Shortcut to start VM from host

[Fargo]

Is it possible to put a shortcut on my host desktop (PCLOS2010) to start up my virtual machine OS (WinXP)?  Or even better to open up a program within the VM directly from the host OS?

[russell.eberhardt]

Yes, you can like this start XP directly from the desktop by right clicking the desktop selecting
Create New>Link to Application

Then, on the Application tab enter any name you like for Description, VBoxManage startvm XP for Command (where XP is the name of your VM), and /home/{username}/.VirtualBox/ for the work path.

Russell.

[Fargo]

Yes, you can like this start XP directly from the desktop by right clicking the desktop selecting
Create New>Link to Application

Then, on the Application tab enter any name you like for Description, VBoxManage startvm XP for Command (where XP is the name of your VM), and /home/{username}/.VirtualBox/ for the work path.

Russell.

Excellent.  That works.  Actually it took me two tries because I forgot that linux commands are case sensitive.  But after I corrected that, it booted up my WinXP VM just like I wanted.  Thank you. 

You know VBox has been coming together so nicely for me its almost scarry.  And I am a total newbie at this.  I've never installed a virtual machine before.  But I just clicked on the getvirtualbox command and later added a guest addition and everything has been working smoothly.  I don't even know what a guess addition is.  But it sure made it nice to move from within Windows and PCLOS seamlessly and it resizes XP to fit perfectly in the window its open in.

Now the only thing that would be better would be if I could link to the program I want to open directly and not even have to see XP.  I don't suppose you can tell me how to do that can you?  Basically I want Wine to be perfected to run any Windows programs.  But this will work for now.  Thanks again.

[shrinivas]

Yes, you can like this start XP directly from the desktop by right clicking the desktop selecting
Create New>Link to Application

Then, on the Application tab enter any name you like for Description, VBoxManage startvm XP for Command (where XP is the name of your VM), and /home/{username}/.VirtualBox/ for the work path.

Russell.

Worked like a charm, thank you !

[russell.eberhardt]

Now the only thing that would be better would be if I could link to the program I want to open directly and not even have to see XP.  I don't suppose you can tell me how to do that can you?  Basically I want Wine to be perfected to run any Windows programs.  But this will work for now.  Thanks again.

Sorry, I haven't found a way to do that yet.  Would be nice though.  Perhaps someone more knowledgeable will jump in?

Russell.

[shrinivas]

Yes, you can like this start XP directly from the desktop by right clicking the desktop selecting
Create New>Link to Application

Then, on the Application tab enter any name you like for Description, VBoxManage startvm XP for Command (where XP is the name of your VM), and /home/{username}/.VirtualBox/ for the work path.

Russell.

Thank you !

[pags]

If you install seamlessrdp on your XP guest (http://www.cendio.com/seamlessrdp/, I installed it in c:\seamlessrdp\), and enable Remote Desktop access to your XP VM (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/mobility/getstarted/remoteintro.mspx), you can use rdesktop to get what you want:

Code: [Select]

rdesktop -A -s "c:\seamlessrdp\seamlessrdpshell.exe path:\to\program\to\run" ip.of.xp.machine
A little extra googling should get you everything you need to get it up and running...

[Fargo]

If you install seamlessrdp on your XP guest (http://www.cendio.com/seamlessrdp/, I installed it in c:\seamlessrdp\), and enable Remote Desktop access to your XP VM (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/mobility/getstarted/remoteintro.mspx), you can use rdesktop to get what you want:

Code: [Select]

rdesktop -A -s "c:\seamlessrdp\seamlessrdpshell.exe path:\to\program\to\run" ip.of.xp.machine
A little extra googling should get you everything you need to get it up and running...

Are you saying that by setting up Remote Desktop access I can run a program on my Windows VM without actually booting up windows?  Or did I misunderstand something?

[pags]

If you install seamlessrdp on your XP guest (http://www.cendio.com/seamlessrdp/, I installed it in c:\seamlessrdp\), and enable Remote Desktop access to your XP VM (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/mobility/getstarted/remoteintro.mspx), you can use rdesktop to get what you want:

Code: [Select]

rdesktop -A -s "c:\seamlessrdp\seamlessrdpshell.exe path:\to\program\to\run" ip.of.xp.machine
A little extra googling should get you everything you need to get it up and running...

Are you saying that by setting up Remote Desktop access I can run a program on my Windows VM without actually booting up windows?  Or did I misunderstand something?

Windows needs to be booted.  If you don't want to see it, look into the VBoxHeadless command.  This will run the VM without any visible interface.  You can then rdesktop into the XP guest, once you know the IP address (you can also rdesktop into the VM using the IP of the host, so you can reboot, and get into the BIOS of the VM, etc...that will give you the chance to find your IP).

...

Oh yeah, I forgot...you'll probably have to setup the VM guest's networking to connect directly (i.e, not through NAT), otherwise RDP attempts to the guest may be blocked...

[Fargo]

Thanks for the input.  I may have to give this a try.  Although at this point I might just use it as it is for a while just to get a feel for running something in a VM since I have never done this before.  Thanks again, I appreciate the tips.

[j-retired]

....................
Now the only thing that would be better would be if I could link to the program I want to open directly and not even have to see XP.  I don't suppose you can tell me how to do that can you?  Basically I want Wine to be perfected to run any Windows programs.  But this will work for now.  Thanks again.

If, when you want to leave your XP  hosted program, you use "Save machine state" instead of shutting down the program then shutting down XP, then when you restart VB (by whatever means) you will be back in your program!  Furthermore, you will be at the work point exactly where you left!
I have found this 100% reliable, which is more than I can say for win's suspend or hibernate options.

 
j

[Fargo]

....................
Now the only thing that would be better would be if I could link to the program I want to open directly and not even have to see XP.  I don't suppose you can tell me how to do that can you?  Basically I want Wine to be perfected to run any Windows programs.  But this will work for now.  Thanks again.

If, when you want to leave your XP  hosted program, you use "Save machine state" instead of shutting down the program then shutting down XP, then when you restart VB (by whatever means) you will be back in your program!  Furthermore, you will be at the work point exactly where you left!
I have found this 100% reliable, which is more than I can say for win's suspend or hibernate options.

 
j

That definitely sounds easy enough to give a try.  Thanks for the tip.

[russell.eberhardt]

[
If, when you want to leave your XP  hosted program, you use "Save machine state" instead of shutting down the program then shutting down XP, then when you restart VB (by whatever means) you will be back in your program!  Furthermore, you will be at the work point exactly where you left!
I have found this 100% reliable, which is more than I can say for win's suspend or hibernate options.

 
j

This does indeed work well.  One warning though; shut down XP before updating from Synaptic otherwise you may find yourself with a new version of VirtualBox that is incompatible with your saved machine state.  Guess how I know

Russell.

[rubentje1991]

Yes, you have to be careful with that....

[rubentje1991]

Here is a link to an explanation of starting applications from your host (your vm has to be started anyway I think)

http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch08.html#vboxmanage-guestcontrol

It is possible (but not with Visual Studio - which I tried => more files there with the same name; windows can set them seperate apparently, but I can't make a difference between them from my Linux Host)