Now just move it in /var/vbox/ since all our images are here.

sudo mv VBoxGuestAdditiond.iso /var/vbox/VBoxGuestAdditiond.iso

Don’t forget to register your image!

VBoxManage registerimage dvd /var/vbox/VBoxGuestAdditiond.iso

Now we will mount it on the guest OS

VBoxManage controlvm winxp dvdattach /var/vbox/VBoxGuestAdditiond.iso

Now you should see it in you Guest OS!