Converts a .vdi file to a .vmdk file for use in a vmware virtual machine. The benefit: using this method actually works. There are others out there that claim to give you a working .vmdk by simply using the qemu-img command alone. Doing that only results in pain for you because the .vmdk file will be created with no errors, but it won't boot either. Be advised that these conversions are very disk-intensive by nature; you are probably dealing with disk images several gigabytes in size. Once finished, the process of using the new .vmdk file is left as an exercise to the reader. Show Sample Output

You can use this on your session login.

you can launch a VirtualBox VM from the command line using VBoxManage, but that invokes it in a gui environment. If you want to just fire off your VM in the background, use VBoxHeadless as shown. To get the names and UUIDs of your VirtualBox VMs, type: VBoxManage list

A similar command that lists only the currently running VMs is thus: VBoxManage list runningvms ...the above showing a list of VMs by name and UUID in the same format as the "$ VBoxManage list vms" command Show Sample Output

where - memory 256 assign 256 Mb RAM - acpi on enable ACPI (mandatory if you use Winfog 2000 - ioapic off disable the IO APIC. Not useful if you use one CPU (on virtual machine or a 32 bit operative system). As ACPI, this switch is mandatory for Winbug 2000 - pae on enable the Phisical Address Extension how to use more than 4Gb of RAM on x86 CPU - hwvirtex on enables hardware virtualization extensions for microprocessors that have this feature (which should be also enabled in the BIOS of the motherboard) - nestedpaging on allows part of the processes of memory management hardware are made directly

Command used to know if we are working on a virtual or physical machine. This command will use the dmidecode utility to retrieve hardware information of your computer via the BIOS. Run this command as root or with sudo. Show Sample Output

That is, after running `vagrant ssh-config` to determine ports and ip's: vagrant ssh-config Host default HostName 127.0.0.1 User vagrant Port 2200 UserKnownHostsFile /dev/null StrictHostKeyChecking no PasswordAuthentication no IdentityFile /Users/romanvg/tmp/.vagrant/machines/default/virtualbox/private_key IdentitiesOnly yes LogLevel FATAL

No comment... it's easy! Using the VBoxManage list and the switch 'hdds' or 'dvds' you can show the list of hard disks and DVD registered on the system.

Usage: VBoxBlockBoot [Virtual_Machine] [Block_device] Eg: VBoxBlockBoot WinXP /dev/sdc In another words vm=usb; usb=sdc;sudo umount /dev/$usb* ; sudo chmod 777 /dev/$usb ; VBoxManage storageattach $vm --medium ~/raw-HD-4-VB/$usb.vmdk --type hdd --storagectl "IDE Controller" --device 0 --port 0 ; VBoxManage startvm $vm Where vm --> Name of the virtual machine to start usb --> Block device to use. (/dev/sdc) This can used after setup up a boot loader on to my USB pen drive or HDD (After creating Live USB). Here root privilege is needed but not granted to Virtual Box. Thus we can access all our VM.( If we run VBox as root we can't access our VMs). Root privilege is used to - Unmount the storage device - Chmod to full access (777) Requirements:- 1. Device information file (rawvmdk file) created by the following command. Need to run only once. Not bad to run many. VBoxCreateRawDisk() { VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ~/.rawHD4VB_`basename "$1"`.vmdk -rawdisk "$1"; } 2. Root privilege to umount & chmod 3. Real storage medium (ie /dev/*) (Non-virtual such as USB HD, pen drive, a partition) 4. A virtual m/c already available (here "usb") vm=usb; usb=sdc;sudo umount /dev/$usb* ; sudo chmod 777 /dev/$usb ; VBoxManage storageattach $vm --medium ~/raw-HD-4-VB/$usb.vmdk --type hdd --storagectl "IDE Controller" --device 0 --port 0 ; VBoxManage startvm $vm VBoxBlockBoot() { sudo umount "$2"*; sudo chmod 777 "$2"; VBoxManage storageattach "$1" --medium ~/.rawHD4VB_`basename "$2"`.vmdk --type hdd --storagectl "IDE Controller" --device 0 --port 0 ; VBoxManage startvm "$1"; } Show Sample Output

eg: VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ~/.VBox_sdc.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sdc In order to start virtual box using block devices, ( Or to boot from it) run as ROOT sudo VirtualBox Then add & select the vmdk file as a device. At last Start the virtual box. - This cmd needs to run once for a device. - See command 8936 to run with out using ROOT power and easy handling of Virtual m/c

How to show the system properties of a Sun VirtualBox server

where "cicciobox" is the name of your virtual machine in a Sun VirtualBox server

If you want to know what OS are supported on "guest" machines on the Sun VirtualBox server.

No comment: it's easy!

--vrdp on enables VirtualBox RDP server for the VM --vrdpport 3389 ndicates the TCP port that the server will accept RDP connections direct to the VM (for each VM is assigned a different port) --vrdpauthtype external RDP console gives access to the VM Host physical users via authentication In fact, in the 3.1.x version of VirtualBox, the external value for the parameter --vrdpauthtype allows access via RDP only to the user who started the VM. The workaround is to add the user that runs the VM to shadow group, using the command

was inspired by http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/8936/boot-from-a-block-device-without-giving-root-privilege-to-virtual-box volpedimongibello= virtual machine name fighetto= controller name tutto.iso= DVD iso image How to remove the DVD: VBoxManage storageattach "volpedimongibello" --storagectl "fighetto" --port 1 --device 0 --type dvddrive --medium none

This is based on the Windows Version of VirtualBox. From the /? ... VBoxManage clonehd | [--format VDI|VMDK|VHD|RAW|] [--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX] [--type normal|writethrough|immutable|shareable] [--remember] [--existing] From the online help.. http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch08.html#id2676537 VBoxManage clonehd This command duplicates a registered virtual hard disk image to a new image file with a new unique identifier (UUID). The new image can be transferred to another host system or imported into VirtualBox again using the Virtual Media Manager; see the section called ?The Virtual Media Manager? and the section called ?Cloning disk images?. The syntax is as follows: VBoxManage clonehd | [--format VDI|VMDK|VHD|RAW|] [--variant Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX] [--type normal|writethrough|immutable] [--remember] where the parameters mean: format Allow to choose a file format for the output file different from the file format of the input file. variant Allow to choose a file format variant for the output file. It is a comma-separated list of variant flags. Not all combinations are supported, and specifying inconsistent flags will result in an error message. type Only honored if --remember is also specified. Defines what kind of hard disk type this image should be. remember Keep the destination image registered after it was successfully written. Show Sample Output