CLI VirtualBox management

List virtual machines

|Vboxmanage

vboxmanage list vms

Avaliable commands

• vms - Lists all VMs
• runningvms - Lists only running VMs
• ostypes, hostdvds, hostfloppies, bridgesifs, hostonlyifs, dhcpservers, hostinfo, hostcpuids, hddbackends, hdds, dvds, floppies, usbhost, usbfilters, systemproperties, extpacks

Start a virtual machine in headless mode (that's why you are typing theese commands)

|Vboxmanage

vboxmanage startvm "VM name" --type headless

Avaliable types

• gui - Starts a VM in a GUI window (Default)
• headless - Starts a VM for remote access
• sdl - Starts a VM with a minimal GUI and limited features
• separate - Starts a VM with detachable UI (Headless VM with GUI in separate process)

Change state of the running virtual machine

|Vboxmanage

vboxmanage controlvm "VM Name" savestate

Avaliable commands

• pause - Puts a VM on hold
• resume - Resumes the paused VM
• reset - Same as pressing a Reset button
• poweroff - Same as pressing the power off button
• savestate - This will save the state of a VM and then stop it.

Start a program in Windows guest from Linux host

VBoxManage --nologo guestcontrol "VM Name" run --exe "C:\\windows\\notepad.exe" --username jdoe --password Pa$$w0rd --wait-stdout