I've been using a VM image on my Macbook for a while now, and using it as my Drupal development environment. It has been handcrafted with MariaDB, NGINX, Jenkins and other utilities that have built up over time such as Mailcatcher and npm. It's become increasingly inconvenient having the VM on the laptop I use for client work, so I decided to move it to my Intel NUC machine. This will provide a centralised location in my apartment to access the VM from any of my other laptops and devices.
However since my Intel NUC doesn't have an installed GUI since it is a server, a headless solution is required. To manage this I will need VirtualBox Headless - here is the tutorial on how to achieve this. My NUC machine was installed with Ubuntu 17.04 (Zesty Zapus) but other flavours of Debian based Linux will be similar.
Installing VirtualBox
To install VirtualBox, login to the host box over the local network (in my case my Intel NUC) and sudo su. Then add the repository and the public key with
Update and install. Note - there's every chance you will be presented with a list of numerous dependencies that will have to be installed at the same time. For brevity I haven't included the output below.
In addition it's a good idea to install the dkms package to ensure that the VirtualBox host kernel modules (vboxdrv, vboxnetflt and vboxnetadp) are properly updated if the linux kernel version changes during the next apt-get upgrade. I did this but no updates were required.
Now we can check the installed version of VirtualBox to make sure it is installed ok.
root@devbox:/# wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | apt-key add - OK root@devbox:/#
root@devbox:/# apt-get update root@devbox:/# apt-get install virtualbox
root@devbox:/# apt-get install dkms Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done dkms is already the newest version (2.3-3ubuntu1.2). dkms set to manually installed. 0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 7 not to upgrade. root@devbox:/#
root@devbox:/# vboxmanage --version 5.1.22_Ubuntur115126 root@devbox:/#
Export the Existing VM from VirtualBox
Now I exported the existing VM from my MacBook. This is achieved through the VirtualBox GUI. Go to File->Export Appliance... and select the VM from the list (first image above). Then change the name of the output file if you desire. I opted to do this by adding the date on to the end (image two). The third image shows the appliance's settings - if you are ok with this click Export. The final image shows the progress screen - budget on a few minutes.
Create a directory for the VM on the remote host machine.
And scp it over to that machine from the MacBook. This could take half an hour or so.
nigel@devbox:~$ cd ~ nigel@devbox:~$ mkdir VM nigel@devbox:~$
$ scp badzilla-d8-2018-01-15.ova nigel@192.168.0.202:/home/nigel/VM/.
Import VM Image
Now let's import our VM image so VirtualBox knows about it. Note I am now logged in as myself, not as superuser.
nigel@devbox:~/VM$ VBoxManage import badzilla-d8-2018-01-15.ova 0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100% Interpreting /home/nigel/VM/badzilla-d8-2018-01-15.ova... OK. Disks: vmdisk2 16106127360 -1 http://www.vmware.com/interfaces/specifications/vmdk.html#streamOptimized badzilla-d8-2018-01-15-disk001.vmdk -1 -1 Virtual system 0: 0: Suggested OS type: "Ubuntu_64" (change with "--vsys 0 --ostype <type>"; use "list ostypes" to list all possible values) 1: Suggested VM name "badzilla-d8" (change with "--vsys 0 --vmname <name>") 2: Number of CPUs: 1 (change with "--vsys 0 --cpus <n>") 3: Guest memory: 1024 MB (change with "--vsys 0 --memory <MB>") 4: Sound card (appliance expects "", can change on import) (disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 4 --ignore") 5: USB controller (disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 5 --ignore") 6: Network adapter: orig Bridged, config 3, extra slot=0;type=Bridged 7: CD-ROM (disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 7 --ignore") 8: IDE controller, type PIIX4 (disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 8 --ignore") 9: IDE controller, type PIIX4 (disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 9 --ignore") 10: SATA controller, type AHCI (disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 10 --ignore") 11: Hard disk image: source image=badzilla-d8-2018-01-15-disk001.vmdk, target path=/home/nigel/VirtualBox VMs/badzilla-d8/badzilla-d8-2018-01-15-disk001.vmdk, controller=10;channel=0 (change target path with "--vsys 0 --unit 11 --disk path"; disable with "--vsys 0 --unit 11 --ignore") 0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100% Successfully imported the appliance. nigel@devbox:~/VM$
Modify Existing Network Configuration
An attempt to start the VM will result in an error - see below diagnostic.
