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101 lines
4.0 KiB
101 lines
4.0 KiB
10 years ago
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---
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layout: post
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title: "Quick way to setup VirtualBox VM in multi user environment"
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date: 2015-01-14 12:07
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comments: true
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categories: [IT, Virtualization, Ubuntu, Tools, VirtualBox]
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---
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Let's assume that we need to setup VirtualBox VM with Windows XP and an old version of Microsoft Office. The machine must be used from everyone on a given number of Linux workstations. The workstations may work with LDAP and NFS/Cifs. The standard installation of the VM would be extremely space consuming and it would cost a lot of the personal life of the administrator.
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I made an easy hack to solve this ( this is real setup in university labs).
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<!-- more -->
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Let's install a standard local Windows XP virtual machine and permanently mount the local directories */home/trendafil* and */media* .
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In this example, the home directory of the user will be mounted on *X:\\* on Windows and media will be *Z:\\* .
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The important directories are out of the VM. So, the virtual machine will be runned from snapshot on every boot.
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The next useful step is to move the default user profile outside the VM. I don't need something different than *My Documents* but in other cases, everything from the profile can be exported to */home*, outside the VM. So, open *"regedit"* in Windows and go to the
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{% codeblock %}
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HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell User Folders
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{% endcodeblock %}
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and change the key *"My Documents"* to *X:\\*
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<img src="{{ root_url }}/images/winxpsnap/regedit.png" alt="Regedit" />
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Turn off the VM and create an empty snapshot
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<img src="{{ root_url }}/images/winxpsnap/snapshot.png" alt="Creating the snapshot" />
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Next, move the VM from *~/VirtualBox VMs* to *~/.config/VirtualBox* if it's the official VirtualBox edition or *~/.VirtualBox* for the open source edition from the Ubuntu repositories.
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Open the file *~/.config/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml* and clean it from the needless stuff:
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{% codeblock %}
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<ExtraDataItem name="GUI/RecentFolderHD"......;
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<ExtraDataItem name="GUI/RecentListHD" ....... and etc..
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{% endcodeblock%}
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Change the location of the VM and replace your username with "_CURRENTUSR_" everywhere inside the file, like this:
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{% codeblock lang:xml %}
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<MachineRegistry>
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<MachineEntry uuid="{64245cfc-36c6-4112-9869-d5b9da817fca}" src="/home/_CURRENTUSR_/.VirtualBox/WinXP/WinXP.vbox"/>
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</MachineRegistry>
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...
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<SystemProperties defaultMachineFolder="/home/_CURRENTUSR_/VirtualBox VMs" defaultHardDiskFormat="VDI" VRDEAuthLibrary="VBoxAuth" webServiceAuthLibrary="VBoxAuth" LogHistoryCount="3" exclusiveHwVirt="true"/>
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{% endcodeblock %}
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Also, replace the username the same way in *"~/.VirtualBox/WinXP/WinXP.xml"*
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Change the location of the harddisk image to */var/vbox/* like this:
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{% codeblock lang:xml %}
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<HardDisk uuid="{c052dc96-569b-4873-a799-2a75497404db}" location="/var/vbox/winxp.vmdk" format="VMDK" type="Normal">
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{% endcodeblock %}
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Create the directory */var/vbox/* and then move the harddisk image from *~/.VirtualBox/WinXp/winxp.vmdk* to */var/vbox* .
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Then, move the whole *~/.VirtualBox* or *~/.config/VirtualBox* to */var/vbox*
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Install Zenity if it's not installed:
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{% codeblock lang:bash %}
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$ sudo apt-get install zenity
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{% endcodeblock %}
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Download this file and put it on /usr/local/bin/startwin:
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<script src="https://gist.github.com/eniac111/00fcc0afd16e57172fce.js"></script>
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and make it executable:
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{% codeblock lang:bash %}
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# chmod +x /usr/local/bin/startwin
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{% endcodeblock %}
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It should work now. Every user of the system can start the VM from the script.
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Additionaly, you can create a desktop enry.
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First, find an ugly Window$ logo with an open license and put it on */usr/share/icons/win.png*. Then, create the file */usr/share/applications/startwin.desktop* with this content:
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{% codeblock %}
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[Desktop Entry]
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Encoding=UTF-8
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Version=1.0
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Name=Windows XP
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GenericName=Windows XP
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Type=Application
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Exec=/usr/lcal/bin/startwin
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TryExec=/usr/local/bin/startwin
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Icon=/usr/share/icons/win.png
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Categories=Emulator;System;Application;
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Comment=WindowsXP VirtualBox WM
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{% endcodeblock %}
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