Startup with Mint 11

robinbredin · 15 Jun 2011 at 10:33

What it is, I'm running Win 7 HP with VirtualBox installed with Mint11. What I want to do is, when I start my system, it will boots into Mint 11. However, I put the VirtualBox in the startup folder, and it starts the VirtualBox, but it stops there, it won't boot up Mint 11. Anybody any ideas on how to get Mint 11 to bootup within VirtualBox when i startup my system. Another idea would be to duel boot, but I don't want to go down that road.

paradigm · 15 Jun 2011 at 10:38

I've no idea how VirtualBox's files work (as I use VMWare Workstation), but with VMware, you can use the VMrun command line tool to start a VM.

This would mean that I could create a batch file to place in startup that would launch the VM.

vmrun -T ws start "d:\vms\Vista x86\windows vista.vmx"

Are there no similar tools for VirtualBox?

EDIT:

Would seem that VBoxManage does exactly what you are after:

"C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe" startvm xxx

Where xxx is the name of the guest.

robinbredin · 15 Jun 2011 at 10:43

paradigm
I've no idea how VirtualBox's files work (as I use VMWare Workstation), but with VMware, you can use the VMrun command line tool to start a VM.

This would mean that I could create a batch file to place in startup that would launch the VM.

vmrun -T ws start "d:\vms\Vista x86\windows vista.vmx"

Are there no similar tools for VirtualBox?

Had a look, and could not see one.

paradigm · 15 Jun 2011 at 10:44

robinbredin said:
Had a look, and could not see one.

See my edit, there is one.

robinbredin · 15 Jun 2011 at 14:07

paradigm

Originally Posted by robinbredin
Had a look, and could not see one.

Click to expand...

See my edit, there is one.

Thanks for that, will have a go at getting it implemented.

paradigm · 16 Jun 2011 at 11:56

How did you get on?

robinbredin · 16 Jun 2011 at 12:37

paradigm How did you get on?

Not having a lot of luck with it, I found the link you printed,

"C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe" startvm xxx
Where xxx is the name of the guest.

But when I click on the link, a black CMD box appears, and a program quickly runs, I try it and it does not work. I'm probably making a mistake, which would account for it not working.

sic6six · 16 Jun 2011 at 13:46

try creating a shortcut for your virtual os (mint) on the desktop. start up virtual box and right click on the VM and it shoud be under the menu. Drag the shortcut from the desktop into the startup folder under your start menu and see if that will work.

robinbredin · 16 Jun 2011 at 15:49

sic6six
try creating a shortcut for your virtual os (mint) on the desktop. start up virtual box and right click on the VM and it shoud be under the menu. Drag the shortcut from the desktop into the startup folder under your start menu and see if that will work.

Hi Thanks, What i did was the same as your idea, to power up VirtualBox, then under Machine, created a short cut for Mint, then placed the short cut in the Startup Folder.

paradigm · 16 Jun 2011 at 15:56

robinbredin said:
Not having a lot of luck with it, I found the link you printed,

But when I click on the link, a black CMD box appears, and a program quickly runs, I try it and it does not work. I'm probably making a mistake, which would account for it not working.

You run it from command line, not double clicking.

To run it from the startup folder, you'd have to create a batch script (.bat) to execute the commands for you.

sic6six · 16 Jun 2011 at 16:00

robinbredin said:
Hi Thanks, What i did was the same as your idea, to power up VirtualBox, then under Machine, created a short cut for Mint, then placed the short cut in the Startup Folder.

you dont need start up virtualbox first. you can just use the shortcut to the VM and it will load without the need for the main window. this is how i use it when testing software before installing on my os