Bring up the GUI for a Vagrant managed Virtual box while the box is running

vagrantvirtualbox

I know that I can configure my Vagrantfile to boot my machine with a GUI according to http://docs.vagrantup.com/v2/virtualbox/configuration.html with:

config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |v|
  v.gui = true
end

But if I've started a box headless, is there any way to bring up a GUI while the machine is running? Virtualbox provides the small preview, so I suspect it is possible but I haven't found any documentation on how to do this.

Edit: Terry pointed out that I can vagrant reload after changing the setting above to get a gui, but that reboots the box. I'm still hoping there's a easy way to enable the gui without a reboot.

Best Answer

There are 3 ways I've found to get a gui on a running headless machine if you can see it in the VirtualBox Manager:

You can suspend the machine (Close|Save State or vagrant suspend) and then start it again. When you restart it, you will see the GUI.

or, if you don't want to stop the machine at all:

You can go to display settings and enable the Remote Display Server while it's running (you may want to change the default port), and then use an RDP viewer (On Windows use Remote Desktop Connection) to access the GUI.
[Edit July 2015] With VirtualBox 5.0, click on the headless VM, choose "Show", and it will bring up the gui.

Related Solutions

How to associate a Vagrant project directory with an existing VirtualBox VM

For Vagrant 1.6.3 do the following:

1) In the directory where your Vagrantfile is located, run the command

VBoxManage list vms

You will have something like this:

"virtualMachine" {xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}

2) Go to the following path:

cd .vagrant/machines/default/virtualbox

3) Create a file called id with the ID of your VM xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

4) Save the file and run vagrant up

Using vagrant to run virtual machines with desktop environment

I just got this working with basically three steps. The advice from askubuntu.com didn't quite work for me, so try this simplified version:

Get a basic Ubuntu image working. You should be able to boot it and vagrant ssh.
Next, enable the VirtualBox display, which is off by default. Halt the VM and uncomment these lines in Vagrantfile:
```
config.vm.provider :virtualbox do |vb|
  vb.gui = true
end
```
Boot the VM and observe the new display window. Now you just need to install and start xfce4. Use vagrant ssh and:
```
sudo apt-get install xfce4
sudo startxfce4&
```

If this is the first time you're running this Ubuntu environment, you'll need to run the following command before installing xfce4:

sudo apt-get update

That's it, you should be landed in a xfce4 session.

Update: For a better experience, I recommend these improvements:

Don't start the GUI as root. You really want to stay the vagrant user. To do this you need to permit anyone to start the GUI: sudo vim /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config and edit it to allowed_users=anybody.
Next, install the VirtualBox guest tools before starting the GUI. This will give you a healthy screen resolution, integrated mouse, etc.
```
$ sudo apt-get install -y xfce4 virtualbox-guest-dkms virtualbox-guest-utils virtualbox-guest-x11
$ sudo VBoxClient-all
```
Only now should you start the GUI as the vagrant user, with $ startxfce4&.

Update 2: Tried this today and the VBoxClient-all script isn't always installed. If it's missing, you can replace with the equivalent:

sudo VBoxClient --clipboard
sudo VBoxClient --draganddrop
sudo VBoxClient --display
sudo VBoxClient --checkhostversion
sudo VBoxClient --seamless

Best Answer

Related Solutions

How to associate a Vagrant project directory with an existing VirtualBox VM

Using vagrant to run virtual machines with desktop environment

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