File README of Package systemd-vboxinit
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The VirtualBox package that is running in your system might/does have an init script which is
mostly located in /etc/init.d/* such as the vboxes, vboxautostart-service or you may have
your own way of doing the "autostart" of your virtual machines. You will need to disable them
if you suspect of any conflicts with VBoxAutostart.
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The standard output of the unit VBoxAutostart is syslog+console therefore you can see it
while booting and stopping your host. If you have the silent flag in your /etc/default/grub
you need to press the <ESC> key while booting and stopping your host. You can change the sil
ent flag to verbose in /etc/default/grub by editing it. An example of doing it is running
the following commands as root.
cp -v /etc/default/grub /etc/default/grub.orig
ex -sc '%s/silent/verbose/ge|x' /etc/default/grub
grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
OpenSuSE has "yast2 bootloader" for doing such task.
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If you want to run your vms (without running it at the background) after logging in and
with X server running you can edit the systemd-vboxinit script and replace headless with
either gui or sdl. You can call that script using your ~/.xinitrc file or some DE such
KDE has the "autostart" option to run programs/scripts during log-in. You cannot run
systemd-vboxinit in the background if you have replaced headless with the other options
The daemon starts before the X server so your vms will just crash and it makes no SENSE!
An example of editing the script:
Running it with the normal "gui" option.
ex -sc '%s/headless/gui/ge|x' systemd-vboxinit
Running it with the "sdl" option.
ex -sc '%s/headless/sdl/ge|x' systemd-vboxinit
Add the code below in your autostart file/script (during log-in).
/usr/lib/systemd-vboxinit.d/systemd-vboxinit --start
Just be prepared to be greeted with your vms when you log-in :-), Dont forget to disable the
VBoxAutostart daemon!
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For some convenience setting/getting extrada to your virtual machines copy the ExtraData
script (which came with this package and should be in the same directory as this README) to
your "$HOME"- /bin and make it executable. As a normal user run the following.
cp -v ExtraData "${HOME}/bin"
chmod +x "${HOME}/bin/ExtraData"
Now call the script.
ExtraData
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The reason systemd-vboxinit was moved from /usr/bin to /usr/lib/systemd-vboxinit.d/ is to
avoid accidentally stopping your virtual machines by simply running systemd-vboxinit stop.
Now if you want to avoid typing the long absolute PATH and you promise to be responsible :-)
there are two options.
1.) Using a function in your "${HOME}/.bashrc" like the code below and save it.
systemd-vboxinit() {
vboxinit=/usr/lib/systemd-vboxinit.d/systemd-vboxinit
if [[ -f $vboxinit && -x $vboxinit ]]; then
/usr/lib/systemd-vboxinit.d/systemd-vboxinit "$@"
fi
}
And then source it, run:
source "${HOME}/.bashrc"
After that you can just run:
systemd-vboxinit <TAB> + <TAB>
This solution avoids messing with PATH.
2.) If you really prefer to use the PATH solution, for OpenSUSE add the code below to your
"${HOME}/.profile" and save it. Check the documentation of your distro if your are not
using openSUSE.
if [[ -f /usr/lib/systemd-vboxinit.d/systemd-vboxinit ]]; then
[[ -x /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-vboxinit ]] && PATH=$PATH:/usr/lib/systemd-vboxinit.d
fi
And then source it, run:
. "${HOME}/.profile"
After that you can just run:
systemd-vboxinit <TAB> + <TAB>
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One more to thing to add is that you do not need to configure or edit some config files in
order for your virtual machines to autostart and save state. Multi-user support is easy, just
replace the user name after the @ sign in VBoxAutostart service and enable the VBoxAutostart
daemon one time as root or with your all time favorite sudo utility. (Just keep in mind the
host needs resources too!) then as a normal user you can set the "auto" flag to the virtual
machines that you want to autostart/autosave and viola!
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VirtualBox is a trademark of Oracle, the rest by their respective owners and trademark holder.
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Enjoy folks....
