Setup for VirtualBox VM running Ubuntu 14.04 on OS X Mavericks

Install VirtualBox from the vendor's website.

vboxmanage --version

4.3.20r96996

First, there are some application-level settings that should be modified right off the bat.

Rename the default location for VirtualBox resources to something sensible.

VirtualBox -> Preferences -> Default Machine Folder -> ~/VirtualBox

Create a host-only network. Go to

VirtualBox -> Preferences -> Network -> Host Only Networks

and from here, click on the little green icon with a plus on the right - this creates the host-only network vboxnet0. We'll need this later.

Download ubuntu-14.04.1-server-amd64.iso here (we'll move it into $VBOXDIR below).

VBOXDIR="$HOME/VirtualBox"
VM_NAME="Ubuntu14.04-1"
UBUNTU_ISO_PATH="${VBOXDIR:?}/ubuntu-14.04.1-server-amd64.iso"
VM_HD_PATH="${VBOXDIR:?}/${VM_NAME:?}.vdi"
mkdir -p "${VBOXDIR:?}"
mv ~/Downloads/ubuntu-14.04.1-server-amd64.iso "${VBOXDIR:?}"

Create the VM.

vboxmanage createvm --name ${VM_NAME:?} --ostype Ubuntu_64 --register

Virtual machine 'Ubuntu14.04-1' is created and registered.
UUID: 58826a23-fceb-4a03-b7c3-cc22c975ccec
Settings file: '/Users/nhoffman/VirtualBox/Ubuntu14.04-1/Ubuntu14.04-1.vbox'

I have to confess that I never could have figured these command out without the post above. The ones defining HD and memory allocations seemed pretty obvious. The last three lines will allow us to ssh into the VM once the OS is installed (see below). If I could wish for one thing from the VirtualBox application, it would be to generate the corresponding vboxmanage command from a menu action.

vboxmanage createhd --filename ${VM_HD_PATH:?} --size 12288 # size in MB (12GB)
vboxmanage storagectl ${VM_NAME:?} --name "SATA Controller" --add sata --controller IntelAHCI
vboxmanage storageattach ${VM_NAME:?} --storagectl "SATA Controller" --port 0 --device 0 --type hdd --medium ${VM_HD_PATH:?}
vboxmanage storagectl ${VM_NAME:?} --name "IDE Controller" --add ide
vboxmanage storageattach ${VM_NAME:?} --storagectl "IDE Controller" --port 0 --device 0 --type dvddrive --medium ${UBUNTU_ISO_PATH:?}
vboxmanage modifyvm ${VM_NAME:?} --ioapic on
vboxmanage modifyvm ${VM_NAME:?} --memory 1024 --vram 128
vboxmanage modifyvm ${VM_NAME:?} --nic1 nat
vboxmanage modifyvm ${VM_NAME:?} --natpf1 "guestssh,tcp,,2222,,22"
vboxmanage modifyvm ${VM_NAME:?} --natdnshostresolver1 on

Ok! This should result in a bootable VM. Here goes the first boot.

vboxmanage startvm ${VM_NAME:?}

Now we let Ubuntu install itself. I chose the default for each option and provided some extremely boring and insecure host settings:

• hostname: ubuntu
• full name: ubuntu
• username: ubuntu
• password: ubuntu

Obviously this would be a terrible idea for a real system (as are an ssh key without a passphrase, and allowing sudo without a password, both of which I will be guilty of below).

Once the system is installed, perform an upgrade and install the bare essentials that will allow us to ssh in.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y upgrade
sudo apt-get install -y openssh-server
sudo shutdown -h now

This is a good time to make a snapshot ("clean-image"). From now on, I'll run the VM "headless" and ssh in to avoid having to use the horrible VirtualBox terminal.

vboxmanage startvm Ubuntu14.04-1 --type headless

For now, we can ssh in using port 2222 redirected to localhost, but in a minute, we'll give the VM an IP address.

ssh -p 2222 ubuntu@localhost

Now I'll degrade the security of my little VM sandbox even further by allowing the ubuntu user to sudo without a password. Edit the sudoers file:

sudo visudo

And add the following lines:

# ubuntu user can sudo without password
ubuntu ALL= NOPASSWD: ALL

I pieced together the following with the help of the following posts:

• http://www.websightdesigns.com/posts/view/how-to-set-up-a-local-web-server-with-virtualbox-on-mac-os-x
• http://anupriti.blogspot.com/2014/10/invalid-settings-detected-virtualbox.html
• https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch06.html

First power off the VM.

vboxmanage controlvm Ubuntu14.04-1 poweroff

Now we need to create host-only network. I would have loved to know how to do this using vboxmanage. Go to the Setting for this VM:

Settings -> Network -> Adapter2 -> Enable Network Adapter

• Attached to: Host-only Adapter
• Name: vboxnet0

(remember, we created vboxnet0 in the application-level configuration settings at the top).

Power the VM back on and ssh in as above, then modify /etc/network/interfaces as shown.

sudo -s
cat >> /etc/network/interfaces <<EOF

auto eth1
iface eth1 inet static
address 192.168.56.101
netmask 255.255.255.0
EOF

After a restart, you should be able to ping the VM at 192.168.56.101

This should work, too:

ssh ubuntu@192.168.56.101

And if you run this from the VM

python -m SimpleHTTPServer

you should be able to point your browser to http://192.168.56.101:8000 and see a directory listing of $HOME! Better yet, add an entry to /etc/hosts on the host machine:

sudo -s
cp /etc/hosts /etc/hosts.bak
cat >> /etc/hosts <<EOF

# for VirtualBox VM Ubuntu14.04-1
192.168.56.101 ubuntu1
EOF

and browse to the following address:

http://ubuntu1:8000

Now make a ssh key pair for this VM and install the public key.

cd ~/.ssh
ssh-keygen -f vm-unsafe
ssh ubuntu@192.168.56.101 'mkdir -p -m 700 ~/.ssh; cat - > ~/.ssh/authorized_keys; chmod 600 ~/.ssh/*' < ~/.ssh/vm-unsafe.pub

Finally, create an entry in ~/.ssh/config (on the host machine, of course) to create an alias for the VM:

Host ubuntu1
     HostName 192.168.56.101
     User ubuntu
     IdentityFile ~/.ssh/vm-unsafe

Now you can ssh in without a prompt for a password:

ssh ubuntu1

Time for another snapshot! ("ssh-ok")

That's enough for now. It kills me that there are so many manual steps in this process - more of them could probably be performed via the command line given more time and patience than I have at this point!