This is due to the network configuration which is currently set to use the MacBook's WiFi Airport device as a bridge. No good in an Intel NUC machine! So let's see how the configuration currently looks:
Let's see what we've got in this machine...
Ok - our eth0 port is actually called enp3s0. That's useful :) So let's set that to be our network adapter.
Now lets see what happens when we try to start the VM
Ok - this looks more promising. The ALSA messages probably relate to a missing sound card. Let's check
nigel@devbox:~/VM$ VBoxHeadless --startvm badzilla-d8 Oracle VM VirtualBox Headless Interface 5.1.22_Ubuntu (C) 2008-2017 Oracle Corporation All rights reserved. Error: failed to start machine. Error message: Failed to open/create the internal network 'HostInterfaceNetworking-en0: Wi-Fi (AirPort)' (you might need to modprobe vboxnetflt to make it accessible) (VERR_INTNET_FLT_IF_NOT_FOUND). Failed to attach the network LUN (VERR_INTNET_FLT_IF_NOT_FOUND) nigel@devbox:~/VM$
nigel@devbox:~/VM$ VBoxManage showvminfo badzilla-d8 | grep NIC NIC 1: MAC: 080027D2CF47, Attachment: Bridged Interface 'en0: Wi-Fi (AirPort)', Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type: 82540EM, Reported speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0, Promisc Policy: deny, Bandwidth group: none NIC 2: disabled NIC 3: disabled NIC 4: disabled NIC 5: disabled NIC 6: disabled NIC 7: disabled NIC 8: disabled nigel@devbox:~/VM$
nigel@devbox:~/VM$ VBoxManage list bridgedifs Name: enp3s0 GUID: 33706e65-3073-4000-8000-94c69114b597 DHCP: Disabled IPAddress: 192.168.0.202 NetworkMask: 255.255.255.0 IPV6Address: fe80:0000:0000:0000:96c6:91ff:fe14:b597 IPV6NetworkMaskPrefixLength: 64 HardwareAddress: 94:c6:91:14:b5:97 MediumType: Ethernet Status: Up VBoxNetworkName: HostInterfaceNetworking-enp3s0 Name: wlp2s0 GUID: 32706c77-3073-4000-8000-cc2f7140538a DHCP: Disabled IPAddress: 0.0.0.0 NetworkMask: 0.0.0.0 IPV6Address: IPV6NetworkMaskPrefixLength: 0 HardwareAddress: cc:2f:71:40:53:8a MediumType: Ethernet Status: Down VBoxNetworkName: HostInterfaceNetworking-wlp2s0 nigel@devbox:~/VM$
nigel@devbox:~/VM$ VBoxManage modifyvm badzilla-d8 --nic1 bridged --bridgeadapter1 enp3s0
nigel@devbox:~/VM$ Oracle VM VirtualBox Headless Interface 5.1.22_Ubuntu (C) 2008-2017 Oracle Corporation All rights reserved. ALSA lib confmisc.c:767:(parse_card) cannot find card '0' ALSA lib conf.c:4528:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_card_driver returned error: No such file or directory ALSA lib confmisc.c:392:(snd_func_concat) error evaluating strings ALSA lib conf.c:4528:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_concat returned error: No such file or directory ALSA lib confmisc.c:1246:(snd_func_refer) error evaluating name ALSA lib conf.c:4528:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_ref
Remove Soundcard
We are now clearly very close to having a configuration that works. By checking the connected devices on my router I can see that my machine badzilla-d8 has connected to the network successfully. Further more I can ping it and ssh into it! All we need to do is sort out the sound card diagnostics.
Ok so let's see what the configuration says about our audio card:
Power off the machine before we do anything to the configuration
Now we can remove the audio, check it's definitely gone, and start the VM
Ok we are up and running! Now so long as we can connect via NFS on my MAC and my Kubuntu laptop, then we should be in good shape.
