VirtualBox

Installing

Download and install from the VirtualBox website.

Creating a Debian VM

  1. Download a network install image from Debian.

  2. In the Storage tab of the VM’s settings, select Empty under Controller: IDE in the list of Storage Devices.

  3. Select IDE Secondary Master for the Optical Drive in the list of Attributes on the right hand side of the dialog.

  4. Click the CD/DVD icon to the right of the Optical Drive and select Choose Virtual Optical Disk File...

  5. Browse to the location of the ISO image downloaded earlier and select it.

  6. In the System tab, change the boot order so that the Optical disk is booted after the Hard Disk.

  7. Click OK

  8. Start the VM

– Frank Dean - 7 Apr 2018

Guest Additions

On a Debian system, installing the virtualbox-guest-utils and virtualbox-guest-x11 packages provides the VirtualBox Guest Additions. However, these packages are no longer available in Debian 10 (Buster), nor are they available in backports. See https://wiki.debian.org/VirtualBox.

See the VirtualBox user manual for full installation details (In the VirtualBox Manager GUI, Help -> Contents...).

  1. Install the appropriate linux headers package in order to be able to build a linux kernel, e.g.

    $ dpkg -l ’linux-image*’ | egrep ‘^ii’ ii linux-image-4.19.0-8-amd64 4.19.98-1+deb10u1 amd64 Linux 4.19 for 64-bit PCs (signed) ii linux-image-amd64 4.19+105+deb10u3 amd64 Linux for 64-bit PCs (meta-package)

    $ sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-amd64

  2. Mount the VBoxGuestAdditions.iso file that comes with the VirtualBox distribution. The easiest way is probably to choose the Devices -> Insert Guest Additions CD image... option from the menu bar of the running Virtual Machine GUI. That should automatically configure the virtual machine’s CD drive to use the distribution image. You may need to mount the CD as follows:

    $ grep media /etc/fstab /dev/sr0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0

    $ mount /media/cdrom0

  3. Build the Guest Additions and kernel modules.

    $ cd /media/cdrom0 $ sudo /bin/sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

Restart the VM, then you can do handy things like find the allocated IP address of the VM after it has started:

  $ VBoxManage startvm 'Debian 10 (Buster)' --type headless
  $ VBoxManage list runningvms
  $ VBoxManage guestcontrol 'Debian 10 (Buster)' \
  run --exe /sbin/ifconfig --username $USER --password $MY_PASSWORD

Alternatively, use the --passwordfile <file> option to avoid the password being exposed in both the shell command history and the host’s running process list.

– Frank Dean - 29 May 2020

Passing arguments:

  $ VBoxManage guestcontrol 'Debian 11 (Bullseye)' run --exe /sbin/ip \
  --username $USER --passwordfile secret.txt -- -- addr

Note the examples in the user manual suggest -- is required once, but in practice, I found it necessary to supply a second -- before the actual target program parameters.

– Frank Dean - 06 Apr 2022

Time Synchronisation

See Tuning the Guest Additions Time Synchronization Parameters under ‘Advanced Topics’ of the VirtualBox User Guide.

$ VBoxManage guestproperty set "${VM-NAME}" "/VirtualBox/GuestAdd/VBoxService/${PROPERTY}" value

where ${PROPERTY} is one of:

  • --timesync-interval
  • --timesync-min-adjust
  • --timesync-set-threshold

e.g.

$ VBoxManage guestproperty set "${VM-NAME}" \
  "/VirtualBox/GuestAdd/VBoxService/--timesync-interval" 10000
$ VBoxManage guestproperty set "${VM-NAME}" \
  "/VirtualBox/GuestAdd/VBoxService/--timesync-min-adjust" 100
$ VBoxManage guestproperty set "${VM-NAME}" \
  "/VirtualBox/GuestAdd/VBoxService/--timesync-set-threshold" 1200000

– Frank Dean - 19 May 2023

Disabling Time Synchronisation

$ VBoxManage setextradata "${VM-NAME}" \
  "VBoxInternal/Devices/VMMDev/0/Config/GetHostTimeDisabled" 1

Shared Folders

Installing the VirtualBox Guest Additions provides the facility to share folders. If this is inconvenient or doesn’t work, another option to copy files to and from the guest is to setup SSH and use tools like rsync and scp. Install the ssh package on the Debian 10 guest. In the Network section of the VM settings, select Bridged Adapter in the Attached to drop-down and under Name select an appropriate network interface on from the host machine. Restart the guest.

It may also be useful to install VNC which might provide cut-and-paste between the client and the host and vice versa. See VncTips.

– Frank Dean - 10-Feb-2020

Note: If /sbin/mount.vboxsf is not present in the VM, it is most likely because the Guest Additions have not been installed. Install the VirtualBox Guest Additions as described above, shared folders can then be created as follows.

Create a shared folder in the VirtualBox Manager under Settings -> Shared Folders.

Manually mount for read-write as root:

  $ sudo mkdir /media/${MOUNT_POINT}
  $ sudo mount -t vboxsf ${FOLDER_NAME} ${MOUNT_POINT}

For the current user:

  $ sudo mount -t vboxsf -o uid=$UID,gid=`id -g $UID` ${FOLDER_NAME} ${MOUNT_POINT}

To allow a user to write to the shared folder you can add the user to the vboxsf group which should have write access to the shared folder.

$ sudo adduser ${USERNAME} vboxsf

Unmount by unmounting all VirtualBox shared folders:

  $ sudo umount -a -t vboxsf

Run sudo /sbin/mount.vboxsf to list the available options.

An entry in /etc/fstab might be:

Shared /media/shared vboxsf rw,auto,uid=1000,gid=1000

Where Shared is the folder name configured in VirtualBox settings. The mount point is a folder you have previously created ready to use as a mount point.

Shared Clipboard

After installing the VirtualBox Guest Additions as decribed above, enable the shared clipboard in VirtualBox Manager settings | General | Advanced | Shared Clipboard

– Frank Dean - 18 Dec 2019

Clone via Command Line

$ VBoxManage clonevm 'Debian 10 (Buster)' --name='Debian 10 (Buster) Clone' --register

Shutdown via Command Line

$ VBoxManage controlvm 'Debian 10 (Buster)' acpipowerbutton

or

$ VBoxManage controlvm 'Debian 10 (Buster)' poweroff

Run Headless by Default

$ VBoxManage modifyvm $VM_NAME --defaultfrontend headless|gui|separate

Snapshots Panel Missing

Reset the split window with:

$ VBoxManage setextradata global GUI/SplitterSizes 236,516

https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=56537

Frank Dean - 30 Mar 2020

– Frank Dean - 22 Apr 2017

Related Topics: LinuxHintsAndTips, DockerTips, VncTips