Boot from a block device without giving root privilege to Virtual Box

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";}

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"; }

Sample Output

$ VBoxBlockBoot usb /dev/sdc
umount: /dev/sdc: not mounted
Oracle VM VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.2.12
(C) 2005-2010 Oracle Corporation
All rights reserved.

Oracle VM VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.2.12
(C) 2005-2010 Oracle Corporation
All rights reserved.

Waiting for the VM to power on...
VM has been successfully started.

$

By: totti

2011-07-29 13:04:19

chmod sudo umount boot root virtualbox usb VBoxManage

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