$ ping 192.168.0.17 PING 192.168.0.17 (192.168.0.17): 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 192.168.0.17: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=4.286 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.0.17: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=1.941 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.0.17: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=2.101 ms ^C --- 192.168.0.17 ping statistics --- 3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0.0% packet loss round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 1.941/2.776/4.286/1.070 ms $ ssh nigel@192.168.0.17 nigel@192.168.0.17's password: Welcome to Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.4.0-31-generic x86_64) * Documentation: https://help.ubuntu.com/ System information as of Mon Jan 15 16:19:31 GMT 2018 System load: 0.08 Processes: 117 Usage of /: 52.0% of 14.10GB Users logged in: 0 Memory usage: 5% IP address for eth0: 192.168.0.17 Swap usage: 0% Graph this data and manage this system at: https://landscape.canonical.com/ Last login: Mon Jan 15 16:16:02 2018 from 192.168.0.12 $
nigel@devbox:~/VM$ VBoxManage showvminfo badzilla-d8 | grep ALSA Audio: enabled (Driver: ALSA, Controller: AC97, Codec: AD1980) nigel@devbox:~/VM$
nigel@devbox:~/VM$ VBoxManage controlvm badzilla-d8 poweroff 0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100% nigel@devbox:~/VM$
nigel@devbox:~/VM$ VBoxManage modifyvm badzilla-d8 --audio none nigel@devbox:~/VM$ VBoxManage showvminfo badzilla-d8 | grep audio nigel@devbox:~/VM$ VBoxHeadless --startvm badzilla-d8 & [1] 29795 nigel@devbox:~/VM$ Oracle VM VirtualBox Headless Interface 5.1.22_Ubuntu (C) 2008-2017 Oracle Corporation All rights reserved. nigel@devbox:~/VM$
NFS Connect to VM from Mac OS
Open Finder and press cmd-K to bring up the Connect to Server modal. The NFS url format must be like shown in the first image - and obviously you must have a corresponding /etc/hosts entry for the url. In my case this will 192.168.0.17.
Once connected, you will see whatever files you've got on your server. In my case I map to /var/www/html so the list of folders are effectively my projects for each website I am working on.
NFS Connect to VM from Kubuntu Linux
The NFS connection from Kubuntu is best achieved on the command line or by adding an entry to the /etc/fstab file. Once that's achieved, the directory structure can be listed. Success!
nigel@devbox:~$ sudo mount -t nfs -o vers=3 192.168.0.17:/var/www/html /mnt/projects nigel@devbox:~$ ls -las /mnt/projects/ total 84 4 drwxrwxr-x 13 www-data www-data 4096 Jan 15 18:13 . 4 drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Jan 15 19:15 .. 4 drwxrwxr-x 3 nigel www-data 4096 Aug 11 22:43 badzilla_d6 4 drwxrwxr-x 7 www-data www-data 4096 Feb 19 2017 badzilla_d8 4 -rw-rw-r-- 1 www-data www-data 4096 Feb 9 2017 ._blog_theme_d8 4 drwxrwxr-x 13 www-data www-data 4096 Feb 12 2017 blog_theme_d8 4 -rw-rw-r-- 1 www-data www-data 4096 Jan 15 18:13 ._index.html 12 -rw-rw-r-- 1 www-data www-data 11510 Feb 6 2017 index.html 4 drwxrwxr-x 7 nigel www-data 4096 Oct 19 21:07 kitboot 12 drwxr-xr-x 4 nigel users 12288 Dec 27 16:41 lakeland 4 drwxrwxr-x 8 nigel www-data 4096 Oct 22 10:49 meedjum 4 drwxrwxr-x 4 nigel www-data 4096 Apr 23 2017 multisite 4 drwxrwxr-x 11 www-data www-data 4096 Feb 12 2017 personal-blog 4 -rw-rw-r-- 1 www-data www-data 1301 Aug 6 2015 README.txt 4 drwxrwxr-x 9 nigel www-data 4096 May 7 2017 saasidate 4 drwxrwxr-x 9 nigel www-data 4096 Dec 23 16:19 serverless-vote nigel@devbox:~$
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VirtualBox