How can I use a script to control a VirtualBox guest?

Question

Refer to : Launch an application in Windows from the Ubuntu desktop

I was wondering if Takkat could elaborate on the actual execution i.e. howto in the script file.

This will be greatly helpful. Thanks in advance

my script file InternetExplorerVM.sh looks like this, execution is

/path/to/InternetExplorerVM.sh "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe"

#!/bin/bash

# start Internet Explorer inside of a Windows7 Ultimate VM
echo "Starting 'Internet Explorer' browser inside Windows7 virtual machine"
echo ""
sleep 1
echo "Please be patient"

VBoxManage startvm b307622e-6b5e-4e47-a427-84760cf2312b

sleep 15

echo ""
echo "Now starting 'Internet Explorer'"
##VBoxManage --nologo guestcontrol b307622e-6b5e-4e47-a427-84760cf2312b execute --image "$1" --username RailroadGuest --password bnsf1234

VBoxManage --nologo guestcontrol b307622e-6b5e-4e47-a427-84760cf2312b execute --image "C:\\Program/ Files\\Internet/ Explorer\\iexplore.exe" --username RailroadGuest --password bnsf1234 --wait-exit --wait-stdout

echo ""
echo "Saving the VM's state now"
VBoxManage controlvm b307622e-6b5e-4e47-a427-84760cf2312b savestate

sleep 2

#Check VM state
echo ""
echo "Check the VM state"
VBoxManage showvminfo b307622e-6b5e-4e47-a427-84760cf2312b | grep State

exit

My apologies for any mistakes, this is my first time posting on askubuntu.Thanks a ton in advance. This has been very helpful. Need this for BNSF guests, their Mainframe emulator works exclusively on Java enabled Internet Explorer.

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 01 '12 at 07:43

3

He's basically saying you can do this:

Create a Virtual Machine, like a Windows virtual machine.
Login to the virtual machine.
Switch the virtual machine into "seamless" mode
Save the state of the virtual machine in the main Virtual Box window.
Create a bash script with the VBoxManage commands, so that you can do something like ./runinwindows "C:\\some\\path\\executable.exe"

For example:

#!/bin/bash
# Start the VM
VBoxManage startvm "<Name_of_VM>"

# Run the executable
VBoxManage --nologo guestcontrol "<Name_of_VM>" execute --image "$1" --username windowsuser --password password --wait-exit --wait-stdout

# Save the current machine state for the next time you run the script.
VBoxManage controlvm "Name_of_VM" savestate

Then you could run a Windows executable (in this case) in your terminal, but it would actually be running in a virtual machine.

answered Oct 01 '12 at 07:43

Sly

752

My script file to start Internet Explorer, looks like this
VBoxManage --nologo guestcontrol b307622e-6b5e-4e47-a427-84760cf2312b execute --image "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" --username username --password password was wondering what the "savestate" for.
– TheWickerman666 Oct 01 '12 at 07:47
Did this answer your question? If so, you should mark this as the answer. – Sly Oct 01 '12 at 07:53
1

@TheWickerman666: savestate is like "hibernating" your VM. – Takkat Oct 01 '12 at 08:06
Thanks Takkat, but why do we need it, when we want the program to run, is it that it will wait for th program to execute and then close virtualbox VM in savestate mode. – TheWickerman666 Oct 01 '12 at 08:12
now my script file looks like this: – TheWickerman666 Oct 01 '12 at 08:13
In your script you may also want to check if the VM is already running as was said in Javier's answer. – Takkat Oct 01 '12 at 08:17
Any suggestion on how and why I should incorporate check. Thanks again. – TheWickerman666 Oct 01 '12 at 08:20
adding the line: VBoxManage controlvm b307622e-6b5e-4e47-a427-84760cf2312b savestate only kills the VM i.e. Internet Explorer, confused as to how is this helpful?! – TheWickerman666 Oct 01 '12 at 08:30

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 09 '16 at 02:31

I wrote a script to control a virtual machine using VBoxManage. you can execute commandS using the script like this:

./vmcontrol.sh -m [VMName] [Your Command]

The script:

#!/bin/bash
#Creation du script vmcontrol.sh

function execute
{    
    vmname=\$1;
    command=\$2;
    shift 2;
    VBoxManage --nologo guestcontrol \$vmname execute --image \$command --username root --password root --wait-exit --wait-stdout --wait-stderr -- \$@ 2>&1  ;      
}

param=\$1;
#Execution d'une commande
if [ \$param = "-e" ]
then
    command=\$2;
    shift 1;
    execute "Xubuntu" \$@ ;
#Execution d'une commande dans une vm donnée
elif [ \$param = "-m" ]
    then 
        vmname=\$2;
        command=\$3;
        shift 1;
        execute \$@
#Allumer une machine virtuelle donnée
elif [ \$param = "-s" ]
    then
        vmname=\$2;
        VBoxHeadless --startvm \$vmname;
elif [ \$param = "-c" ]
    then
        vmname=\$2;
        VBoxManage clonevm Xubuntu --mode machine --name \$vmname --basefolder /home/VMs --register ;
elif [ \$param = "-r" ]
    then
        vmname=\$2;
        VBoxManage unregistervm \$vmname  --delete ;
elif [ \$param = "-vbox" ]
    then
        startx virtualbox;
elif [ \$param = "-i" ]
     then
    vmname=\$2;
        if [ \$vmname = "vms" ]
            then
            VBoxManage list vms
        elif [ \$vmname = "runningvms" ]
            then
            VBoxManage list runningvms
        else 
            #Erreur 
            echo "error in commmande";
        fi
elif [ \$param = "-sv" ]
    then
        vmname=\$2;
        VBoxManage startvm \$vmname ;
elif [ \$param = "-p" ]
    then
    vmname=\$2;
    VBoxManage controlvm \$vmname  acpipowerbutton;
    else 
        #Erreur 
        echo "error in commmande";
fi

You should copy-paste you script here. Stackoverflow answers try to be self-contained, in order to avoid readers having to click through links to get their answer (when the link's not dead of course). Also, I don't think the backslah before $ is needed, i.e. write $foo instead of \$foo — Suzanne Soy, Oct 04 '13 at 19:33

How can I use a script to control a VirtualBox guest?

2 Answers2