Rui CarmoVirtualBox is an Open Source virtualization solution similar to Parallels and Fusion that I used as my primary VM solution around 2011 simply because a) it was available on pretty much all OSes I deal with and b) it was easier to install than Fusion (simply because VMware took a while to understand that their downloads section was a hassle).
To be honest I don’t like it much, but it worked - plus it was quite popular, and you can’t beat free.
Useful Resources
virtualbox-kvm is a 2024 port of VirtualBox to use KVM as a hypervisor instead of ifs proprietary kernel module.
phpVirtualBox is a great, nearly full-featured web interface for remote management. It allows you to do just about everything you need to remote VMs, including reconfiguring storage and network (as well as basic cloning).
macos-virtualbox automates the process of setting up a macOS VM on Windows and Linux.
Making the console faster
On Ubuntu VMs, edit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-framebuffer.conf and add:
blacklist vga16fb
(tip via Quentin)
Command-line management of VMs
I keep using (and forgetting about) this, so here goes:
VBoxManage startvm "chewie" --type headless VBoxManage controlvm "chewie" poweroff
I usually run Ubuntu or Debian servers like this, with SSH mapped to a host port (set in the config, so I don’t need to specify it on the command line). If you need something more sophisticated, you can always use Vagrant.
init.d script
I eventually cobbled together from other examples the following init script for Debian environments, which I have repeatedly failed to convert to an upstart script.
It assumes that there is a single user and multiple VMs to be run under that user:
#!/bin/bash
#VirtualBox
VBOX_USER="user"
VMS="c3p0 r2d2 tarkin lando"
SU="su $VBOX_USER -c"
VBOXMANAGE="VBoxManage -nologo"
VBOXHEADLESS="VBoxHeadless"
# Send the ACPI powerbutton event to the virtual machine
vbox_powerbutton() {
$SU "$VBOXMANAGE controlvm \"$1\" acpipowerbutton"
}
# Poweroff the machine
vbox_poweroff() {
$SU "$VBOXMANAGE controlvm \"$1\" poweroff"
}
# Start the virtual machine
vbox_start() {
$SU "$VBOXHEADLESS -s \"$1\" > /dev/null &"
}
# List all running VMs
vbox_list() {
$SU "$VBOXMANAGE list runningvms"
}
start() {
echo "Starting VirtualBox..."
for machine in $VMS; do
vbox_start $machine
if [ $? -gt 0 ]; then
echo "WARNING: FAILED STARTING $machine"
fi
done
}
stop() {
echo "Stopping VirtualBox..."
tries=0
while [ $tries -lt $VBOX_RETRY ]; do
for machine in `vbox_list`; do
vbox_powerbutton $machine
sleep $VBOX_WAIT
done;
tries=$((tries + 1))
done
for machine in `vbox_list`; do
echo "WARNING: UNCLEAN SHUTDOWN $machine"
vbox_poweroff $machine
done
}
status() {
vbox_list
}
case "$1" in
start)
start
;;
stop)
stop
;;
restart|reload|force-reload)
stop
start
;;
status)
status
;;
*)
echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/virtualbox {start|stop|reload|force-reload|restart|status}"
exit 1
esac
exit 0