Ubuntu 18.04 Start Stop VirtualBox

[Pete]

Here utilize a lite Windows 7 VB for my multiple SAPI voice fonts and multiple instances of speaker dot exe used for Homeseer.

Recently upgraded Oracle Virtual box to version 6.0 and noticed my auto starting did not work. I implemented the Oracle way to autostart and it did not work properely.

Here is a fix that works for me.
Here have been running a Windows VB on my main automation server which is running Ubuntu 18.04 64 bit and recently upgraded to VirtualBox 6.0.

I have had issues autostarting the VB using standard virtual box autostart.

Found a new way to do this this morning and it works well.

Documenting here on a post.

Get rid of vboxautostart-service

1 - sudo systemctl disable vboxautostart-service
2 - sudo rm -rf /lib/systemd/system/vboxautostart-service.service
3 - sudo rm -rf /etc/vbox

User permissions for Virtualbox

1 - type groups to see if you are in the vboxusers group

IE:
pete@ICS-HS3Pro:~$ groups
pete adm cdrom sudo dip plugdev lpadmin sambashare vboxusers

2 - if not put yourself in the vboxusers group typing:
sudo usermod -a -G vboxusers pete

3 - type groups again to make sure you are in the group vboxusers

New Unit File for systemd

1 - Create a new Unit file
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/vm_autostart_name.service
IE: sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/vm_autostart_W7.service

2 - use this text as a template: (I used vm_name=W7)

[Unit]
Description=VM vm_name
After=network.target vboxdrv.service
Before=runlevel2.target shutdown.target

[Service]
User=richard
Group=vboxusers
Type=forking
Restart=no
TimeoutSec=5min
IgnoreSIGPIPE=no
KillMode=process
GuessMainPID=no
RemainAfterExit=yes

ExecStart=/usr/bin/VBoxManage startvm vm_name --type headless
ExecStop=/usr/bin/VBoxManage controlvm vm_name acpipowerbutton

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target


Reload systemd daemon

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Using the service

1 - Enable the service

sudo systemctl enable vm_autostart_name

2 - Start, Stop and Status of service

sudo systemctl start vm_autostart_name
sudo systemctl stop vm_autostart_name
sudo systemctl status vm_autostart_name

That's it. Works great over here.

[Pete]

found that:

ExecStart=/usr/bin/VBoxManage startvm vm_name --type headless

works great except that it doesn't pass the audio for the SAPI that I am using.

Changing the line to:

ExecStart=/usr/bin/VBoxManage startvm vm_name

worked to pass the SAPI audio.