Start Virtualbox Guest at boot

forums.virtualbox.org - Start VMs at boot (new in 4.2.0)

vmhost01 at GCS

First you need to create the file /etc/default/virtualbox and add a few variables.

/etc/default/virtualbox
        VBOXAUTOSTART_DB=/etc/vbox
        VBOXAUTOSTART_CONFIG=/etc/vbox/autostart.conf
        

/etc/vbox/autostart.conf 
        default_policy = deny
        
        administrator = {
          allow = true
          startup_delay = 10
        }
        
        craig = {
          allow = true
          startup_delay = 30
        }
        

Set permissions on directory to the vboxuser group and make sure users can write to the directory as well as sticky bit.

Set permissions and mode on /etc/vbox
        chgrp vboxusers /etc/vbox
        chmod 1775 /etc/vbox
        
        ls -ld /etc/vbox
        drwxrwxr-t 2 root vboxusers 4096 Sep  3 18:17 /etc/vbox
        

Add administrator to the vboxusers group.

Add administrator to the vboxusers group.
        groups administrator
        administrator : administrator sudo
        
        usermod -a -G vboxusers administrator
        
        groups administrator
        administrator : administrator sudo vboxusers
        

Every user who wants to enable autostart for individual machines has to set the path to the autostart database directory with

VBoxManage setproperty autostartdbpath /etc/vbox
        

vboxmanage list vms
        "MineOS" {c5869f0e-0d82-4f92-8ba3-61401e5f9289}
        "chadeb01" {fc587445-f925-46e7-a2f7-35c50598c2b8}
        "chawindows2008r2" {535ba7af-0d5d-4007-bad6-7ec37b7d1c3d}
        "debxtest" {e6d55e7a-4d07-4707-a8e7-32942e674679}
        "chapg" {98d06bc6-17b3-4187-94e3-65b15e461a18}
        "Gitlab" {6d6d0634-6979-4b52-851d-cc44f08cbe99}
        "FOG" {c8fd1830-2165-4246-8219-35d06b15dbc3}
        

Enable autostart with vboxmanage
        VBoxManage startvm Gitlab --type headless
        VBoxManage modifyvm Gitlab --autostart-enabled on
        service vboxautostart-service restart
        

update-rc.d virtualbox defaults
        

vboxmanage showvminfo --details Gitlab
         ...
        Autostart Enabled: off
        Autostart Delay: 0
         ...
        

Snapshots

        Fri Sep 28 22:10:44 MDT 2018
        https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/5.2.18/virtualbox-5.2_5.2.18-124319~Debian~jessie_amd64.deb
        

Corey Schafer youtube VirtualBox: How to Use Snapshots

USB

virtualbox.org/manual Oracle VM VirtualBox User Manual

3.11.1. USB Settings

USB Device Filters: When USB support is enabled for a VM, you can determine in detail which devices will be automatically attached to the guest. For this, you can create filters by specifying certain properties of the USB device. USB devices with a matching filter will be automatically passed to the guest once they are attached to the host. USB devices without a matching filter can be passed manually to the guest, for example by using the Devices, USB menu.

Clicking on the + button to the right of the USB Device Filters window creates a new filter. You can give the filter a name, for later reference, and specify the filter criteria. The more criteria you specify, the more precisely devices will be selected. For instance, if you specify only a vendor ID of 046d, all devices produced by Logitech will be available to the guest. If you fill in all fields, on the other hand, the filter will only apply to a particular device model from a particular vendor, and not even to other devices of the same type with a different revision and serial number.

In detail, the following criteria are available:

        Vendor and Product ID. With USB, each vendor of USB products carries
        an identification number that is unique world-wide, called the vendor
        ID. Similarly, each line of products is assigned a product ID number. Both
        numbers are commonly written in hexadecimal, and a colon separates the
        vendor from the product ID. For example, 046d:c016 stands for Logitech
        as a vendor, and the M-UV69a Optical Wheel Mouse product.
        
        Alternatively, you can also specify Manufacturer and Product by name.
        
        To list all the USB devices that are connected to your host machine with
        their respective vendor IDs and product IDs, use the following command:
        
        VBoxManage list usbhost
        
        On Windows, you can also see all USB devices that are attached to your
        system in the Device Manager. On Linux, you can use the lsusb command.
        
        Serial Number. While vendor ID and product ID are quite specific to
        identify USB devices, if you have two identical devices of the same brand
        and product line, you will also need their serial numbers to filter them
        out correctly.
        
        Remote. This setting specifies whether the device will be local only,
        remote only, such as over VRDP, or either.
        

Kobo from Windows 7

dmesg on host debian

        ] usb 3-2: new high-speed USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd
        [209890.401037] usb 3-2: New USB device found, idVendor=2237, idProduct=4228
        [209890.401039] usb 3-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=4, SerialNumber=5
        [209890.401041] usb 3-2: Product: eReader-4.14.12777
        [209890.401042] usb 3-2: Manufacturer: Kobo
        [209890.401044] usb 3-2: SerialNumber: N2498A0323108
        
        Filter?
          idVendor=2237
          idProduct=4228
        

VBoxManage list usbhost

        Host USB Devices:
         ...
        UUID:               6c175daa-fe05-45d5-83e4-50671748c5ea
        VendorId:           0x2237 (2237)
        ProductId:          0x4228 (4228)
        Revision:           4.1 (0401)
        Port:               1
        USB version/speed:  2/High
        Manufacturer:       Kobo
        Product:            eReader-4.14.12777
        SerialNumber:       N2498A0323108
        Address:            sysfs:/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-2//device:/dev/vboxusb/003/006
        Current State:      Busy