VirtualBox AutoStart

You should have a default file inside of /etc/default for virtualbox.

sudo nano /etc/default/virtualbox

If this is your first time editing this file, it should be blank. This file is sourced by any number of VirtualBox’s autostart files/scripts/etc. that the program utilizes at any one time.

Then you will insert:

VBOXAUTOSTART_DB=/etc/vbox
VBOXAUTOSTART_CONFIG=/etc/vbox/autostart.cfg

  • VBOXAUTOSTART_DB which contains an absolute path to the autostart database directory

  • VBOXAUTOSTART_CONFIG which contains the location of the autostart config settings.

AutoStart.cfg File

Linux Autostart

As we referenced above inside of your /etc/default/virtualbox file, we need a corresponding /etc/vbox/autostart.cfg file now, as well as a directory at /etc/vbox

If /etc/vbox is not created:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/vbox

And then:

sudo nano /etc/vbox/autostart.cfg

Now, the autostart.cfg file that we are creating here is specifically geared towards managing user permissions in relation to if the VirtualMachines will autostart upon that specific user logging into the system. So, if you have more than one user, and they don’t use VirtualBox, or you don’t WANT them to autostart boxes, you can deny them that access.

VirtualBox states that its best to have a “Deny by Default” setup. Even with just one single user on your machine, its basically a nice, peace of mind that, even if you ever add another user, nothing hanky will occur with VirtualBox.

And, of course, you can also use allow in lieu of deny, if you so choose.

default_policy = deny

berto = {
    allow = true
    startup_delay = 30
}

The startup_delay line is a means of controlling whether your Virtual Machines attempt to start exactly with the system or delayed, in seconds, afterwards. Which, I have it set to a 30 second delay, so it isn’t competing with the rest of the bulk of the startup items.

And, of course, make sure to change berto to the username on your system that the VirtualMachines are running under.

File Permissions

And now, we need to go through and make sure the different files permissions are set properly.

Linux File Permissions

sudo chgrp vboxusers /etc/vbox
sudo chmod 1775 /etc/vbox

Then, for each username you will be using for the AutoStart:

sudo usermod -aG vboxusers $USER

VBoxManage modifyvm

Now we need to run VBoxManage to change the settings for the VirtualMachines that we want to start at boot.

Which, there is almost a literal ton of settings, commands and options you can set through the command line, of which the large majority of them you’ll never see in the GUI program. Why? I have no clue.

Make sure the guest machine you’re changing settings on is not currently running, and enable the “autostart” option.

VBoxManage modifyvm "$VM_NAME" --autostop-type acpishutdown
VBoxManage modifyvm "$VM_NAME" --autostart-enabled on

  1. The first line specifies how VirtualBox should try to shut the machines down, if they are still running when the system starts shutting itself down. acpishutdown corresponds to sending the machine a acpipowerbutton shutdown command. Which is to say, the normal means of properly shuttin the actual option for telling VirtualBox that “this VirtualMachine we want to autostart.”

  2. And make sure to replace $VM_NAME with your VirtualMachines registered names.

Testing

Finally, we can now test our configs without having to restart our machine.

Note

Before running this, make sure your machines are turned off, so you can watch them turn on.

sudo service vboxautostart-service start

At this point, your configured guest VM’s should begin running. You can test what VM’s are running by the command:

VBoxManage list runningvms