At the beginning of the last year, I wrote about VirtualBox image conversion. Today, I will continue this topic further and describe how to control the virtual machine using the command line.
How to list virtual machines
List virtual machines and their UUID.
$ VBoxManage list vms
"Debian - "Kolab dev"" {7ccf631e-a792-4aa3-b09c-96298ab41ff2}
"Crunchbang" {d485f4a1-7794-4502-8775-e6f67a16c8dc}
"Deepin" {6ce34e63-3632-42a4-8f6c-216c691c96b2}
Pretty print virtual machines.
$ VBoxManage list vms | sed "s/\"\(.*\)\".*/\1/" Debian - "Kolab dev" Crunchbang Deepin
How to print virtual machine states
Print running virtual machines and their UUID.
$ VBoxManage list runningvms
"Crunchbang" {d485f4a1-7794-4502-8775-e6f67a16c8dc}
List virtual machines and their corresponding states.
$ VBoxManage list vms -l | grep -e ^Name: -e ^State | sed s/\ \ //g | cut -d: -f2- Debian - "Kolab dev" powered off (since 2013-07-19T21:17:55.000000000) Crunchbang paused (since 2013-07-20T10:13:07.771000000) Deepin powered off (since 2013-06-29T15:56:04.000000000)
Slightly different solution.
$ VBoxManage list vms -l | grep -e ^Name: -e ^State | sed "s/Name:[ ]*\(.*\)/\1 \//;s/State:[\ ]*//" | paste -d " " - - Debian - "Kolab dev" / powered off (since 2013-07-19T21:17:55.000000000) Crunchbang / paused (since 2013-07-20T10:13:07.771000000) Deepin / powered off (since 2013-06-29T15:56:04.000000000)
How to start a virtual machine
You are not forced to use VirtuaBoxManager GUI as it is not desirable in every case. It is also not very ergonomic to use a mouse all the time.
Standard GUI
Start the virtual machine Crunchbang using standard GUI.
$ VBoxManage startvm Crunchbang --type gui
You can safely omit type parameter in the above-mentioned command as the standard GUI is used by default.
$ VBoxManage startvm Crunchbang
Simple GUI
Use a simple GUI without controls.
$ VBoxSDL --startvm Crunchbang
Start the virtual machine using a simple GUI without controls in the background.
$ VBoxManage startvm Crunchbang --type sdl
Headless
Start a virtual machine without GUI in the background.
$ VBoxManage startvm Crunchbang --type headless
Start a virtual machine without a GUI.
$ VBoxHeadless --startvm Crunchabang
Headless with VNC
Start a virtual machine without GUI but enabled VNC service.
$ VBoxHeadless --startvm Crunchbang --vnc --vncport 5901 --vncpass passw
How to pause virtual machine
Pause the virtual machine.
$ VBoxManage controlvm Crunchbang pause
How to resume paused virtual machine
Resume the virtual machine.
$ VBoxManage controlvm Crunchbang resume
How to reset virtual machine
Reset the virtual machine.
$ VBoxManage controlvm Crunchbang reset
How to power off virtual machine
Power off the virtual machine.
$ VBoxManage controlvm Crunchbang poweroff
How to save state and then stop virtual machine
Save the state of the virtual machine and then stop it.
$ VBoxManage controlvm Crunchbang savestate
Notes
I suggest you read the VirtualBox manual and Debian wiki – VirtualBox.