VirtualBox General Notes
If new kernel on host machine Rocky Linux 9 causes failure to start VirtualBox VMs, ensure the following kernel RPMs are installed:
kernel kernel-core kernel-devel kernel-devel-matched kernel-headers kernel-modules kernel-modules-core kernel-modules-extra
Check version of installed Guest Additions:
modinfo vboxguest
Running VirtualBox as a service on Windows: http://techgenix.com/start-virtualbox-service/
C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage.exe clonehd --format VDI "C:\Users\Chris\VirtualBox VMs\centos7-vtatdb2-w\CENTOS7-vtatdb2-disk001.vmdk" "C:\Users\Chris\VirtualBox VMs\centos7-vtatdb2-w\CENTOS7-vtatdb2-disk001.vdi"
How to convert VMDK to VDI
See notes at https://www.bonusbits.com/wiki/HowTo:Convert_VMDK_to_VDI
How to resize a Virtual Drive
- The following was tested with VBox 5.1.26
- Shutdown the VM you want to resize
- Navigate to the .vdi file you want to resize
- Make a backup copy of the .vdi file
- Run a command like this (example for 30GB drive)
# VBoxManage modifyhd /path/to/file.vdi --resize 30000
Note, if you have a vmdk file you need to follow this (see this link) and then update the UUID following this link or navigating to $HOME/.VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml and updating the information there (make a backup first):
# VBoxManage clonehd "source.vmdk" "cloned.vdi" --format vdi # VBoxManage modifyhd "cloned.vdi" --resize 51200 # mv source.vmdksource.vmdk.BAK # VBoxManage clonehd "cloned.vdi" "source.vmdk" --format vmdk
- Start VirtualBox manager
- Highlight the VM whose disk you are resizing
- Click Settings and then click storage
- Mount a virtual CDROM (gparted-live ISO that you downloaded to the host machine)
- Start the VM
- Start Gparted LIVE
- Follow the menus to resize the partition that you need to make larger
- Select the partition you want to edit/resize and manipulate accordingly
- When done, exit Gparted and unmount the CDROM
- Boot the VM and verify your changes were implemented
Possible mouse unresponsiveness issue in 5.1.18 https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=79034
Running in Headless Mode
# List virtual machines
VBoxManage list vms
"MyVM" {e4b0c92c-4301-4a7d-8af8-fe02fed00451}
# Start VM in headless mode
VBoxManage startvm MyVM –type headless
# Power off VM
VBoxManage controlvm MyVM poweroff
Run VirtualBox Headless at Startup in Windows 10
February 2015
Updated October 2016 for wodim issues
Installing Guest Additions in run-level 3 on CentOS6, CentOS7, CentOS8 Stream:
- First, go to the VirtualBox window that is running the guest machine and choose Devices > Insert Guest Additions CD Image
- From a separate terminal window (via ssh) or in the VM window itself, su - root
- yum install cdrecord
- wodim –devices
- (note the drive designation)
- If that command fails on a CENTOS7 v7.2.1511 VirtualBox instance, try: wodim dev=/dev/sr0 –devices
- If that succeeds, it should say something like 'VBOX' 'CD-ROM'
- Or: wodim -prcap (although that doesn't seem to give you the info needed)
- mkdir /media/cdrom
- mount -t iso9660 /dev/scd0 /media/cdrom
- if you used "sr0" above, substitute sr0 for scd0 in the line above
- cd /media/cdrom
- Then run Linux version of script
- Ex: sh VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
- When done, cd / and eject and reboot
Updated 18 March 2019